Amanda Anderson

Research Interests

Early Modern Europe; women and gender; sexuality; identity formation; cultural history; the Netherlands, Germany.

Current Projects
(1) Dissenting Daughters: Reformed Women in the Dutch Republic, 1572-1725 highlights women’s contributions to the spread of the Reformed faith by examining the lives and written works of six women, Cornelia Teellinck (1553-1576), Susanna Teellinck (1551-1625), Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678), Sara Nevius (1632-1706), Cornelia Leydekker (1654-1725), and Henrica van Hoolwerff (1658-1704). These women drew upon the authority accorded to them as domestic religious instructors, as well as their family networks and ministerial connections, to teach others and to publish original works to amplify the influence of the nascent Dutch Reformed Church that excluded them from official roles.

(2) I am also working on a book-length project that traces the international spread of domestic advice books in response to religious persecution, trade, and voluntary travel. It compares the content of advice to parents printed in German, Dutch, English, and French and identifies women active within these networks of religious exchange to highlight instances in which ministers provided women with the tools to write and publish devotional texts by insisting that women engage in domestic religious practices including reading and writing devotional texts, offering religious instruction, and even leading home worship services.

Publications:
Books:

• Rape and the Republic, 1609-1725: Formulating Dutch Identity. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
• Dissenting Daughters: Reformed Women’s Religious and Political Activism, 1550-1700 (in progress).
• Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries, 1500-1750, co-edited with Sarah Moran, (Leiden: Brill, 2019). Available in Open Access.

Articles:

• “Women’s Writing during the Dutch Revolt: the Religious Authority and Political Agenda of Cornelia and Susanna Teellinck, 1554–1625,” in Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries (Leiden: Brill, 2019).
• “‘They were not humans, but devils in human bodies’: Depictions of Sexual Violence and Spanish Tyranny as a Means of Fostering Identity in the Dutch Republic,” Journal of Early Modern History vol. 13 (no. 4) 2009, p. 229-264.
• “Every Woman’s Fear: Stories of Rape and Dutch Identity in the Golden Age,” Tijdschrijft voor Geschiedenis vol. 122 (no. 3) 2009, p. 290-305.

Blog:
Pipkin, “Susanna Teellinck, the Earliest Known Dutch Reformed Woman Editor and Biographer” on Martine van Elk, Early Modern Women: Lives, Texts, Objects (https://martinevanelk.wordpress.com/) [July 2019].

Conference Co-organizer:

• Considering Early Modern Women in the Low Countries: An International Conference, April 24-25, 2015 at the Rubenianum in Antwerp.

Speaking Engagements and Book Reviews:

*Click here for a list of all book reviews and speaking engagements
*Click here for some articles and book reviews available on Academia.edu

Royal Institute of the Tropics, Amsterdam (June 2017)

Education

Ph.D., Rutgers University, 2007
M.A. Leiden University, The Netherlands, 1999
B.A. Wake Forest University, 1997

Courses Taught

Theses Directed