Originally a social scientist from Tilburg University, I have worked for more than fifteen years in the IT and financial sector. In 2016 I returned to the academic world as PhD student on the GIStorical Antwerp Project. I worked as postdoctoral researcher on research projects Virtuafort and The Social History of Finance. Over the years I have built extensive expertise in using socio-spatial research methodology and applying GIS tools and network analysis in historical research. 

I am senior researcher and co-promoter of  research project: 

Mapping the Market. The Credit Transactions of Antwerp's Business Community in the 19th Century

With Ruben PeetersMarc Deloof and Oscar Gelderblom, financially supported by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB), I study the evolution of social and spatial credit networks in Antwerp between 1800 and 1900. We compare credit relationships through notaries and so-called private (peer to peer) contracts. 

Publications:

Peeters, Ruben, Dupont, Milan, De Sola Perea, Maite, van Kooten, Rogier (2024), "1871 Antwerp Voter List", https://doi.org/10.34934/DVN/HBNYFN, Social Sciences and Digital Humanities Archive – SODHA

Ruben Peeters and Rogier van Kooten (2024). "Looking for Dark Matter Credit: Exploring Notarial Credit Markets in Antwerp and its Surroundings ca. 1835 ", in: Elise Dermineur en Matteo Pompermaier (red.), Credit Networks in The Preindustrial World. A Social Network Analysis Approach, Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, Londen: Palgrave Macmillan. (release: 26-12-2024)

in:

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The Social History of Finance

From October 2021 to December 2023, I worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Urban History on research project The Social History of Finance. This project breaks new ground as it offers a structural, long-term perspective on the role of the financial sector and alternative arrangements used by households to organize payments, loans, savings, and insurance.

Premodern Healthscaping - Plague, Religion and Urban Space in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp

Social and spatial study of a forgotten plague epidemic exploring disparities between socio-economic, spatial and religious groups. This resulted in: Plague, Religion and Urban Space in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp | Social History of Medicine | Oxford Academic (oup.com) 

(With Claire Weeda (LU), Janna Coomans (UU) and Léa Hermenault (UvA / UA)

N.W. Posthumus Institute

At the University of Utrecht I work as Education Programme Director of the N.W. Posthumus Institute (Utrecht University)

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