Joost Dankers (1958) studied Contemporary History at Utrecht University and obtained his doctorate in January 1991, supervised by Prof. H.W. von der Dunk, with a dissertation entitled Orphanage and Charity. He was a lecturer and researcher at the History Department of Utrecht University from 1983 onwards. Since 1993, in the position of Manager Commissioned History, he has been responsible for the acquisition and execution of research commissioned by third parties.
An important part of these assignments originate from the Dutch business community. These have resulted in numerous business history monographs, on which Dankers himself also collaborated in a number of cases. In recent years, he has been involved as project leader in business history research commissioned by, among others, Royal Shell, Boskalis, Heineken, Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, Dasym Investment, Boom Publishers, Tata Steel and KLM. These business history studies are presented internationally at conferences of the European Business History Association (EBHA), and many others. Joost Dankers has been an active member of the EBHA since its foundation in 1994 and was on the board for many years. In 2014 he organised the EBHA's annual congress in Utrecht with the theme: Comparative Business History. Contrasting Regions, Sectors and Countries.
Another important field for commissioned research is mental health care. These include the history of the Pieter Baan Centre and the Dutch Society for Psychiatry, as well as supportive research into therapeutic castration for the Deetman Committee, and a biography of Schroeder van der Kolk, the Utrecht professor who initiated Dutch psychiatry.
Major research projects were also carried out on behalf of the province of Zeeland, the municipality of Hilversum and government institutions such as the SER and DUO. Commissioned biographies have been written of, among others, diplomat J.H. van Roijen, businessman Daniël Wolf, benefactor Oscar van Leer and world traveller and writer Hendrik Muller. Joost Dankers took the initiative for the biographies of the first three Dutch kings Williams I, II and III, published in 2013 on the occasion of 200 years Dutch monarchy. On the basis of these three biographical studies, Jeroen Koch wrote the study Orange in Revolution and War, which, like the royal biographies, was funded by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.
In 1990, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Prince Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Joost Dankers and Jaap Verheul wrote a historical study on the early years of that fund. In 2015, a study was published on the impact of cultural funding commissioned by the Culture Fund. Finally, Dankers was involved in the creation of a guest fellowship and the Chair of Patronage Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, which was established in January 2020.
As a board member of the Royal Dutch Historical Society (KNHG), of which he has been treasurer since 2013, Joost Dankers also contributes to strengthening the social impact of historical research, which this professional association of historians stands for. In 2017 he was responsible for organising the first Dutch Historical Days held by the KNHG in Utrecht.
In addition to his work as contract research coordinator, Joost Dankers is active within the university in the field of fundraising and relationship management. He is treasurer of the foundation Vrienden van de Oude Hortus (Friends of the Old Hortus) and the University Museum, member of the editorial board of the alumni magazine Illuster and an involved donor of the Utrecht University Fund.