Marjolijn Bol is Associate Professor in History of Arts, Heritage, Knowledge, and the Environment, PI of the ERC Project Dynamics of the Durable (DURARE) and UU WP-Lead of JUST MATTER: Situated Material Engagement for Climate Justice, part of the JUST ART consortium. Trained as an art historian, her research intersects with historical studies of craft, heritage, knowledge, and the environment with a special focus on performative methods (reconstruction) and written sources on art technology. Marjolijn studies how the long-term history of making in the arts, provides insight into contemporary environmental issues and the conservation of cultural heritage. To this end, it examines historical and contemporary making practices in the UU ArtLab in collaboration with artists and other societal partners:  through texts (e.g., recipes), objects, and the hands-on exploration of materials and techniques. In 2014, Marjolijn received a Veni grant for her research on the history of imitation materials in the arts. Her current ERC research project investigates a long-term history of durability in art from the perspective of artisans and patrons, see our project website for more information. In 2018 she co-established the ArtLab at Utrecht University, a cross-disciplinary space for research and teaching from the perspective of making and materials, hosted by the Department of History and Art History. It has since become a space for bringing together research and teaching activities devoted to technical studies, digital methodologies, citizen science, and with a special focus on cultural heritage, with a focus on learning by making.

Marjolijn is a member of De Jonge Akademie of the KNAW and the Utrecht Young Academy. Two recent publications include The Varnish and the Glaze (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and The Matter of Mimesis , co-edited with E.C. Spary (Brill, 2023). She on the editorial boards of Studies in Art & Materiality (Brill), a peer-reviewed book series dedicated to innovative scholarship about the relation between art, materials, and making and of Art Matters, an international journal for Technical Art History.