I am an assistant professor of Applied Arts, Design and Material Culture at Utrecht University. My research concentrates on exploring the historical and societal impact of objects and women’s lived experiences in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I specifically investigate how physical everyday objects, specifically textiles and craft, act as tools for identity, communities, and international networks. My teaching focuses on material culture, art-historical research methods, and community-engaged learning. 

In my current book project, I focus on humanitarian organizations which saved the renowned Belgian lace industry in the First World War, while simultaneously ensuring the wartime employment of Belgian lacemakers in German-occupied Belgium and among Belgian refugees in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. The produced lace became known as war lace, as its unique iconography referred directly to the conflict. Shifting the focus away from the known artist-designers, their high-quality lace pieces and the humanitarians, I demonstrate how craft provided space for female empowerment, community and even subversion during times of war. For this interdisciplinary and transnational research project, I obtained a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship, a KU Leuven postdoctoral mandate, and an honorary Belgian American Educational Foundation fellowship. With the research grants, I held visiting fellowships at Columbia University (New York City, US, 2018-2019), the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK, 2019-2020), and the University of Huddersfield (Huddersfield, UK, 2021-2023). 

As a key member of the ‘Threads in Common: the Omega Workshop, wellbeing and refugees in the First World War‘ project, I investigate the history of the Coloured Embroidery Scheme established in 1916 in war-torn France. Together with Dr Rebecca Gill (University of Huddersfield), Dr Claire Barber (University of Huddersfield) and Dr Stéphanie Prévost (Université Paris Cité/ IUF), I test the boundaries between art, therapeutic solace and refugee enterprise via archival, collection and practice-based and collaborative methods of inquiry, while connecting organisations and community groups linked through a history of textile art but not so far in dialogue. 

I obtained my PhD in Art History from KU Leuven (2018). My dissertation challenged the misconception that amateur arts were merely minor domestic leisure activities of low artistic quality. Studying the lives and the objects made by aristocratic women in Belgium during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, I demonstrated that these arts aided the women in shaping their identities, building their social networks, and leaving tangible memories. The resulting book ‘Adellijk en artistiek. Amateurkunstenaressen met blauw bloed in België (1815-1914)’ (Leuven University Press 2023) won the 2021 Keingiaert de Gheluvelt Prize. 

In addition to my own research projects, I co-supervise three doctoral researchers who focus on textile history, dress biographies, fashion history, material culture, and feminist art history. Beyond academia, I contribute to the cultural sector as a curator, scientific advisor, and board member for heritage initiatives.