Oman has played an essential but peripheral role in the British Empire. Colonial endeavours in Oman were mixed, both fruitful and limited. These efforts exemplify how British colonialism in the...Show moreOman has played an essential but peripheral role in the British Empire. Colonial endeavours in Oman were mixed, both fruitful and limited. These efforts exemplify how British colonialism in the area developed and how policymaking evolved based on context, ideology, or conflict. Many of these ideological differences came from the British need for oil, to secure it and to compete with the other powers involved in the Middle East. This thesis will analyse British documentation under the reign of Said bin Taimur to understand how these facets of British policymaking in Oman developed and how the development of this state was to the benefit of the British. Existing studies have examined the British in Oman, but from the perspective of military history and occupation or in a wider survey work context. This project focuses on the diplomatic, bureaucratic, and institutional nexus that guided the creation of the Omani state and its infrastructure to the benefit of the British establishment and oil companies. This thesis will examine this nexus in detail to examine how its expression influenced the development of the relationship between the Omani Sultanate and the British.Show less
The discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate...Show moreThe discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate sex work from the Wallen district to address issues of over-tourism and congestion. However, this proposition has ignited controversy, as sex workers voice concerns about safety, social networks, and potential workspace loss. Researchers and activists advocate for recognizing sex work as tangible heritage to preserve its history and narratives. Despite initiatives of activists and advocates to document and safeguard the sector's history through the website www.sekswerkerfgoed.nl and the Prostitution Information Center, academic exploration of sex workers' experiences and sex work heritage in the Netherlands remains limited. Narratives from sex workers of color, migrant sex workers, and marginalized voices are often overlooked. Media portrayals often perpetuate stigmatization and negative stereotypes about sex work. The life stories of Nicolina Sant and Aaïcha Bergamin, two sex workers from the 20th century, offer valuable insights into Dutch sex work. Their narratives encompass diverse perspectives, encompassing ethnic backgrounds, cultural nuances, gender, and sexuality. Incorporating these stories enriches historical research on sex work, fostering a deeper comprehension of the industry and its intersections with urban life. Using the concept of urban citizenship, which emphasizes self-identity and recognition, challenges conventional notions tied to nationhood. Sex workers' claims to citizenship impact urban planning and city politics, influencing the socio-spatial fabric of the city, and reorienting research on sex workers to focus on agency rather than victimhood. Analyzing the stories of Aaïcha and Nicolina through this lens reflects on the idea of sex work as heritage while supplying an intersectional perspective to sex work history in the Netherlands.Show less
This thesis concerns the transfer of firearms technology from the Dutch East India Company to Siam at the end of the seventeenth century. It shows that the transfer of both weapons and of experts...Show moreThis thesis concerns the transfer of firearms technology from the Dutch East India Company to Siam at the end of the seventeenth century. It shows that the transfer of both weapons and of experts with skills related to firearms were organised through diplomatic exchange and gift giving. Changes in this transfer were mainly shaped by the Siamese, although they were unable to force the Dutch to fulfill all their wishes.Show less
The horti, vast aristocratic and imperial estates directly bordering on the city of Rome, are taken as a case study on the appropriation of Hellenistic artistic and architectural styles by Roman...Show moreThe horti, vast aristocratic and imperial estates directly bordering on the city of Rome, are taken as a case study on the appropriation of Hellenistic artistic and architectural styles by Roman elites. Three types of material remains are analysed: architecture, surface art (e.g. mosaics, wall-paintings, veneering), and sculpture. The main conclusion is that many of the Hellenistic motifs and types of art that were imitated in the horti had a highly contextual (and often religious) significance in the Hellenistic world, but that the Roman owners of the horti treated these visual elements as mere decorative elements, while still making use of the intellectual and religious connotations that these had in their original settings. As such, concepts like code-switching and globalisation theory do not seem to adequately explain the Hellenistic elements that are seen in the horti, and we may instead speak of a thorough and far-reaching process of appropriation.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
open access
2024-03-02T00:00:00Z
This thesis tries to review the traditional categories of 'pagan' and 'Christian' in late antique Roman literature by studying the literary afterlife of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. Symmachus is a...Show moreThis thesis tries to review the traditional categories of 'pagan' and 'Christian' in late antique Roman literature by studying the literary afterlife of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus. Symmachus is a figure that plays a prominent role in the invention of 'paganism' in late antique Christian apologetics. Through the lens of Ambrose's apologetic letters and Prudentius' epic poem 'Contra Symmachum', Symmachus has often been branded a 'prototypical pagan', even though his own works (especially Relatio 3) and Macrobius' near-contemporary 'Saturnalia' show very different pictures of the Roman senator. The case of the reception of Symmachus and the invention of 'paganism' in late antique literature highlight the biases of our reference system to interpret late antique literature.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
open access
2024-08-30T00:00:00Z
This thesis searches for a profile of the upper classes of the Judean capita in the centuries leading up to the exile. The research combines archaeological and textual evidence to come to a...Show moreThis thesis searches for a profile of the upper classes of the Judean capita in the centuries leading up to the exile. The research combines archaeological and textual evidence to come to a critical approach to studying elites in the ancient Levant. The position of women as part of the elite is discussed explicitly.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
under embargo until 2025-07-31
2025-07-31T00:00:00Z
While multiple models of language production exist, it remains difficult to find conclusive evidence for one or the other model. The present study is one of the first to incorporate both behavioral...Show moreWhile multiple models of language production exist, it remains difficult to find conclusive evidence for one or the other model. The present study is one of the first to incorporate both behavioral data and EEG data in a native Dutch noun phrase production task to investigate the processing of grammatical gender. We used a picture-word interference paradigm in which speakers had to name a picture while being distracted by a superimposed word. The distractors were manipulated for grammatical gender congruency with and semantic relatedness to the picture names. In separate blocks, participants had to produce either bare nouns, or determiner noun constructions. We found a robust effect of the semantic relatedness effect in the behavioral data, in which targets belonging to the same semantic category as the distractor were named significantly later than unrelated targets. The EEG data on the semantic relatedness effect were less clear, possibly due to opposing ERP components in (partly) overlapping time windows. More importantly, we replicated the gender congruency effect in reaction times, showing that naming latencies were longer for gender-incongruent trials than for congruent trials. This behavioral effect disappeared in bare noun naming. The EEG data showed similar results, in which a more positive peak was found between 385-585 milliseconds for incongruent than for congruent trials, again only in the determiner noun block. The result seems to indicate a P300 effect rather than the expected enhanced N400, suggesting higher conflict resolution processes for incongruent trials. The absence of the gender effect in bare noun naming in both data types suggests that grammatical gender is not automatically accessed or selected in Dutch noun (phrase) production. This in turn has implications for speech production models.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
2024-01-31T00:00:00Z
The existence of a bilingual advantage in cognitive processing is a popular research topic and is heavily debated. A seminal study by Kovács and Mehler (2009) provided evidence that there is a...Show moreThe existence of a bilingual advantage in cognitive processing is a popular research topic and is heavily debated. A seminal study by Kovács and Mehler (2009) provided evidence that there is a bilingual advantage in 7-month-old pre-verbal infants in a switching task, although replication findings are inconsistent (Dal Ben et al., 2022; D’Souza et al., 2020; Kalashnikova et al., 2021; Spit et al., 2023). Measuring the pupil dilation response (PDR), a physiological measurement linked to the locus coeruleus (LC) and as such, to cognitive processing load, could give us a more direct look into whether 7-month-old bilingual infants indeed have a cognitive advantage compared to monolinguals. For this pilot study, additional pupil size measurements were taken in the Leiden arm of the replication effort of Spit et al. (2023) to examine whether bilinguals have a smaller PDR from baseline. After hearing a syllable pattern (AAB or ABB) the infants had to predict on which side a visual reward appeared. The reward side would be the same for the first nine trials in the pre-switch block. The next nine trials had the other syllable pattern and the reward on the other side in the post-switch block. Finally, the last 18 trials mixed both syllable patterns, retaining their associated reward side. The results suggest no difference in cognitive load between the monolingual and bilingual groups when they needed to relearn to predict the target reward side in the post-switch block, nor was there a difference in mean PDR in the association block. This is in line with the results found in Spit et al. (2023) where anticipatory looking behaviour was examined. However, an exploratory analysis suggested there was a significantly larger PDR in monolinguals during stimulus presentation in the pre-switch block compared to the post-switch block, indicating monolinguals had a higher processing load in the first block of the experiment. The implications of this are unclear, but might be explained by an effect related to the unfamiliarity of the task stimuli seen in monolinguals only due to different attentional strategies between the groups. Future research should be done with larger sample sizes and more sophisticated statistical modelling.Show less
