Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
James Symonds
2024-2025
Home institution
University of Amsterdam
Country of origin (home institution)
Netherlands
Discipline(s)
Archeology and prehistory
Colonial and postcolonial history
Social and economic history
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies
Globalization
Inequalities, inclusion & Social Innovation
Post-colonialism
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
James was a Theme Group Fellow (Early Dutch Commerce and Indigenous Landscapes) at NIAS during 2024-2025.
I am an historical archaeologist and study the archaeology of the modern world (c.AD 1500-present). I am currently the Professor of Historical Archaeology (North of the Alps) at the University of Amsterdam. My research interests include the study of capitalism, colonialism, and landscapes of Improvement and diaspora, urban and industrial archaeology, and the archaeology of poverty and inequality. I have undertaken teaching and published research relating to the Isle of South Uist (Western Isles, Scotland), Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island (Canada), Ostrobothnia and Lapland (Finland), and west Bohemia (Czech Republic). I have for the most part concentrated on the historical archaeology of the 18th and 19th centuries, with occasional forays into the 20th century.
Research Project
New Worlds & New Commodities: Transformations of Everyday Life in 17th & 18th century Dutch Republic
Research question: James Symonds investigates how tobacco smoking and tea drinking practices were received and adopted in the Dutch Republic, integrating material evidence from archaeological excavations and archives.
James Symonds’ research will investigate the emergence of the commonplace, rather than lingering on exceptional luxury items, and will seek to document how goods related to the consumption of colonial commodities grew in number to become the ‘new norm’ in Dutch households.
Specific research questions include: How were tobacco smoking and tea drinking received and adopted by Dutch households in the 17th and 18th centuries? Does archaeological evidence point to differential rates of uptake and use of tobacco and tea between, for example, port cities, inland towns, and rural settlements? What factors influenced the adoption and spread of tobacco smoking and tea drinking (i.e., cost, taste, social status, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs)? How were these new objects tied to international networks of exchange and colonial exploitation? And finally, how should we narrate the heritage of changing consumer choices in the Dutch Republic in the context of colonial capitalism?
Research Interests:
capitalism; colonialism; landscapes of Improvement and diaspora; urban and industrial archaeology; archaeology of poverty and inequality
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