Vincent Harmsen

CHSP Sciences Po contract PhD student since September 2024

My research focuses on a comprehensive understanding of Dutch hydraulic projects in foreign between 1850 and the mid-twentieth century. These Unlike Dutch national and colonial lands, these areas were beyond the political, social and environmental control of Dutch actors in a context of heightened imperialist competition for European powers. So how does the world of expertise in the Netherlands manage to project itself onto new foreign terrain? What are the successes and failures of these water development projects, and above all, how do these field projects redefine the circulation and exchange of expertise that can disrupt the technical knowledge regimes of Dutch players and rethink Dutch identity in relation to water as perceived both abroad and within the country ?

Career

After studying history and political science at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, I continued my studies in 2016 with a master's degree in contemporary history of international relations, specialising in North America, at the Institut Pierre Renouvin. This was a great opportunity to learn about US environmental historiography and to refocus my dissertation research. After obtaining my agrégation in history in July 2019, I spent five years in secondary education until September 2024.

Publications

2022: ‘Quentin Roosevelt (1897-1918): A life and death in objects’, Harvard Library Bulletin, URL: https://harvardlibrarybulletin.org/quentin-roosevelt-life-and-death, 

2021: ‘Friendship in international relations: Quentin Roosevelt, American warriors and the French américains et les Français (1917-1919)’, Relations internationales, 2021/1 (n° 185), p. 109-122. DOI: 10.3917/ri.185.0109. URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue-relations- internationales-2021-1-page-109.htm

2019 : ‘Mourning and memory at the end of the First World War. The death of Quentin Roosevelt on 14 July 1918 and its symbolic interpretations’, Bulletin de l'Institut Pierre Renouvin, 2019/1 (No. 49), pp. 71-83. DOI : 10.3917/bipr1.049.0071. URL : https://www.cairn.info/revue-bulletin-de-l-institut-pierre-renouvin-2019-1-page-71.htm