The University of Leiden will host the conference ‘Vrijmetselarij in Nederland. Een kennismaking met de wetenschappelijke studie van een geheim genootschap’ [‘Freemasonry in the Netherlands. An Introduction to the Academic Study of a Secret Society’]. The conference is aimed at introducing students and scholars to the study of the history of freemasonry as a new academic discipline, and pays attention to the academic educational programs and research libraries for this field of study in the Netherlands. Speakers are:

• Prof. Dr. Andrew Prescott, hoogleraar Geschiedenis van de vrijmetselarij, Centre for Research into Freemasonry, Univ. Sheffield (UK), 'The Study of Freemasonry as a New Academic Discipline'
• Prof. Dr. Wouter Hanegraaff (chair History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, Univ. Amsterdam), 'De geschiedenis van de vrijmetselarij in relatie tot de studie van de westerse esoterie' ['The History of Freemasonry in Relation to the Study of Western esotericism']
• Prof. Dr. Anton v.d. Sande (chair History of Freemasonry as an Intellectual Current and a Socio-cultural European Phenomenon, Univ. Leiden), 'Anti-maçonnieke reacties, 1734-heden' ['Anti-Masonic Reactions, 1734-present']
• Prof. Dr. André Hanou, (Dept. Early Dutch Literature, Catholic Univ. Nijmegen), 'Vrijmetselarij en Nederlandse literatuur van de Verlichting' ['Freemasonry and Dutch Literature of the Enlightenment']
• Mrs. Drs. Andréa Kroon (doctorate student, Chair Material History of the Exchange Between Asia and Europe, Univ. Leiden), 'De invloed van Nederlandse vrijmetselaren op de handelsbetrekkingen met Azië in de 18de en 19de eeuw' ['The Influence of Dutch Freemasons on the Trade with Asia in the 18th and 19th Centuries']
• Dr. Jan Snoek (Inst. für Religionswissenschaft, Ruprecht-Karls-Univ. Heidelberg), 'Nederlandse vrijmetselarij en vrouwen: van adoptieloges tot gemengde vrijmestelarij en para-maconieke orden' ['Dutch Freemasonry and Women: from Adoption Lodges to Mixed Freemasonry and Feminine Orders']
• Mrs. Drs. Marty Bax (doctorate student, Dept. Art History, Free Univ. Amsterdam), 'J.S. Polak, joods vrijmetselaar en theosoof' ['J.S. Polak, Jewish Propagandist of Freemasonry, Spiritism and Theosophy']
• Dr. Malcolm Davies, (Dept. History of Music, Univ. Utrecht), 'Musici in Nederlandse vrijmetselaarsloges' ['Composers and Masonic Songs in Dutch Masonic lodges']

The conference is organized by the chair History of Freemasonry as an Intellectual Current and a Socio-cultural European Phenomenon (Univ. Leiden), the chair History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (Univ. Amsterdam), and the OVN, Foundation for Academic Research into the History of Freemasonry in the Netherlands.

Please contact the secretary of the OVN for more information.