{{short description|Dutch historian and European ethnologist (born 1956)}} {{Infobox person |name= Peter Jan Margry |image = Dr pj margry-1486483325.jpg |caption = Margry (2017) |birth_name= Petrus Johannes Joseph Margry |birth_date= {{birth date and age|1956|4|6}} |birth_place= Breda, North Brabant, the Netherlands. |education= University of Amsterdam |occupation = historian |children=Sam Margry<br />Nomy Margry }}
'''Peter Jan Margry''' (born April 6, 1956) is a Dutch historian and European ethnologist who was till November 2022 professor European Ethnology at the University of Amsterdam and, from 1993 to 2022, senior fellow at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences research center Meertens Institute in the Netherlands. Previously, he worked in The Hague and Den Bosch where he held positions as archivist-researcher, historian and archival inspector successively at the Dutch National Archives, the Court of Audit (Netherlands) and the province of North Brabant. During the 1990s he was also active as a consultant on document heritage, working in Suriname and Papua (Indonesia).
==Biographical information==
Peter Jan Margry received an MA in medieval history from the University of Amsterdam in 1983. In 1985 he finished the post-doctoral study of Archivistics in The Hague. He received his PhD in cultural history from the University of Tilburg in 2000. From 2004 to 2015 he was executive vice-president/secretary of SIEF,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.siefhome.org/about/board/board_2013.shtml|title = SIEF Board 2013}}</ref> the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, during which time he was instrumental in the regeneration of this professional organization of now mainly European and North-American ethnologists/anthropologists and folklorists. From 2010 to 2013 he was also chair of SIEF's Ethnology of Religion Working Group, and continued as a board member.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.siefhome.org/wg/er/index.shtml|title=SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion}}</ref> In 2011 he was professor of Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Leuven. He was visiting scholar/professor at the universities of California (Berkeley), Oregon (Eugene), Iceland, and Istanbul (Süleyman Sah).
==Research and work==
Since 2013, Margry has been professor of European ethnology at the University of Amsterdam,<ref>[http://albumacademicum.uva.nl/id/id00000260 Album Academicum UvA]</ref> within the department of Cultural Studies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/m/a/p.j.j.margry/p.j.j.margry.html|title = Prof. Dr. P.J.J. (Peter Jan) Margry - University of Amsterdam|date = 27 February 2021}}</ref> His research program was laid out in his inaugural lecture<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oratiereeks.nl/upload/pdf/PDF-3518weboratie_Margry_-_LR.pdf |title=text lecture |access-date=2019-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430202638/http://oratiereeks.nl/upload/pdf/PDF-3518weboratie_Margry_-_LR.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> of 2014. He focuses on past and contemporary religious cultures and new ("deviant") religious movements, rituality, pilgrimage, memorialization, cultural memory, and (Intangible) cultural heritage and everyday life in general.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/cms/en/medewerkers/142472-peterjanm|title = Margry, prof. Dr. P.J. (Peter Jan)}}</ref> The output of his research is listed online.<ref>P.J. Margry list of publications: http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/meertensnet/wdb.php?sel=2751</ref><ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_bks&q=%22Peter+jan+Margry%22&fq=dt%3Abks Worldcat]</ref> During his history study he also pioneered in pilgrimage photography in the Netherlands in 1980–1981, of which a selection was chosen as part of the national online heritage collection "Memory of the Netherlands."<ref>[http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/zoekresultaten/pagina/1/margry/%28margry%29/&colcount=0&wst=margry Memory of the Netherlands: Pilgrimage photos of P.J. Margry]</ref> Later, between 1993 and 1999, he executed a long-term research project on Dutch pilgrimage culture, which resulted in a four volume book series and the BoL online research database.<ref>[https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/bedevaart/bol/english BoL database]</ref> The 'logic' for that pilgrimage endeavor was recorded in a 2017 clip.<ref>[https://vimeo.com/231395814 P.J. Margry's Ethnological Sensation - His way into ethnology/anthropology]</ref> In 2000-2001 he lived in Italy, researching the Holy Year and doing fieldwork on so called "deviant devotions."<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198792550.013.20 |chapter=The Global Network of Deviant Revelatory Marian Movements |title=The Oxford Handbook of Mary |date=2019 |editor-last1=Maunder |editor-first1=Chris |last1=Margry |first1=Peter Jan |pages=663–685 |isbn=978-0-19-879255-0 }}</ref>
After the killing of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002 he acquired the letters and mementos <ref>[http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/archieven/index.php?action=expand&querystring_b64=aW5ob3VkPWZvcnR1eW4mYW1wO3NlYXJjaF9zdWJtaXR0ZWQ9Wm9law==&id=337 Fortuyn Archive Meertens]</ref> posted at the various spontaneous or grassroots memorials in the Netherlands for the Meertens Institute and started to publish on them as well as on ritual practices related to mourning and protest after traumatic death.<ref>[https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/de-tijdelijke-heiligheid-van-pim-fortuyn~b58a3326/ Article Trouw]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Margry |first1=Peter Jan |title=The Murder of Pim Fortuyn and Collective Emotions Hype, Hysteria and Holiness in The Netherlands? |journal=Etnofoor |date=2003 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=106–131 |jstor=25758060 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.dieponderzoek.nl/populaire-cultuur-maakte-pim-fortuyn-tot-tijdelijke-heilige/ Diep site]</ref>
As a follow-up to the pilgrimage project he initiated RAHRP, the Religious and Alternative Healing Research Platform<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rahrp.org/cms/ |title=RAHRP {{!}} Religious and Alternative Healing Research Platform |website=www.rahrp.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503100559/http://www.rahrp.org/cms/ |archive-date=2015-05-03}}</ref> in order to structure cultural and ethnological research on these 'alternative' practices. His current research involves also the politics of UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage convention (2003), in particular in relation to Dutch practices that caught international attention, as was the case for the Saint Nicholas tradition with his 'blackface' helper 'Zwarte Piet'.<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-netherlands-confronts-black-pete New Yorker: Black Pete] [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/black-pete-dutch-christmas-zwarte-piet The Guardian: Black Pete]</ref>
Due to his research on pilgrimage culture, he played an important role in the discovery <ref>[https://ee.openlibhums.org/article/id/1646/ Ethnologia Europaea 49(2): 133-144]</ref> of the scholarly misconduct and fraud of the endowed professor of political anthropology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Mart Bax.<ref>[https://www.vu.nl/en/Images/20131112_Rapport_Commissie_Baud_Engelse_versie_definitief_tcm270-365093.pdf Report on Bax]; Frank van Kolfschooten, ''Ontspoorde Wetenschap'', Publisher De Kring, 2012; {{ISBN|9789491567025}}</ref>
==Books== * ''Visionaire woorden en werelden: verbeelding in de Etnologie'' (Amsterdam: valedictory lecture University of Amsterdam, 2022) <ref>{{cite web | url=https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=7c5f4a57-f591-4ead-96de-86f25df567af | title=Visionaire woorden en werelden: Verbeelding in de Etnologie | date=2022 | last1=Margry | first1=P. J. }}</ref> * ''Material Change. The Impact of Reform and Modernity on Material Religion in North-West Europe, 1780-1920'' (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2021; co-editor Jan De Maeyer) * ''Vurige Liefde. Het geheim rond het Bloedig Bruidje van Welberg'' (Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2021) <ref>[Reviews Jeroen van der Kris, ‘Een groots katholiek geheim’, in: ''NRC Handelsblad'', 17 September 2021, p. C13; Joep Eijkens, 1 oktober 2021 https://www.brabantcultureel.nl/2021/10/01/de-ongelooflijke-geheime-historie-van-een-pastoor-en-zijn-bruidje-van-jezus/]</ref> * ''Cold War Mary: Ideologies, Politics and Marian Devotional Culture'' (Leuven: Leuven University Press/KADOC, 2020) <ref>Review Chris Maunder in: Maria. A Journal of Marian Studies 1 (2021)</ref> * ''The Miracle of Amsterdam: Biography of a Contested Devotion'' (Notre Dame: Notre Dame UP, 2019) (co-author Charles Caspers)<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2084149047_Carolina_Lenarduzzi Review Lenarduzzi]{{vague|date=September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Monter |first1=William |title=The Miracle of Amsterdam: Biography of a Contested Devotion by Charles Caspers and Peter Jan Margry (review) |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary History |date=2020 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=153–154 |doi=10.1162/jinh_r_01536 |s2cid=225746208 |id={{Project MUSE|757209}} }}</ref> * ''Healing en 'alternatief genezen'. Een culturele diagnose'' (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018) * ''Spiritualizing the City: Agency and Resilience of the Urban and Urbanesque Habitat'' (Milton Park: Routledge, 2017) (co-editor Victoria Hegner)<ref>[https://www.h-net.org/reviews//showpdf.php?id=51802 Review Wietschorke]</ref><ref>Jens Wietschorke on H-Net, March 2018: https://www.h-net.org/reviews//showpdf.php?id=51802</ref> * ''Experiencing Religion. New Approaches to Personal Religiosity'' (Berlin: Lit-Verlag, 2016) (co-editor Clara Saraiva et al.) * ''What's in a Discipline? Special issue on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore'', Cultural Analysis 13 (2014) 1-115 (co-editor Valdimar Hafstein) * ''Bloed Kruipt! Over de Culturele Hemoglobine van de Samenleving'' (Amsterdam: AUP, 2014; inaugural lecture University of Amsterdam)<ref>[https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/832556/Margry_Oratie_Bloed_kruipt.pdf Full text]</ref> * ''Grassroots Memorials. The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death'' (New York: Berghahn, 2011) (co-editor: Cristina Sánchez-Carretero)<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hajek |first1=Andrea |title=Book review: Grassroots Memorials: The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death |journal=Memory Studies |date=January 2013 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=117–119 |doi=10.1177/1750698012463842d |s2cid=156773218 }}</ref> * ''Shrines and Pilgrimage in the Modern World. New Itineraries into the Sacred'' (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008)<ref>[http://nr.ucpress.edu/content/14/3/128 Review Everett]</ref> * ''Reframing Dutch Culture. Between Otherness and Authenticity'' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)(co-editor: H. Roodenburg)<ref>[https://hallehghorashi.com/nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/focaal-reviewessay.pdf Review Ghorashi]</ref> * ''P.J. Meertens van het Meertens Instituut'' (Amsterdam: MI, 2002) * {{lang|nl|Teedere quaesties. Religieuze rituelen in conflict: confrontaties tussen katholieken en protestanten rond de processiecultuur in 19e-eeuws Nederland}} (Hilversum: Verloren, 2000) (dissertation<ref>[http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/meertensnet/wdb.php?sel=81568 online English summary]</ref>) * ''Bedevaartplaatsen in Nederland'', 4 volumes (Amsterdam/Hilversum: Meertens Instituut/Verloren, 1997–2004) (co-author and editor: Charles Caspers) * ''Zes eeuwen rekenkamer. Van Camere van der rekeninghen tot Algemene Rekenkamer'' (Den Haag 1989) (co-editors E.C. van Heukelom en A.J.R.M. Linders) * ''Amsterdam en het mirakel van het heilig sacrament. Van middeleeuwse devotie tot 20e-eeuwse stille omgang'' (Amsterdam: Polis, 1988) * ''Stadsplattegronden: Werken met kaartmateriaal bij stadshistorisch onderzoek'' (Hilversum: Verloren, 1987) (co-authors P. Ratsma and B. Speet) * ''Bedevaartplaatsen in Noord-Brabant'' (Eindhoven: Bura, 1982)
== References == {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margry, Peter Jan}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Dutch ethnographers Category:20th-century Dutch male writers Category:21st-century Dutch historians Category:20th-century Dutch historians Category:21st-century Dutch male writers Category:University of Amsterdam alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Category:Tilburg University alumni Category:People from Breda