Dr. V.C. (Vincent) Lagendijk



Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 1636
E-Mail: v.c.lagendijk@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Economische en Sociale geschiedenis
Office Address: Johan Huizingagebouw
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
Room number 1.24a
Personal Homepage: hum.leiden.edu/​history/​staff/​lagendijkv.html

Curriculum Vitae

Vincent Lagendijk (1980) studied Economic History at Leiden University (1999-2003). He wrote a PhD thesis (2003-2008) at Eindhoven University of Technology, as part of the project Transnational Infrastructures and the Rise of Contemporary Europe (see www.tie-project.nl). His thesis, Electrifying Europe. The power of Europe in the construction of electricity networks, deals with the historical development of ideas on European unification in correlation to electricity network-building in the period 1918-2005. It provides a better understanding of the notion and concept 'Europe', as used by engineers, politicians, and other actors involved in the building of Europe's electricity supply.

He subsequently was a postdoctoral researcher in the international project The Emergence and Governance of Critical Transnational European Infrastructures (see www.eurocrit.eu). Here he further explored Europe's electricity supply system and its historical configuration, and how the issue of risk was handled in the system-building process, and how recent liberalisation changes have affected the existing safety structures.

Since June 2010 Vincent works at Leiden, working on his project Transnationalizing the TVA: International River Development in Troubled Waters. He will look at the transnational dimensions of the exploitation of international rivers, as inspired by the American Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA, 1933). His research proposal encompasses three cases; the river Mekong, Jordan, and the Danube. This research is made possible through a so-called VENI grant from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Vincent is a member of Tensions of Europe, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), the Dutch N.W. Posthumus Institute, and the Oslo Contemporary International History Network.

Key publications

  • Frank Schipper, Vincent Lagendijk, and Irene Anastasiadou, “New Connections for an Old Continent: Rail, Road and Electricity in the League of Nations’ Organisation for Communications and Transit,” in Europe Materializing? Transnational Infrastructures and the Project of Europe, ed. Alexander Badenoch and Andreas Fickers (London: Palgrave, 2010).
  • Erik van der Vleuten and Vincent Lagendijk, “Transnational Infrastructure Vulnerability: The Historical Shaping of the 2006 European Blackout,” Energy Policy 38, no. 4 (2010): 2042-2052.
  • Erik van der Vleuten and Vincent Lagendijk, “Interpreting Transnational Infrastructure Vulnerability: 4/11 and the Historical Dynamics of Transnational Electricity Governance,” Energy Policy 38, no. 4 (2010): 2053-2062.
  • Vincent Lagendijk, Electrifying Europe: The Power of Europe in the Construction of Electricity Networks (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2008).
  • Erik Van der Vleuten, Irene Anastasiadou, Vincent Lagendijk, & Frank Schipper, “Europe's System Builders: The Contested Shaping of Transnational Road, Electricity and Rail Networks,” Contemporary European History 16, no. 3 (2007): 321-348.

Institute for History
Last Modified: 05-07-2010