We are delighted to confirm that Professor Judith Pollmann, Somerville’s tutor in early modern European history from 1995-2005, has won the NWO (Dutch Research Council) Spinoza Prize 2025.
The Spinoza Prize is the highest award in Dutch academia, conferred on researchers who rank among the highest echelon of researchers worldwide. Awarded annually, the prize includes 1.5 million euro of prize money to be spent on new research.
Prof. Pollmann
Professor Pollmann, who is currently professor of early modern Dutch history at Leiden University, receives the Spinoza Prize in recognition of her research into how people in the past (specifically from 1500-1850) coped with radical social change. In her work, Professor Pollmann analyses the impact of radical upheavals such as the Eighty Years’ War not only on individuals, but also collective identities, individual behaviours and social and cultural processes.
Speaking about the prize, Professor Pollmann commented: “It’s an unbelievable honour. It’s the best gift an academic can receive because you are given a pot of money and the trust that you will spend it wisely. Amid all the misery of budget cuts, this prize will offer a much-needed boost.”
Asked to reflect upon her time at Somerville, Professor Pollmann said: “My ten years at Somerville were really important for me as a historian, because teaching across such a broad sweep encouraged me to think comparatively. As a researcher, that really helped me to ask new questions in my field, and to see the bigger picture. It was also fantastic to work together with Joanna Innes and Benjamin Thompson, who took a bit of a chance in hiring a then-relatively unqualified academic! Fortunately, their sense that I would get on with the students and that we would be a good team was absolutely spot on, and I was very happy at Somerville.”
Read more about Professor Pollmann’s research
Upheaval of the Eighty Years’ War: Adriaen van de Venne’s ‘De zielenvisserij’ (1614)