Introduction

Hi everyone,

My name is Bastiaan Bouwman, and I'm honored to have been invited by Ruud to contribute to this blog. I gather this will be read mostly by UvA students doing the MA in History of International Relations, presumably those who embarked on the program last month, and of course those who are supposed to be writing their thesis instead of reading this. Good to have you on here - I'm the only student in the Research Master (rMA) in History at the UvA who is at all interested in the history of international relations, actually the only one who is interested in post-WWII history in general, so I can use the company. (Why does almost everybody in the 1-year MA do history of international relations, and only one (1) person in the rMA?) I'll be posting on whatever I feel might interest you, which could be something interesting I come across on the web or symposia-wise, something worthwhile from my own work, or simply something about my own experience as a student. Right now I'm in the process of trying to get published in Skript (www.skript-ht.nl), so I'll write about how that works in the future. If you're wondering: yes, MA and even BA students can get published in Skript, so it's something worth to consider doing if you've written a paper you're proud of.

I'll briefly say something about my background, to give you an idea of where I'm coming from. Presently I'm in the second year of the UvA's Research Master in History, specializing in the the history of international relations. My commitment to studying History hasn't been exclusive: I've also completed a BA in Philosophy, partly during an exchange at the New School in New York City, as well as some interdisciplinary courses at the UvA. But while I'm happy with the broad background that gives me, I'm currently in the process of specializing more and more, as I work towards my MA thesis, which should be finished about a year and a half from now (I plan to take my time). Specifically, I'm working on transnational human rights activism from the Helsinki Final Act (1975) to the end of the Cold War (1989+), taking the work of Amnesty International as a starting point for the time being. During the previous year I've also written on topics like Anglo-American relations during the British withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, the rise to power of Museveni in Uganda from 1986 on, and explanatory models in international relations theory with regard to the end of the Cold War. Apart from studying, I like to keep myself busy organizing events with happyChaos and organizing the Grand Tour this coming year (location TBA, but it looks like we're going to someplace hot and close to (a) palm trees; and/or (b) oil; and/or (c) popular uprisings!).

I look forward to seeing you on here as well as in the hallways of the university!