About

Welcome to the website of Gerben Zaagsma. I am an Assistant Professor in Contemporary and Digital History at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) of the University of Luxemburg. With a background in modern Jewish/Yiddish history, my current research and teaching is mostly in the fields of digital and public history, Holocaust and genocide studies, as well as music history.

Before joining C²DH in August 2017, I worked in a number of different places and settings, see my CV for more information. My current research focuses on the history of digital history, as well as the politics of digitisation and digitised cultural heritage, seen from a global perspective. You can also check my talks and list of publications. Several recent papers and lectures can be found on Zenodo.

Latest updates:

• Call for papers out now: Workshop History of Digital History between East and West, 5-6 february 2026 in Luxembourg (deadline for abstracts 29 May 2025).
• New article: Facing the History Machine: Toward Histories of Digital History in History of Humanities 9/2 (2024) 451-491.
• The recording of my keynote lecture ‘When Literacy Goes Digital: Rethinking the Ethics and Politics of Digitisation’ for Digital History Switzerland 2024 is now available on Zenodo.
• Now online: recording of Creating Digital Archives: A Workshop with Gerben Zaagsma & Merit Maran.

Image: Vicki Bennett - Those Who Do Not.