“… the need to read and write, to stuff pockets and head with notes and quotes. That manic self always has a complete library in his head to build barriers against the chaos of life.” (Claudio Magris, 1990) Dorothee Sturkenboom (Zevenaar 1963) grew up in Boxmeer in the Dutch province of North-Brabant, and later studied History at the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She obtained a first-class master's degree in 1989, with a thesis on the changed codes of emotions for the relatives of the deceased between the 18th and 20th centuries. Between 1990 and 1998 Sturkenboom worked at the Institute for Genderstudies at the Radboud University Nijmegen - initially as a junior-researcher, later as assistant research fellow (financed by the Huizinga Institute, the Dutch Graduate School for Cultural History) and eventually as a junior lecturer in women's history. During this period, she not only worked on research projects, but also helped to organise the 1992 Johanna W.A. Naber Prize, served on the Supervisory Committee of the PhD Centre at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and was a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Genderstudies. In addition, she took part in the 'Image and Identity' discussion group of the Radboud University Nijmegen and taught History to students in Rotterdam and Nijmegen. In 1995, the Executive Board of the Radboud University Nijmegen awarded Sturkenboom the Dr. I.B.M. Frye scholarship for promising female researchers. In 1998, she gained a first-class doctorate with a Ph.D. thesis entitled Spectators van hartstocht. Sekse en emotionele cultuur in de achttiende eeuw ('Spectators of passion. Gender and emotional culture in the eighteenth century'). In 1999, Sturkenboom visited the Herzog August library in Wolfenbüttel (Germany) on a grant from the Catharine van Tussenbroek Fund in order to carry out exploratory research into documentation of Dutch mercantilism. In 2000, she was chosen to represent the younger generation of prominent scientists and scholars at the first Evening of Science and Society in the Knights Hall at The Hague in order to discuss and find solutions to the gap between between science, scholarship and society. From 2000 until 2002, Sturkenboom worked as a postdoctoral fellow of the National Science Foundation associated with the University of California in Los Angeles on the "Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West: Part Two" research project, headed by Professor Margaret C. Jacob. For the purposes of this project, she carried out research into the Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames in Middelburg (the Ladies' Society for Natural Sciences in Middelburg) (1785-1887), and studied the introduction of the sciences in the educational system of the Southern Netherlands between 1795 and 1830. In 2005 the Science and Technology Studies Program of the National Science Foundation evaluated Sturkenboom's research as highly successful and nominated it for one of its 'NSF nuggets'. In 2003 Sturkenboom started a new research project, entitled 'The Merchant as an Exponent of Dutch Identity. Image-Forming Processes in a Comparative Historical Perspective (1579-1795)', that was funded by the so-called Innovation Impetus of NWO, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific and Scholarly Research. This project was facilitated by the VU University Amsterdam where she worked and lectured in the Department of History until 2007. In 2007 Sturkenboom was appointed as University Lecturer in History at the Roosevelt Academy at Middelburg, one of the International Honors Colleges of Utrecht University. In 2010 she decided to continue her career as an independent scholar. Sturkenboom has published several articles about her research, e.g. in Dutch Crossing (2006), Isis. International Review devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences (2003), Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française (2001), Journal of Social History (2000-2001), Psychologie en Maatschappij (2000), Tijdschrift voor Gender Studies (1998), and Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis (1997 and 2000). She is also the author of De elektrieke kus. Over vrouwen, fysica en vriendschap in de 18de en 19de eeuw. Het verhaal van het Natuurkundig Genootschap der Dames in Middelburg (Amsterdam 2004) and the editor of an anthology of Dutch Spectatorial Writings, entitled Een verdeelde Verlichting. Stemmen uit de spectators(Amsterdam 2001), which she was commissioned to compile by the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (the Society for Dutch Literature). The commission followed the publication of Spectators van hartstocht. Sekse en emotionele cultuur in de achttiende eeuw, the commercial edition of her Ph.D. thesis by Verloren Publishers in Hilversum in 1998. Sturkenboom's publications were, and are still, used in courses for students from a variety of historical disciplines including Contemporary History (University of Gent), Cultural History (Radboud University Nijmegen), Gender History (Radboud University Nijmegen), History of Science (Ecoles des Hautes Etudes et Sciences Sociales, Paris), Historical Dutch Literature (University of Amsterdam and University of Utrecht), Social History (Leiden University and Radboud University Nijmegen), and World History (Erasmus University Rotterdam). In addition, Sturkenboom regularly presents papers both nationally and internationally. She has spoken at institutes in Belgium (Antwerp and Kontich), the Czech Republic (Prague), France (the Sorbonne), Germany (Bielefeld and Trier), Great Britain (London), and the United States (Albany, Austin, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and Washington). She has also been interviewed for various Netherlandish magazines and radio programmes including 'De Tafel van Pam', 'Alinea', and 'Onvoltooid Verleden Tijd'. Sturkenboom was, furthermore, one of the editors of the Nederlandish historical journal De Achttiende Eeuw (2004-2008) and the Dutch gender studies journals Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies (1998-2001), Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis (1993), and Sophia & Co. (1987-1988).