Charlotte Meijer

Charlotte Meijer is a PhD candidate at the Department of History, Art History and Antiquity at Radboud University. She specializes in human-animal history, in particular the history of insects. Her other interests include environmental history, the Early Modern period, and the history of ideas.

Her research project ‘Bugging Bugs‘ investigates the changing relationships between humans and insects in the period 1650-1900. Central to this is the rise of the negative narrative. Why are many insects today seen as dirty and undesirable? And how are these ideas related to concepts such as gender, class and race? This project brings together cultural history, social history, history of science and environmental history to shed critical light on our current treatment of insects.

Previously, Charlotte completed the Bachelor and Research Master of History at the University of Amsterdam, where she also worked as a research- and education assistant at the History Department and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. Afterwards, she worked at NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies as a research assistant.