Dr. Harry Oosterhuis

Biography

Harry Oosterhuis studied history at the University of Groningen from 1976 to 1983 and sociology at the Graduate School of Social Science in Amsterdam and Leiden from 1987 to 1991. His dissertation, completed in 1992, focused on changing attitudes of Dutch Catholics toward homosexuality in the twentieth century and the shifting relations between religion and the medical/mental health care. He became a lecturer in history at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University in 1992, affiliated with the Huizinga Research School for Cultural History in Amsterdam. Oosterhuis teaches courses on modernisation in the Western world, historiography, and the history of biomedical human sciences. His research fields include cultural and social history, psychiatry, mental health care, sexuality, gender, health citizenship, and cycling. Between 1999 and 2008, he co-directed an NWO-funded research project on the history of psychiatry and mental health care in the Netherlands during the twentieth century. He has co-authored numerous publications and edited significant works within his areas of expertise, contributing to an understanding of the intersections between historical perspectives, gender, and health care.

Research Interests

Experience