Registration opens soon!

The 39th Annual Conference of the New Netherland Institute will take place for the first time in the state of New Jersey. Located between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, New Jersey has often been neglected in favor of more dramatic developments to the east and west. However, as the site of Pavonia, an early patroonship with major agricultural potential, and as the geographic connection between New Amsterdam and the Delaware River settlements, the Garden State’s seventeenth-century origins well deserve our attention.

Registration will be available on our website in the coming weeks.

If you would like to be notified via email when registration becomes available, visit here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1LUrG5h-LC42UQx7eEsoFzjpzFCypxSB8MwbAxcyDROn5wQ/viewform

The conference and its companion events will take place over three days, beginning on Thursday the 22nd of September and concluding on Saturday the 24th. Friday morning’s session will explore the trials and tribulations of the early years of Dutch colonization in the region, with the afternoon session exploring the survival of Dutch heritage in New Jersey following the final transfer to the English. The program will be enriched with two additional sessions on Saturday morning, beginning with a panel discussion with NNI’s Emerging Scholars on their decision to study New Netherland. The morning will conclude with an edifying session on Dutch fortifications in New Netherland. Friday night's dinner will feature a talk by Elizabeth Bradley, the author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York, a cultural history of New York’s first mascot.

Why a peacock? Michiel Reyniersz Pauw, a director of the Dutch West India Company, founded a patroonship in New Jersey called Pavonia, which he named after the derivation of his family name from the Latin pāvo, or “peacock.”  Image: Blauwe pauw, Pieter Pietersz. Barbiers, 1759–1842 

Session 1: Pavonia
Willem Klooster, Clark University
“New Netherland and the Dutch Moment in Atlantic History”

Evan Haefeli, Texas A&M University
“New Jersey in 1658: A Quaker Witness to a Little-known Corner of New Netherland”

Andrea Mosterman, University of New Orleans
“The Geography of Slave Life in New Netherland”

Daniel K. Richter, University of Pennsylvania
“‘Who Needs a House Out in Hackensack?’ Native People and Dutch People West of the Hudson”

Session 2: Heritage
Dirk Mouw, Reformed Church Center
“Persistence of Dutch Identity and the Reformed Church”

Jeroen Dewulf, University of California, Berkeley
“From ‘Baas’ to ‘Boss’: America’s Dutch-Speaking Black Community from Seventeenth-Century New Netherland to Nineteenth-Century New York and New Jersey”

Kate Lynch, Independent scholar
“There will be a College called Queens in our Province of New Jersey”

Session 3: Emerging Scholars
In this session, Elizabeth Covart, independent scholar and host of the popular podcast “Ben Franklin’s World,” will moderate a panel with three of NNI’s Emerging Scholars in which the Emerging Scholars will discuss why they chose New Netherland as their field of study.

Deborah Hamer, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

Artyom Anikin, University of Amsterdam

Joris van den Tol, Leiden University

Session 4: Dutch Defensive Works in New Netherland
Oscar Hefting, Dutch Fortress Museum
“Simon Stevin in the New World: Archaeological research into 17th-century Dutch defensive works in the Americas”

Jaap Jacobs, University of St Andrews
“‘An Upright Stockade and a Small Breastwork’: Fortifications in New Netherland”

Craig Lukezic, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs
“Archaeological Investigations of Fort Casimir”

Diana diZerega Wall, City College of New York, and Anne-Marie Cantwell, Rutgers University
“Building Forts and Alliances: Archaeology at Freeman and Massapeag, Two Native American Sites.”

Schedule
Thursday, September 22
5:30: Opening reception at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center

Friday, September 23 
8:30: Registration*
9:00: Welcome and introductions
9:30: Session 1 “Pavonia”
12:30: Box lunch provided
2:00: Session 2 “Heritage”
___

6:00: Cocktail hour at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center
7:00: Dinner & awards at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center. The dinner will feature a talk by Elizabeth Bradley, the author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York, a cultural history of New York’s first mascot.

Saturday, September 24 
8:30: Registration
9:00: Session 3 “Emerging Scholars”
11:00: Session 4 “Dutch Defensive Works in New Netherland”
1:00: Box Lunch Provided

* Registration and all sessions will be held at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.