Exactly 200 years ago, the agricultural colony at Veenhuizen opened. Established as a social experiment to combat poverty, re-educate people, and transform wasteland into productive agricultural land. For decades, thousands of poor families, vagrants, orphans, widows and criminals (stuck) in Veenhuizen and other Dutch and Flemish Colonies of Weldadigheid. Because of their great cultural-historical importance, the Colonies of Weldadigheid have had UNESCO World Heritage status since 2021

This public symposium celebrates the 200th anniversary and the granting of World Heritage status in a big way. Fifteen top national and international researchers together discuss the colony from all angles on the 9th, 10th and 11th of May. From poverty alleviation to punishment. From landscaping to architecture. And from the underlying economic model to the ideas of founder Johannes van den Bosch. In doing so, the Dutch Colonies of Weldadigheid will always be compared to other 19th-century agricultural colonies - in Belgium, France, Italy, Great Britain, South Africa and elsewhere. What made the Dutch agricultural colonies of Weldadigheid unique?

With: Barbara Arneil (UBC) - Anne Brunon Ernst (Paris) - Geertje Bernaerts (Karvansera) - Iain Mackinnon (Coventry) - Paul Meurs (Steenhuismeurs) - Sabrina Puddu (Leuven) - Colin Ripley (Toronto) - Angelie Sens (Amsterdam) - Freek Schmidt (VU) - Hanneke Stuit (UvA) - Vincent Tassenaar and Richard Paping (both University of Groningen) - Stephen Toth (Arizona) - Craig Whittall (London)

The program in full can be found here: https://gevangenismuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Programma-4.pdf.