Fenneke Sysling
Biographic Data
| ID | 729134 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Fenneke Sysling |
| GIVEN NAMES | Fenneke |
| FAMILY NAME | Sysling |
| SIGNATURE | SYSLING F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8097-1568 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Ulbe Bosma, Leven op een vulkaan. Franz Junghuhn. Een biografie
slag te gaan
Van Hollandsdenken tot dekolonisatie: Wetenschap, kennis en Nederlands kolonialisme
From ‘Hollandsdenken’ to decolonization: science, knowledge and the Dutch Empire This review discusses recent trends in the historiography of science, knowledge and colonialism, and how they have been applied to the Dutch Empire. It shows how historians have characterized the relation between science and colonialism in the last decades. The review begins by identifying two broad clusters: The first emphasized how science thrived through the netwo…
Mathematics, Mao, and Many Reasons. An Interview with Kapil Raj
Colonial and Global History 1200-present
Phrenology and the average person, 1840–1940
The popular science of phrenology is known for its preoccupation with geniuses and criminals, but this article shows that phrenologists also introduced ideas about the ‘average’ person. Popular phrenologists in the US and the UK examined the heads of their clients to give an indication of their character. Based on the publications of phrenologists and on a large collection of standardized charts with clients’ scores, this article analyses their d…
Java Man and the Politics of Natural History: An Object Biography
Natural history museums have long escaped postcolonial or decolonial scrutiny; their specimens were and are usually presented as part of the natural world, containing only biological or geological information. However, their collections, like those of other museums, are rooted in colonial practices and thinking. In this article, we sketch a political and decolonial biography of 'Java Man', the fossilized remains of a Homo erectus specimen, housed…
Measurement, self-tracking and the history of science: An introduction
This article introduces the papers contained in this special issue and explores a new field of interest in the history of science: that of measurement and self-making. In this special issue, we aim to show that a focus on self-tracking and individualized measurement provides insight into the ways technologies of quantification, when applied to individual bodies and selves, have introduced new notions of autonomy, responsibility, citizenship, and …
Mixed messages: Racial science and local identity in Bali and Lombok, 1938–39
This article explores how the islands of Bali and Lombok were racialised through the work of Dutch racial scientist J.P. Kleiweg de Zwaan in the 1930s. An examination of both Kleiweg's published works and his local practices draws attention to the fact that racialisation occurred at different moments of anthropological work, producing different outcomes. The article concludes that anthropologists communicated different versions of racial ideas to…
Science and self-assessment: Phrenological charts 1840–1940
This paper looks at phrenological charts as mediators of (pseudo-)scientific knowledge to individual clients who used them as a means of self-assessment. Phrenologists propagated the idea that the human mind could be categorized into different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain and by bumps on the head. In the US and the UK popular phrenologists examined individual clients for a fee. Drawin…
Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good: From Panopticon to the Skinner Box and Beyond
Taming the Wild; Aborigines and racial knowledge in colonial Malaya, written by Sandra Khor Manickam
In today's Malaysia Orang Asli, the minority indigenous people, struggle for recognition in a Malay dominated country.For many the difference between a Malay and an Orang Asli seems clear enough but as scholars have shown, complex construction work has been necessary to create the categories of 'Malayness' and 'indigeneity' and was done partly by the British with their colonial politics and racial ideas.Sandra Khor Manickam's book, developed from…
Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia
Faces from the Netherlands Indies: Plaster casts and the making of race in the early twentieth century
Cet article analyse le rôle des moulages en plâtre dans l’anthropologie physique. Il retrace les trajectoires d’une collection de moulages assemblée par l’anthropologue physique hollandais J. P. Kleiweg de Zwaan dans ce qui est aujourd’hui l’Indonésie. La question centrale est la suivante : comment cette collection a-t-elle été utilisée afin de véhiculer un certain savoir racial ? Cet article s’appuie sur les travaux des historiens des sciences L…
Protecting the Primitive Natives: Indigenous People as Endangered Species in the Early Nature Protection Movement, 1900-1940
This paper draws attention to the role of indigenous people in the early nature protection movement in Europe. In the first half of the twentieth century, not only flora and fauna but on several occasions 'natural people' too were the object of the protection ambitions of nature conservationists. In discussions on the history of nature protection much attention has been paid to the ways indigenous people were separated from the nature in which th…
In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 by Alice L. Conklin (review)
Reviewed by: In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 by Alice L. Conklin Fenneke Sysling In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 By Alice L. Conklin. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2013. Alice Conklin’s book is a meticulously researched and nuanced study of the rival branches of the science of man in France between 1850 and 1950. Students of France, race and colonia…
Measurement, self-tracking and the history of science: An introduction
This article introduces the papers contained in this special issue and explores a new field of interest in the history of science: that of measurement and self-making. In this special issue, we aim to show that a focus on self-tracking and individualized measurement provides insight into the ways technologies of quantification, when applied to individual bodies and selves, have introduced new notions of autonomy, responsibility, citizenship, and …
Phrenology and the average person, 1840–1940
The popular science of phrenology is known for its preoccupation with geniuses and criminals, but this article shows that phrenologists also introduced ideas about the ‘average’ person. Popular phrenologists in the US and the UK examined the heads of their clients to give an indication of their character. Based on the publications of phrenologists and on a large collection of standardized charts with clients’ scores, this article analyses their d…
Java Man and the Politics of Natural History: An Object Biography
Natural history museums have long escaped postcolonial or decolonial scrutiny; their specimens were and are usually presented as part of the natural world, containing only biological or geological information. However, their collections, like those of other museums, are rooted in colonial practices and thinking. In this article, we sketch a political and decolonial biography of 'Java Man', the fossilized remains of a Homo erectus specimen, housed…
Science and self-assessment: Phrenological charts 1840–1940
This paper looks at phrenological charts as mediators of (pseudo-)scientific knowledge to individual clients who used them as a means of self-assessment. Phrenologists propagated the idea that the human mind could be categorized into different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain and by bumps on the head. In the US and the UK popular phrenologists examined individual clients for a fee. Drawin…
Protecting the Primitive Natives: Indigenous People as Endangered Species in the Early Nature Protection Movement, 1900-1940
This paper draws attention to the role of indigenous people in the early nature protection movement in Europe. In the first half of the twentieth century, not only flora and fauna but on several occasions 'natural people' too were the object of the protection ambitions of nature conservationists. In discussions on the history of nature protection much attention has been paid to the ways indigenous people were separated from the nature in which th…
Faces from the Netherlands Indies: Plaster casts and the making of race in the early twentieth century
Cet article analyse le rôle des moulages en plâtre dans l’anthropologie physique. Il retrace les trajectoires d’une collection de moulages assemblée par l’anthropologue physique hollandais J. P. Kleiweg de Zwaan dans ce qui est aujourd’hui l’Indonésie. La question centrale est la suivante : comment cette collection a-t-elle été utilisée afin de véhiculer un certain savoir racial ? Cet article s’appuie sur les travaux des historiens des sciences L…
In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 by Alice L. Conklin (review)
Reviewed by: In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 by Alice L. Conklin Fenneke Sysling In the Museum of Man: Race, anthropology, and empire in France, 1850–1950 By Alice L. Conklin. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2013. Alice Conklin’s book is a meticulously researched and nuanced study of the rival branches of the science of man in France between 1850 and 1950. Students of France, race and colonia…
Faces from the Netherlands Indies: Plaster casts and the making of race in the early twentieth century
Cet article analyse le rôle des moulages en plâtre dans l’anthropologie physique. Il retrace les trajectoires d’une collection de moulages assemblée par l’anthropologue physique hollandais J. P. Kleiweg de Zwaan dans ce qui est aujourd’hui l’Indonésie. La question centrale est la suivante : comment cette collection a-t-elle été utilisée afin de véhiculer un certain savoir racial ? Cet article s’appuie sur les travaux des historiens des sciences L…
Protecting the Primitive Natives: Indigenous People as Endangered Species in the Early Nature Protection Movement, 1900-1940
This paper draws attention to the role of indigenous people in the early nature protection movement in Europe. In the first half of the twentieth century, not only flora and fauna but on several occasions 'natural people' too were the object of the protection ambitions of nature conservationists. In discussions on the history of nature protection much attention has been paid to the ways indigenous people were separated from the nature in which th…
Taming the Wild; Aborigines and racial knowledge in colonial Malaya, written by Sandra Khor Manickam
In today's Malaysia Orang Asli, the minority indigenous people, struggle for recognition in a Malay dominated country.For many the difference between a Malay and an Orang Asli seems clear enough but as scholars have shown, complex construction work has been necessary to create the categories of 'Malayness' and 'indigeneity' and was done partly by the British with their colonial politics and racial ideas.Sandra Khor Manickam's book, developed from…
Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia
Mixed messages: Racial science and local identity in Bali and Lombok, 1938–39
This article explores how the islands of Bali and Lombok were racialised through the work of Dutch racial scientist J.P. Kleiweg de Zwaan in the 1930s. An examination of both Kleiweg's published works and his local practices draws attention to the fact that racialisation occurred at different moments of anthropological work, producing different outcomes. The article concludes that anthropologists communicated different versions of racial ideas to…
Science and self-assessment: Phrenological charts 1840–1940
This paper looks at phrenological charts as mediators of (pseudo-)scientific knowledge to individual clients who used them as a means of self-assessment. Phrenologists propagated the idea that the human mind could be categorized into different mental faculties, with each particular faculty represented in a different area of the brain and by bumps on the head. In the US and the UK popular phrenologists examined individual clients for a fee. Drawin…
Pain, Pleasure, and the Greater Good: From Panopticon to the Skinner Box and Beyond
Measurement, self-tracking and the history of science: An introduction
This article introduces the papers contained in this special issue and explores a new field of interest in the history of science: that of measurement and self-making. In this special issue, we aim to show that a focus on self-tracking and individualized measurement provides insight into the ways technologies of quantification, when applied to individual bodies and selves, have introduced new notions of autonomy, responsibility, citizenship, and …
Phrenology and the average person, 1840–1940
The popular science of phrenology is known for its preoccupation with geniuses and criminals, but this article shows that phrenologists also introduced ideas about the ‘average’ person. Popular phrenologists in the US and the UK examined the heads of their clients to give an indication of their character. Based on the publications of phrenologists and on a large collection of standardized charts with clients’ scores, this article analyses their d…
Java Man and the Politics of Natural History: An Object Biography
Natural history museums have long escaped postcolonial or decolonial scrutiny; their specimens were and are usually presented as part of the natural world, containing only biological or geological information. However, their collections, like those of other museums, are rooted in colonial practices and thinking. In this article, we sketch a political and decolonial biography of 'Java Man', the fossilized remains of a Homo erectus specimen, housed…
Mathematics, Mao, and Many Reasons. An Interview with Kapil Raj
Colonial and Global History 1200-present
Ulbe Bosma, Leven op een vulkaan. Franz Junghuhn. Een biografie
slag te gaan
Van Hollandsdenken tot dekolonisatie: Wetenschap, kennis en Nederlands kolonialisme
From ‘Hollandsdenken’ to decolonization: science, knowledge and the Dutch Empire This review discusses recent trends in the historiography of science, knowledge and colonialism, and how they have been applied to the Dutch Empire. It shows how historians have characterized the relation between science and colonialism in the last decades. The review begins by identifying two broad clusters: The first emphasized how science thrived through the netwo…
Sociology (7 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Art (5 works) · History (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works) · Colonialism (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · History (4 works) · History of Science and Natural History (4 works) · Political science (4 works)