Welcome to the new HHH web editor, Eileen van der Burgh!

From this month, Chiara Lacroix will be leaving her role as the web editor of History Health & Healing to Eileen van der Burgh, PhD candidate at Leiden University. Let’s give a warm welcome to Eileen, the third generation of HHH web editor!

Chiara’s farewell

It has been almost two years since I started working as the HHH web editor after Irene Geerts did such a wonderful job creating and maintaining this platform. I have learnt a lot during this time: how to keep a website running despite treacherous WordPress updates, how to scout for medical history news across the web, how to convince busy academics to write our monthly columns, and much more. But what I enjoyed most about it was keeping in touch with the lively research of the HHH community. Every new member and every column taught me about an area or topic in medical history that I knew little or nothing about before. I think the diverse projects and activities of its members are the network’s richness, and it has been a privilege to contribute to it in some way. As I progress in my PhD project on aesthetics and health (if “progress” is even the appropriate term), I feel it is time to leave the job to someone else. I am very happy that Eileen will take over as web editor. I hope to keep in touch with HHH members through email or our regular meetings!

Eileen’s introduction

I am very excited to take on the role as the new HHH web editor. I always read the newsletters with great pleasure, and as a result, I am thrilled to now have the opportunity to fill and design them myself. My predecessors Irene Geerts and Chiara Lacroix have nurtured, shaped and connected the network of medical historians in the Netherlands, and I will put in my best effort to continue this course. I am excited to combine my work as a web editor for HHH with my PhD research on the history of quarantine in the Dutch Maritime Empire at Leiden University. I started working on this project in 2022, and thusfar I have discovered that the history quarantine resonates with several academic communities, of which I find HHH to be the most intriguing and open-minded network to be a part of. I look forward to actively engaging with HHH, discovering what members are working on, and connecting young/early career members with each other. More information on the latter will follow soon! I can be reached for suggestions, news, questions, comments, and any other ideas at: hhh.eileenvanderburgh@gmail.com.

Eileen, Chiara and Irene, the three web editors, at the Allard Pierson Museum during the HHH 2024 spring meeting.