Elizabeth Visser

Elizabeth Visser (actually Cornelia Elizabeth Visser , also known as Cornelia Elizabeth s'Jacob-Visser ) (born May 26, 1908 in Amsterdam , † August 3, 1987 in Haren ) was a Dutch ancient historian and professor at the University of Groningen . In 1947 she became the first female professor of ancient history in the Netherlands.

Youth and education

Elisabeth Visser was born the middle of three children of the carpenter Cornelis Visser (1876–1964) and his wife Clara Ernestine Dirksen (1882–1954). It was important to the mother, a teacher from The Hague , that her daughters received as good an education as her son, so that Elizabeth began her training at the HBS (Higher Civic School). Two years later, however, after receiving private lessons in Latin and Greek, she moved to the third grade at the Amsterdam Lyceum . After graduating from high school, in 1926 she began studying classical philology with David Cohen at the Universiteit van Amsterdam , but also attended lectures in Egyptology at the University of Leiden . In 1932 she studied papyrology with Wilhelm Schubart in Berlin with a grant from the Philological Study Fund . She then spent a few months in Italy and from there embarked on a trip to Egypt. In 1938 she received her doctorate cum laude with a thesis on gods and cults in Ptolemaic Alexandria .

Act

In 1946 she became the assistant to David Cohen, who survived the Holocaust in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and whom she always referred to as her spiritual father. The year 1947 saw her as an employed lecturer for the cultural history of Hellenism. At the end of the same year she was appointed to teach ancient history as well as Greek and Roman classical studies at the University of Groningen, where she worked until her retirement in 1976, as the first female professor of ancient historians in the Netherlands. In 1964 she also became the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Rector of the University of Groningen. Her style is described as characterized by traditional, socially liberal sense of responsibility paired with modern or conflict-avoiding leadership qualities, which is said to have led to her nickname Mater et Regina (Queen and Mother). In some publications, Visser also devoted herself to women and the relationships between the sexes, for example in her lecture The Woman and Fate in Greek Literature . She came to the conclusion that "whoever begins to sketch the picture of a woman in a certain period of literature ends up drawing the picture of the man in that period". She was connected to social and cultural life, so she became a member of the Classical Institute, the Board of Directors of the Groningen Orchestra, the Soroptimists and others. a. and was chairwoman of the Association of Women with Higher Education (VVAO) from 1953 to 1958.

In 1974 she married a colleague from Groningen University, constitutional lawyer and university professor Eduard Herman s'Jacob (1905–1987).

Works (selection)

• Gods and Cults in Ptolemaic Alexandria (Amsterdam, 1938)
• Het hellenisme (The Hague, 1946)
• Polis en de stad (Amsterdam, 1947)
• Syracuse state Athena. Thucydides Historiën, boek VI en VII (Haarlem, 1962)
• Universitas Groningana MCMXIV-MCMLXIV (Redactie, Groningen, 1964–1966)
• Stathmen en parasangen (Groningen, 1964)
• Het beeld van de vrouw in de literatuur (The Hague, 1967 and 1979²)
• Couperus, Grieken en barbaren (Amsterdam, 1969)
• Divorce in Hellas (Groningen, 1974)
• Democracy in Hellas (Groningen, 1975)

literature

• Barbara Henkes: Elizabeth Visser (1908–1987). Mater et Regina . Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 17 (1997), pp. 165-174.
• Leonie Lafeber and Bianca Swinkel: Cornelia Elizabeth Visser. Nederlands eerste vrouwelijk divorcedishoogleraar, baanbrekend hoogleraar , Nijmegen 1993.

Web links

• Stijntje Blankendaal: Visser, Elizabeth (1908–1987) in Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland , ( Dutch ), accessed on May 13, 2018

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b} Stijntje Blankendaal: Visser, Elizabeth (1908-1987) in Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland , ( Dutch ), accessed on May 13, 2018.
2. ↑ Barbara Henkes: Elizabeth Visser (1908-1987). Mater et Regina . Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 17 (1997), p. 169f
3. ↑ Elizabeth Visser: Het beeld van de vrouw in de literatuur . The Hague, 1967 and 1979².