Marion E.P. de Ras

Marion de Ras (1953) studied history and theory of education and upbringing at the University of Amsterdam. Her PhD thesis (1988, cum laude) Körper, Eros und weibliche Kultur. Mädchen im Wandervogel und in der Bündischen Jugend 1900-1933 discussed issues of body culture and female culture in the German Youth Movement and was published in Germany. A completely updated and revised edition: Body, Femininity and Nationalism. Girls in the German Youth Movement 1900-1934 was published in English early 2008 by Routledge (New York/London).

She was for ten years lecturer and researcher at the University of Amsterdam and upon receiving in 1990 the so called Academy-grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for three years senior research fellow at the PdIS (the ASSR) to conduct an international comparative historical and socio-cultural research on construction and genesis of female youth 1600-2000. In 1992 she initiated the first international academic conference on girls, girlhood and girls' studies Alice in Wonderland.

In 1994 she was appointed full professor with tenure in gender studies and sociology at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. In 2001 she was appointed guest-professor and subsequently, for the duration of three years, professor of the history of education and pedagogy and gender studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She continuous being affiliated at the Cornelia Goethe Centrum of the JWG University and is in addition affiliated to the ASSR.

Since 2007 she is director of programme concerning the theory subjects (pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, sociology and research methods) at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (University of applied sciences) were she teaches and researches the history and philosophy of education and pedagogy.

Her research involves social and cultural constructions and genesis of the life phase of female and male youth 1600-2000 in the Netherlands, France, Germany and England.

Currently she is writing a biography of  Dr. Lea Dasberg (Prof. em.), historian, pedagogue and former professor of the history and philosophy of education and pedagogy at the University of Amsterdam.