Hagen's qualitative and biographical approach focuses on the interplay between culture and politics. She is an expert of the revolutionary period in the Netherlands (1780-1815). In a broader sense, her research explores (the historical problem of) individual agency, as evidenced by people’s changing practices, emotions and attitudes toward power and political authority. Her work highlights in- and exclusionary processes that are at play in the creation of political subjects, reinforced by religion (antipapism related to civic virtues and national identity) and changing cultural norms about gender and (political) emotions. Articles and chapters by Hagen on cultural political topics such as reputation politics, emotional self-fashioning, character assasination or the ways in which eighteenth century women exercised (informal) power, have been published in peer reviewed journals and books as well as in popular historical magazines. Hagen is inspired by a diverse range of historical material, particularly personal letters, political print culture and (auto)biographies.
Hagen’s PhD on Dutch Enlightened and Protestant Anti-Papism around 1800 received national coverage by the Dutch press and was praised by historians as ‘an exemplary dissertation’ (Professor Emeritus G.J. Schutte) and ‘Darntonian’ (Professor Emeritus A.W.F.M. van de Sande). In 2012 her Libris History Prize nominated political biography on the statesman Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (1761-1825) and his wife Catharina Nahuys (1770-1844) attracted nation-wide media attention. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, received the first copy.
Hagen is a Research Affiliate of:
and member of the board of:
Recent Special Issues
Hagen edited a Special Issue of the Dutch Journal of Gender History (Historica. Tijdschrift voor Gendergeschiedenis, 2024, jrg. 47, no.3): Gender and Character Assasination that will be presented on November 23 at the VU-Amsterdam. See (agenda): https://www.historici.nl/
Together with Martijn Icks (UvA) Hagen co-edited a Special Issue of the Dutch Journal of History (Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 2021, jrg 134, no.2): Character Assassination and Media https://www.aup-online.com/content/journals/00407518/134/2
Hagen is currently working on several article and book projects, which include:
- source analysis of the reputation-politics of Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange (1751-1820). (Contribution to Routledge Character Assasination, Illiberalism and the Erosion of Civic Rights).
- several peer-reviewed articles on Eighteenth Century Women's Letters as a Diplomatic Practice (one of which with Kristine Dyrmann, University of Oxford; Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Societies)
- interdisciplinary and international edited volumes on: 1. Auto/Biography and Reputation Politics (co-editor and contributor; Routledge) & 2. Character Assasination, Illiberalism and the Erosion of Civic Rights (co-editor with Martijn Icks (UvA) & Andrew Armstrong (George Mason University, Fairfax US).
- case studies based on extensive primary source research in the archives of the Holland Land Company in Amsterdam & New York - mainly focused on Adam Gerard Mappa (1754-1828), a Dutch revolutionary, (sub)agent for the HLC and co-founder of an Unitarian church (NY)
Media
Hagen is sometimes consulted by the media for expert views in relation to her research topics:
De Jortcast De karaktermoord op Ma Flodder
https://www.npostart.nl/de-strijd-om-het-binnenhof/29-01-2021/VPWON_1309353
Hagen herself recentely interviewed the British professor Elaine Chalus about her life and work: "Women also practised politics before suffrage"
& the British professor Marisa Linton: "Revolutionary politicians were more than an ideology on legs"
