Biography
Lara Offermans studied at the Leiden University, where she received two Bachelor of Arts: History, specifically medieval history, and Religious Studies. For her final paper about the cultural history of death in the early reformed (Gereformeerde) church in the Netherlands, which Lara wrote for her BA Religious Studies, she was awarded the best BA-Thesis Religious Studies in 2020/2021-price. After finishing her two BA’s, Lara graduated Cum Laude for her Master of Arts in Religious Studies. Her master’s specialization track was Religion, History and Society. During her MA-programme, Lara was a research intern on a project specialized in the cultural history of Mennonites in Haarlem. Her work and results during the internships led her to writing her MA-thesis on the Mennonite network in Haarlem during the Tulipomania.
Lara is both a historian and religious scholar, and has a broad interest in the history of the early modern period. Especially the phenomenon of cities as hotbeds for cultural and social-economic developments, are immensely interesting to her. She is for example fascinated how (religious) minorities settled themselves in early modern cities, and the network they formed both with one another and with those outside of their community. Lara is also interested in the cohesion between science, art, and religion, who have formed a wonderful symbiotic dependency with each other throughout history.
