I am a historical-geographer with a special interest in landscape history. My main region of special interests is a more or less square area (1400 sqmi) east of the line Antwerp - Rotterdam. About half of it is in Belgium, the rest in The Netherlands. In 1985 I got the Belgian historical award "Pro Civitate" for my study over landscape-changes and economic development in connection with the anthropogene disapearance of a Holocene peatlayer in this region. This study was published in 1989:
Leenders, K.A.H.W.. Verdwenen Venen. Een onderzoek naar de ligging en exploitatie van thans verdwenen venen in het gebied tussen Antwerpen, Turnhout, Geertruidenberg en Willemstad. 1250-1750. Brussel/Wageningen, 1989. [ISBN 90-5066-053-3; ISSN 0774-3122] See the summary or/ou le résumé.
On November 21, 1996 I defended in Amsterdam succesfully my PhD-thesis
(summary) (résumé
français) over the history of "my" area during the
middleages (400 - 1350 AD). This study looks at the repopulation after
the Romans had left, development of villages and a few little cities, incorporation
of the region in medieval "states" like the duchy of Brabant
and the county of Holland and again the interaction man-nature. In this
period the region was predominantly rural.
In this study I use archaeological and toponymical evidence, trace the
creation and splitting up of parishes and explore the possibilities to
use the identification of allodia as indicators for "early"
settlement. About 100 maps and other figures illustrate the argument.
Together with 32 authors I have worked under prof. H. van den Eerenbeemt (editor) on a 3-tome "History of the province of North-Brabant, 1796 - 1996.". The three tomes were published in 1996 and 1997. My task was to describe the history of the landscape in this province in the period 1796 - 1996.
I contributed to the Nationale(i.e. Dutch) Research Plan for the Archaeology, part 22: The Middleages and Early Modern Times in the southern part of the Netherlands. This Plan was published in 2007.
In 2009 two books were published each with a number of chapters from my hand:
Gorisse, C.. Oosterhout, niet van gisteren. De geschiedenis van een vitale en veerkrachtige stad van de oude steentijd tot 2009. Oosterhout (Signifikant), 2009.
Publications
My publications concern the historical geography of the Dutch province
North-Brabant and the Belgian province Antwerp, but also demography en
astronomy.
See list of publications
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