Nijdam, Dr J.A. (Han)
Han Nijdam
Areas of expertise
Old Frisian, Old Germanic, historical anthropology, cognitive linguistics, medieval history, legal history.
Biography
Han Nijdam (Amsterdam 1969) studied Medieval History, Anthropology and Old German at the University of Amsterdam. In 2008, he obtained his PhD cum laude at Leiden University for the dissertation Body, honour and law in medieval Friesland. A study of the Old Frisian fine registers. Since 2003, he has been appointed researcher and coordinator of Old Frisian at the Fryske Akademy. As part of this, he has been jointly responsible for the Language Database of Frisian.
Han Nijdam's scholarly interests are mainly in Old Frisian law, legal and historical anthropology, cognitive science and their implications for the humanities. In addition to a more craft-based practice of the field of Old Frisian law, this leads to a comparative study of Old Frisian law with an emphasis on larger themes such as embodied honour, revenge, feuding, the meaning of money and the value of a human life.