Historian - Old-timer and cultural broker: The legacy of Dr. Albert van der Zeijden (1957-2021)

At the sad occasion of the passing away of Albert van der Zeijden (member of the editorial board of Volkskunde), the life work of this scholar is presented and characterized. On the one hand, he presented himself as an academically trained historian. He was specialized in the study of catholicism and historical awareness in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century, in the history of death and mourning, and in the work of Philippe Ariès. On the other hand, he worked about popular culture, folklore and, in the last decade, in the new field of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. He explored the potential of the relations between that paradigm of the 2003 UNESCO Convention and phenomena in contemporary society like tourism, listing, superdiversity, international NGOs, controversies, and cultural brokerage.