Elpers, prof. dr. S. (Sophie)

Sophie Elpers is Researcher Ethnology at the Meertens Institue. She is also professor Intangible Cultural Heritage and Ethnology in the Heritage Department/Faculty Design Sciences of the University of Antwerp and lecturer Critical Heritage Studies at the University of Bonn. Trained in Bonn, Leiden and Amsterdam, she received her PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 2014 with a thesis on the reconstruction of farmhouses in the Netherlands during and after the Second World War.

Elpers became a staff member of the Meertens Institute in 2007. Her work focuses on intangible cultural heritage politics and dynamics, living heritage and museums, living heritage and sustainable development, and living heritage and scent recently. Other interests include everyday life in rural areas, with an emphasis on negotiations about ruralities and rurbanities, and vernacular architecture. Between 2016 and 2022 she also worked as a senior researcher at the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage/Dutch Open Air Museum where she was chair of the research line Tangible and intangible heritage. Elpers is Executive Vice President of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, SIEF, and senior editor of the international peer-reviewed journal Cultural Analysis. She is also one of the editors of Volkskunde. Tijdschrift over de cultuur van het dagelijks leven.