Sjamme van de Voort

Sjamme van de Voort is a memory studies scholar, born in the Netherlands, grown up in a forest in Denmark, who over the last decade has been taking his work from Denmark, through the US, Cuba, the UK to Sweden. Trained as a historian (Aarhus University, BA 2011 & MA 2015), he is currently working on a PhD project at the Centre for Research on Cuba at the University of Nottingham (2015-). In this work, he investigates the cultural memory that provides the mnemonic framework for Cuban-American population of Miami Dade County, aiming at developing a methodological approach to engage with diaspora memories in order to understand perceptions of the future.

He has taught courses on memory studies and approaches to traumatic memories at BA and MA level at universities in Denmark and Sweden. Besides academia, Sjamme has worked as a political risk analyst with a focus on the Caribbean, while also providing expert knowledge to human rights organisations working in countries related to his specialism. Since he became a partner in The Imaginary Agency, a platform established by Moniek Driesse, these interests and expertises became an integrated fixture of the ongoing exploration of the relations between cultural memory, human rights and environmental justice. The most recent exploration of Sjamme’s work within The Imaginary Agency is the current establishment of a cultural exchange project with established Danish and Cuban hip-hop artists, including students from Silkeborg Højskole.