Eef Vermeij

Staff Member Collection Development

  • Email: eve@iisg.nl
  • Department: Collection Development

Eef is a typical Jack-of-all-trades and master of none. He came to Amsterdam to study Dutch, but after a year and a half, he opted for a 10-year career as a volunteer at the International bookshop Het Fort van Sjakoo. He was also a squatter, antimilitarist, independent publisher, worked in radio and was co-organiser of the festival 'Europe Against the Current'. In this period he also pursued an education as a graphic designer (not completed).

In 1993 he ended up at the IISH at the department for contemporary German social movements ('ID-Archiv im IISG'). It was there that he obtained his first diploma as a documentation specialist.

His abiding interest in Asia has been one of the constants in his life, and in 1998 he was asked to become part-time coordinator of the Asia Department, which after a few years became a fulltime occupation. From late 2002 on he has been the IISH' regional representative for South- and Southeast Asia, from 2011 only for Southeast Asia and from 2017 for the whole of Asia. In addition to working on several unfinished projects and studies, he has a special interest in Vietnam/Cambodia, art/graphic design, visualization of collective memory, independent culture and a variety of other things.

IISH Staff | Eef Vermeij | Photo by Martin van Welzen