Ad de Jong is Professor by Special Appointment of Dutch Cultural History at the UvA (University of Amsterdam) and has been a scientific researcher at The Netherlands Open Air Museum (Arnhem) since 1991.

Dr. De Jong studied History and Museum Studies at Leiden University and has worked at The Netherlands Open Air Museum since 1981, first as Head of Research and Acquisitions and from 1991 as Board Scientific Policy Officer.
In 2001 he received his doctorate with honours from the VU (Free University, Amsterdam) for his dissertation De dirigenten van de herinnering. Musealisering en nationalisering van de volkscultuur in Nederland 1815-1940 (The Conductors of Memory: Museumisation and Nationalisation of Folk Culture in the Netherlands 1815-1940).

Prior to receiving his doctorate, De Jong also worked as Head of the Museums Policy Development Department in the then Ministry of Culture, Recreation & Social Work.
Dr. de Jong holds various advisory and board positions, including as an expert member in the field of Dutch Ethnology of the (Commissie Wet Behoud Cultuurbezit) (Council for Culture’s Preservation of Cultural Heritage Act Committee), and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (German National Museum, Nürnberg).