John Jansen van Galen
John Jansen van Galen (b. 1940) is a Dutch writer and journalist. He graduated in political and social sciences at the University of Amsterdam in 1965, and worked for three years as a reporter at Algemeen Dagblad after his graduation. In 1968 he started to work for Haagse Post (HP) where he became editor-in-chief in 1986. Between 1969 and 1985 Jansen also worked for the VPRO-radio, where he made reports about Suriname. He visited Suriname for the first time in 1970, and would later write several books about the country. Between 1990 and 2015, he was the host for the radio show Met het Oog op Morgen. In addition to his radio work, he wrote different columns for the Dutch newspapers Het Parool, NRC Handelsblad en Natuurbehoud.
John Jansen van Galen has also been a guest researcher at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, where he is working on a project about the decolonization processes from the Dutch colonies. In 2013 he published Farewell to the colonies. Dutch decolonization policy 1942-201 (Afscheid van de kolonien. Het Nederlandse dekolonisatiebeleid 1942-201).
As part of the event Hacking History (2012), organised by Framer Framed in collaboration with the Amsterdam Comite 4 en 5 Mei, John Jansen van Galen gave a lecture about the Van Heutz monument in Amsterdam, rethinking the relationship between the Netherlands and Indonesia and its representation in public space.
