Board Members

President

Sylvia Semmet (Germany) teaches History, English and History for bilingual classes at lower and upper secondary level at Goethe-Gymnasium Germersheim. Having been a teachers´ trainer for four years, she has also led further education courses for teachers of History. She coordinates the international relations of the German Association of History Teachers, which she also supports with translations and contributions to its nationwide magazine. She is active in border-crossing projects with History classes. She studied English and History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and the University of Stirling, Scotland.During the General Assembly 2009 in Nikosia, Cyprus, Sylvia Semmet has been elected as the New Board EUROCLIO Member.

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Treasurer & Vice President

Marjan de Groot-Reuvekamp (The Netherlands) works since 2006 as a teacher trainer for history in primary education at the Fontys Hogescholen in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Her work consists mainly of providing history modules, and supervising internships in primary schools in the region. Before 2006 she worked in several Universities for teacher Training and in schools for secondary education including schools for children with special needs. Alongside her teaching she runs a number of coordinating tasks in my University. In 2000 - 2001 she was seconded to the Historical Commission (Commission de Rooy) to propose a design for a longitudinal curriculum  for the history in primary and secondary education. This proposal of the ten eras  is currently being implemented in primary and secondary education in the Netherlands. In December 2000 she did a training for the Inspectors of primary education about the teaching of history in the context of a national survey on the quality of history teaching. Since 1994 she is active in the Committee of Teacher Trainers of the VGN (Dutch History Teachers Association) she became president of this committee in 1996, organized national seminars for Teacher Trainers and wrote articles about history education for the magazine "Kleio. 2002- 2008 she was vice-president of the Board of the VGN. Since 2008 she is an International Representative of the VGN and president of the Organizing Committee for the Annual Conference of Euroclio in Nijmegen in 2010.

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Financial Advisor

Erwin Capitain (The Netherlands) studied business economics and has made his career in the Financial industry. Until 2008 he was partner at Deloitte, one of the Big Four Auditing Firms. Nowadays he runs his own advisory practice, focusing on governance and strategic issues for mid-sized companies and institutes. He serves at several governance bodies of pension funds. Also he is supervisory board member at a hospital, a homecare institute and a housing cooperative. Last but no least he is business economics lector at the Free University. Erwin, an outsider in history teaching, joined the Board in 2010 for his financial expertise and his experience in supervisory boards. He takes part of the Finances and Governance Workgroup, in which the Executive Director, the Treasurer and representatives of the staff monitor finance related management issues.

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Secretary

Semih Aktekin (Turkey) graduated from the Faculty of Political Science in Ankara University, and then received qualified teacher status (PGCE) in History in the UK in 1999, studied for a Masters degree in School Improvement and Professional Development of Teachers in 2000, and completed a doctorate in Teacher Education in 2004 from the School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK. He is currently an assistant professor in history education at Karadeniz Technical University, Fatih Faculty of Education, in Trabzon, Turkey, where he carries out initial undergraduate teacher training and postgraduate work. He also has experience in in‐service training in schools and has worked with adult educators. He was deputy coordinator and senior consultant of the project titled ‘Training Social Studies and History Educators for Multicultural Europe’ which was accepted part of Promotion of the Civil Society Dialogue between European Union and Turkey project (June 2008‐December 2009). He is one of the editors and chapter writers of the books titled 'Teaching History and Social Studies for Multicultural Europe’ and ‘‘Understanding Ourselves and one another: Active Learning for History and Social Studies Lessons’. Currently he is the Project Coordinator in the EUROCLIO/MATRA Project A Key to Europe: Innovative Methodology in Turkish School History (2009‐2012).

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Communications Officer

Peder Wiben (Denmark) has taught history for 15 years in the Danish Gymnasium (High School) and has been member of the Danish HTA Board for 6 years until he resigned in November 2009 but is still editor of the Danish HTA’s quarterly magazine. Whilst in the Danish HTA Board he has arranged a number of courses on different topics and has arranged travel courses for history teachers to Cuba, Spain and Morocco and is preparing another in February 2011 to Ghana on behalf of the Danish HTA Board. He has also participated in the EUROCLIO resource book project in the Balkans in “Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country” presenting workshops for the participants. He is National School Coordinator in the Danish school network working with The Transatlantic Slave Trade in the framework of UNESCO’s ASP school network, where he works to find materials on the slave trade, develop it for teaching and making it accessible for teachers and students. He is web editor of a widely used portal on history teaching funded by the Danish Ministry of Education. The site has in average 25,000 visits each month. He is also a teacher trainer and has published textbooks for history teaching and acted as a consultant on a great number of other textbooks. He is still a consultant on history textbooks for the biggest Danish publishing house on school books.

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Member