In his new position dr. Ertsen will carry forward existing research projects focussing on water heritage. Maurits Ertsen:
"Of course I would like to continue developing the waterline in the theme. At the same time, I would like to explore and mobilize new themes where landscape, people and heritage come together. A more explicit link to the various (PhD) studies that take place within the LDE context would also be good, also with a view to the continuity of the working group. I am thinking both of things happening in the Netherlands (for example ‘Erfgoedlijnen’ (heritage lines) in South Holland, but also the question of how landscape and heritage are told in museums is fun."
"A question that could interest several people could be the rural-urban relationship, and then not only in terms of physical relationships, but also in political-cultural. Finally, it is often the case that heritage is defined by urban elites, with which others do not necessarily agree. I might just be the right person to with this because I am used to walking around in different disciplines, and my conceptual basis largely consists of the idea that it is useful to use social constructions (for example heritage, but also research or water, and our working group) as a continuous series of interactions, in which (different views on) realities are discussed and formed.”