David de Boer is a postdoctoral researcher. His research focuses on migration and cultural memory in the early modern world. His main academic interests include news cultures, solidarity networks, global migrations, and public history.

After obtaining his BA and MA in history at Utrecht University, David pursued his PhD at the University of Konstanz and Leiden University (joint doctoral program). He was a visiting scholar at the European University Institute, the Leibniz Institute of European History, Harvard University, and UCLA. Before joining the UvA he lectured at Leiden University and Utrecht University.

David de Boer's work concerns the history of migration and long-distance solidarity networks. He is interested in how the cultural memory of past migrations shapes global migration patterns. Comparing the Dutch and British Empires between ca. 1700 and 1900, his project investigates how different economic, environmental, and forced migrants informed the conditions of their resettlement by appropriating narratives of and about earlier migrant groups. It traces how such narratives traveled between migrant groups, thus becoming interwoven into a web of global connections.

The project identifies the agency of economic, environmental, and forced migrants in shaping the conditions of their resettlement on the global stage.

He has also worked on early modern news, public opinion, iconoclasm, civic identity, and cultural memory.