She writes historical non-fiction, articles and academic publications, with a focus on colonial history and the independence struggle in South-Africa, Namibia and Indonesia.

She obtained her master's degree at the faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam and went on to earn a PhD in 2023 for her dissertation De strijd om Bali.

Imperialisme, verzet en onafhankelijkheid 1846–1950 (De Bezige Bij), for which she had interviewed 128 people involved on Bali and in the Netherlands in addition to extensive archival research.

[4] During her seven years of research she discovered, for example, that the Dutch army built a tangsi-system[5][6][7] of 50 prison camps on Bali in which torture and executions were a systematic phenomenon.

[19] She received book reviews in Dutch national newspapers such as NRC Handelsblad[10] and Nederlands Dagblad[20] as well as in history-related media such as Historiek[21] and Historisch Nieuwsblad,[22] and in Belgium in De lage landen ('The Low Countries').

[29] From 2005 to 2007 Hoek worked at the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASC) and performed research in Bolivia, Zambia, Cameroon and Mali.

[43][44] In 2014, she discovered archive documents showing that the Dutch authorities ran Bali as their private kingdom during the Indonesian War of Independence.

[51] According to two-fold Libris History Prize winner Martin Bossenbroek the article contributed to a paradigm shift, a historiographical regime change.

[57] It was subsequently picked up by national media such as Algemeen Dagblad,[60] de Volkskrant, Trouw, the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting and RTL Nieuws.

Member of the House of Representatives Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, who had been lobbying in favor of the investigation, told Hoek in an interview that the political approval for the government-financed research: Independence, decolonization, violence and war in Indonesia, 1945–1950 (Dutch: "ODGOI"-research) in the House was for 75% a result of new facts stemming from journalism and lawsuits against the Dutch state, and for 25% based upon the earlier mentioned Swiss dissertation.

After new facts about this period have emerged 'drop by drop', the book publication of the Swiss dissertation in October 2016 was the proverbial 'splash' that made the already full bucket overflow.

Between 2016 and 2019 Hoek advocated for recognition of the political struggle by the leaders of the Indonesian fight for independence,[75][76][77] and other dissenting voices that had challenged the colonial system.

: a large exhibition within the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Indonesia's struggle for independence to which she also made a contribution,[103] and about the possible conclusions of the formerly mentioned "ODGOI"-research on the same war.

[104] Together with other critics and Indonesia experts,[105] in response to the final conclusion of that investigation, she again advocated in favor of the usage of the term "war crimes" during a special on NPO Radio 1.

[106] The investigation leader, Frank van Vree, changed his position during the broadcast and believed that they should have spoken of war crimes after all, which in itself became national news again the same day.

[113] Hoek is currently a fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where she continued her research on South-Africa and Namibia.

[115][116][117] He refers to her as “an important writer” and states "what makes her work innovative - in addition to the many Balinese testimonies - is that she has exposed the connection between violence and colonial politics.

[9] David van Reybrouck (PhD) stated that Anne-Lot Hoek 'has conducted important oral history research on Sumatra and especially Bali'.

[122][123][124] The jury of the Libris History Prize described De strijd om Bali as an important contribution to the scholarly and social debate on colonial policy in Indonesia.

[129][130] According to the former Head of Research of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies Peter Romijn, and Remco Raben, many Dutch historical works and documentaries have a strong etnocentric perspective.

[131] Nadia Bouras states about The Battle for Bali that the perspective of the colonized has been ignored for a long time, but that this has fortunately changed and that the book also shows how the colonial past clashes with the self-image that the Netherlands has had of itself.

[133][134][135] Hoek is also seen as one of the few authors that early on recognized the value of applying a ‘long-term perspective’ by commencing in colonial times as a prerequisite for understanding the Indonesian War of Independence.

[140] In collaboration with Alle Geschiedenis Ooit ('All History Ever'), the four-episode podcast series War in Paradise: The Battle for Bali was created about the book by Anne-Lot Hoek and Arco Gnocchi.