Thomas Vaessens

Seminar

During the ACS Summer Institute 2011, Thomas Vaessens will co-organize a seminar entitled: (Cross)cultural literacy and (trans)national literatures


About

Thomas Vaessens (1967) is a full professor in Dutch literature at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He is the director of the Huizinga Instituut (Dutch National Research Institute and Graduate School of Cultural History) and of the Research-MA program in Dutch Literature. He studied Dutch linguistics and literature studies at the University of Utrecht and obtained his doctorate in 1998 with a thesis titled Nijhoff, Van Ostaijen en de mentaliteit van het modernisme ('Nijhoff, Van Ostaijen and the mentality of modernism'). Between 1992 and 2003 he worked as a teaching assistant, lecturer and assistant professor at the University of Utrecht In the same period he gave guest lectures in Wroclaw, Warschau, Berlin and Prague . In 2001-2002, he was visiting professor at the FU Berlin. In 1999 he received a post-doctoral grand from NWO (the institution for Dutch scientific research) for a research-project on Cultural Identity and Postmodern Writing in The Netherlands. As a part of the 'New Generation Campaign' of the humanities department, the UvA (University of Amsterdam) appointed him assistant professor in 2003. In July 2005 he was appointed full professor in Modern Dutch Literature Studies. He published books about modernism (Circus Dubio & Schroom, 1998), the Dutch poet Lucebert (De verstoorde lezer, 2001), postmodernism in Dutch and Flemish poetry (Postmoderne poëzie in de Nederlandse en Vlaamse poëzie, together with Jos Joosten, 2003) and late postmodernism (De revanche van de roman). In 2006 he published a book about recent changes in and around Dutch poetry (Ongerijmd succes. Dichter en dichten in postmodern Nederland). He is founding editor of a new peer reviewed electronic journal for Dutch literary studies (Journal of Dutch Literature, JDL). He is in the editorial board of Neerlandistiek.nl and of Werkwinkel: Journal of Low Countries and South African Studies.