OSL Awards 2025: Call for Submissions

The call for the 2025 OSL Awards is now open! Just like last year, the awards consist of five categories: ‘published scholarly book’, ‘published article’, ‘PhD dissertation’, ‘ReMA thesis’ and ‘valorization‘. The Awards are intended to acknowledge original and innovative contributions to the field of literary studies and to highlight the work of talented OSL […]

CfP OSL Research Day 2025 ‘Feelings and Flesh: Affect, Health, and the Textual Body’

When/Where: Utrecht University (Belle van Zuylenzaal, Academiegebouw), 27 October 2025, 13:00-18:00. Organizers: Dr Femi Eromosele, Dr Adele Bardazzi, and Prof. Birgit Kaiser (Utrecht University) Keynote: Prof. Stuart Murray (University of Leeds) Credits: It will be possible to obtain 1EC either by giving a presentation during the Research Day, or by submitting a short assignment (more […]

OSL Academic Programme 2025-2026

The first overview of the OSL academic program for 2025-2026 is now available! For most of the activities taking place in Semester 1, registration will open on September 4th, 2025 (more details will be shared in our August newsletter). If you have any questions, you are welcome to send an email to osl@rug.nl. NB: Unless […]

OSL PhD Day 2025: Full Program

Friday 13 June 2025 | VU University
The full program of this year’s OSL PhD Day is now available! Focusing on “Crossing Borders” as its overarching theme, the event will consist of a keynote lecture by Dr Yasemin Yildiz (UCLA), two panels with presentations by OSL PhDs and ReMAs, and an interactive workshop on interdisciplinarity.

A meeting with Andrei Kurkov – State of European Literature

21 May 2025 | University of Amsterdam
On 21 May, Ukrainian author Andrei Kurkov will give the seventh State of European Literature. He is the celebrated author of many books, such as the bestselling novels Death and the Penguin and Grey Bees. In recent non-fiction books as Diary of an Invasion and Our Daily War, he documents from up close the war in Ukraine. He continues to write for media across Europe and the United States on the history, culture, and current situation in Ukraine.

[Call for Papers] Feminist life writing today: A masterclass with Leigh Gilmore

25 June 2025 | Amsterdam
Gilmore’s recent work, in short, charts a history of how women use life narrative to transform conditions of suffering, silencing, and injustice into accounts that enjoin ethical response. As part of her visit to the Netherlands, OSL, in collaboration with Open University and the Netherlands Research School for Gender Studies, will host Professor Leigh Gilmore a masterclass in the afternoon of June 25th.

OSL Workshop: Translational Poetics with Erín Moure

1 May 2025 | Utrecht University
For this workshop, Montreal-based “transborder poet and translator of poetry and poetics” Erín Moure will lead participants in a discussion on creative and collaborative translation, as well as how her own work develops a ‘biopoetics.’ Participants will also be invited to participate in translation exercises, as well as share their translations for collective feedback. Following the workshop, participants are asked to attend a public reading in the same location (BAK), featuring Moure alongside Dutch poet/translator/editor Frank Keizer.

OSL Workshop on Queer Poetry

2 & 11 June 2025 | University of Amsterdam
In this workshop, after a theoretical and methodological introduction, some exemplary voices from various historical periods and geographical areas will be presented: from Sappho to Catullus, from Abū Nuwās to Hafez, from Michelangelo to Shakespeare, from Lorca to Cavafy. We will then work on specific case studies – Frank O’hara, Morrissey and Patrizia Cavalli – to examine through close readings their poetics and reception.

OSL Awards: The results are in!

14 March 2025   We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2024-2025 edition of the OSL Awards! The Awards are intended to acknowledge original and innovative contributions to the field of literary studies and to highlight the work of talented OSL students and scholars. Please find the full list below: ReMA Thesis First […]