Related Research Master Programmes
- Arts, Literature and Media (Leiden University)
- Arts, Media and Literary Studies (RuG)
- Comparative Literary Studies (UU)
- Critical Studies in Art and Culture (VU Amsterdam)
- Cultural Analysis (UvA)
- Cultural Leadership (RuG)
- Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology Research (UM)
- Gender Studies (UU)
- Geschiedenis (UvA)
- Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (RU Nijmegen)
- Literary Studies (UvA)
- Literature & Contested Spaces (VU Amsterdam)
- Media, Art and Performance Studies (UU)
- Research Master European Studies (UM)
- Sociology of Culture, Media and the Arts (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Related Local Research Institutes
- Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS)
- Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
- Amsterdam School of Historical Studies (ASH)
- Centre for Gender and Diversity, Maastricht (CGD)
- Centre for the Humanities
- Instituut voor Cultuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Groningen (ICOG)
- Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS )
- NIAS-KNAW
- Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC)
- Radboud Institute of Culture and History (RICH)
Julia Neugarten | Anchoring and Innovating Classical Motifs in Fanfiction
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalJulia Neugarten | Radboud University
In my PhD-project, Anchoring and Innovating Classical Motifs in Fanfiction (2022-2026), I analyze how motifs from Classical Antiquity are transformed in fanfiction – stories written by and for fans, inspired by existing stories, and published online, for free.
Kyra F. Alberts | Breaking out of the Coffin: The afterlife of specters, vampires and the haunted house in the post-postmodern hauntological dominant
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalKyra F. Alberts | Leiden University
It has been argued that (Western) society is undergoing a paradigmatic shift, one that has been described by various scholars as one from postmodernism to post-postmodernism. A recurring theme of this shift is a sense of renewed social engagement with the world. In this thesis I will explore how this shift can be understood in terms of what Brian McHale calls a shift in the ‘dominant.’ Specifically, I propose to study the post-postmodern dominant as a hauntological dominant. To do so, I will develop a theoretical framework informed by Jacques Derrida’s notion of ‘hauntology’ and its recent theorizations in the context of what has been called the ‘spectral turn’ in the humanities and social sciences.
Kai Hopen | The MacArthur Fellowships and the Making of Contemporary American Literature
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalKai Hopen | University of Groningen
My research is on “The MacArthur Fellowships and the Making of Contemporary American Literature.” The project aims to sit between institutional and historical materialist literary history and American studies.
Yiming Wang | Fandom and participatory censorship: Boys’ Love fiction and globalized activities across the Great Firewall of China
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalYiming Wang | Maastricht University in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASOS)
My research is about online fan-fiction, Boys’ Love subculture and internet censorship and the title is “Fandom and participatory censorship: Boys’ Love fiction and globalized activities across the Great Firewall of China”.
Valerica van der Geld-Dodan | Between Memory and Imagination: Homecoming in Aharon Appelfeld’s and Eva Hoffman’s Autobiographies and Fiction
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalValerica van der Geld-Dodan | University of Amsterdam
This research aims at offering a paradigmatic comparison between two authors, Eva Hoffman (1945 -) and Aharon Appelfeld (1932-2018), by examining notions of departure and homecoming as represented in their fictional and autobiographical writings.
Teun Joshua Brandt | Symbiotic Narratives: Contested Agencies in Scientific and Literary Accounts of Human Holobionts
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalTeun Joshua Brandt | University of Groningen
This interfaculty project aims to provide a better understanding of how we make sense of ourselves facing this paradigmatic shift in biology and the philosophy of biology. Drawing on Caroline Levine’s and Marco Caracciolo’s theories of form, it will extrapolate the key narratives of the biological and philosophical discussions on individuality and agency, and analyse how they are mirrored, depicted, transformed and questioned in contemporary speculative fiction.
María Isabel Marín Morales | Can an AI-enabled system help us understand how cultural narratives are configured, and how do they prime social mobilization? A machine learning model for automatic detection of the regime(s) of conceptual metaphor
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalMaría Isabel Marín Morales | University of Groningen
This project’s primary goal is to develop novel AI-enabled critical techniques to understand how cultural narratives are informed, orientated, and activated in our algorithmic societies and how they prime social mobilization.
Sasha Richman | In Search of Meaning in a World of Images: Photographic Imaginaries in the Works of Willem Frederik Hermans, Wright Morris, and Michel Tournier
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalSasha Richman | University of Groningen, University of Strasbourg
This project proposes a comparative study of photography in the works of Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, American writer and photographer Wright Morris, and French writer Michel Tournier. The intermedial study aims to understand how photography, as a motif, a means, and a practice, informs the writers’ notions of realism and reality.
Gepco de Jong | Kritisch denken: een innovatief concept voor het literatuuronderwijs
/in Current PhD research /by ChantalGepco de Jong | Universiteit Leiden (Tilburg University)
Literatuuronderwijs laat de leerling kennismaken met situaties buiten de eigen leefwereld en is daarmee een belangrijke schakel in de persoonsvorming. Een sterk ontwikkelde kritische denkvaardigheid is een onmisbare factor in dit proces. Kritisch denken is een nuttig instrument in het literatuuronderwijs, maar daarnaast ook een essentiële academische vaardigheid waarvan de ontwikkeling vroegtijdig moet worden ingezet. Dit onderzoek adresseert de implementatie van kritisch denken in het literatuuronderwijs, met als doel het kritisch denkvermogen van de leerlingen te versterken en daarmee de literaire competentie van de leerling te verbeteren.
Tianran Zhang | Fluid Heterotopias: Gendered Bodies and Spaces in Modern British and Chinese Women’s Writing
/in Current PhD research /by Alberto GodioliTianran Zhang | Fluid Heterotopias: Gendered Bodies and Spaces in Modern British and Chinese Women’s Writing | University of Amsterdam | Supervisors: Dr. Ben Moore and Prof. Dr. Carrol Clarkson | 1 September 2021 — 1 September 2025.
This project focuses on gendered bodies and spaces in modern British and Chinese women’s writing and examines how they perform as sites that inspire female consciousness and accommodate alternative modernities. Drawing on Michel Foucault and Elizabeth Grosz’s theories on geography, space and the body, it analyzes how the narratives of interactions between gendered bodies and spaces shift across the 1900s to the 1960s, thereby revealing how female individuals are positioned in the grid of power relations and how they can transform spatial hierarchies and demonstrate alternatives to the dominant narratives of patriarchy, hierarchy, and colonialism.