Fields of interest

- Globalisation and migration in/of literature
- Interculturality and Transnationalism
- Comparison
- Gender studies
- Postcolonial Theory
- Queer Theory
- German and Dutch Studies, German and Dutch Relations
- Modernity

Research

In September 2007 I started working at the Literary Studies department at Leiden University which meant returning to the Netherlands after a five years leave. In 2002 I left “my” university town of Utrecht in order to prepare my PhD research on German and Dutch literature of migration in Berlin. After a year, I moved on to Trier to join in the DFG research group “Identität und Differenz. Geschlechterkonstruktion und Interkulturalität vom 18. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart“ as a PhD candidate. In this productive interdisciplinary academic environment, I worked on the research New Germans, New Dutch. Imaginations of German and Dutch National Identity in Literature of Turkish and Moroccan Migration (supervisors Herbert Uerlings and Ernst van Alphen), which I finished early in 2007. My participation in the ASCA theory seminar at the University of Amsterdam and my 2006 research stint to work with Leslie Adelson, an expert on literature of migration, at Cornell University (Ithaca , NY) provided valuable occasions to discuss my research ideas with scholars from various disciplines and backgrounds. 
The central issue of interest in my PhD research concerned the effects of migration and globalisation on the conceptualisation of the national. My dissertation focuses on the cultural effects of one particular instance of globalisation: organised labour migration from Morocco to the Netherlands and from Turkey to Germany in the sixties. By combining an interrogation of the strikingly parallel debates on the “deutsche Leitkultur” and the Dutch “multicultural drama” in 2000 with close analyses of several literary works of (labour) migration, the study brings the particular dynamics between both to the fore. It shows how this literature opens up a reflective space for negotiations of national boundaries and scrutinises if and how this literature sets out to imagine new and alternative forms of (national) belonging. The dissertation will be published at Amsterdam University Press in 2008. 

An interest in the dynamic relation between the literary and its socio-political, ideological and cultural context is a key theme running through my work. In 1998 I finished my study of Algemene Letteren (specialisations: modern western literature and gender studies) at Utrecht University with an MA thesis on representations of the family in Irish postcolonial literature. During and after my study, I worked for various NGOs that were engaged in drawing the attention to intersections of gender and ethnicity in the socio-political field (Project Aisa, TransAct, Vrouwenalliantie). From 2000 to 2002 I carried out the project “Kleur in het curriculum” for the Centre of Expertise GEM (Gender, Ethnicity, Multiculturality) at Utrecht University. Together with my colleagues in the research group in Trier, I published the volume Ethnizität und Geschlecht.(Post-)Koloniale Verhandlungen in Geschichte, Kunst und Medien (2005). At the moment I am involved in the Belgian-Dutch Platform for Postcolonial Readings (Leiden/Antwerp) and in the German Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies (Trier).

Curriculum Vitae

2004 – 2007
Occasional Lecturer at the German Department of Trier University.

2003 – 2007
PhD project within the DFG-funded Graduate School “Identity and Difference. Gender Constructions and Interculturality (18th – 21st century)” at Trier University. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Herbert Uerlings and Prof. Dr. Ernst van Alphen

2006
Research and participation in the Graduate Programme of the German Studies Department of Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Leslie Adelson

2003 – 2006
Participation as affiliated PhD-student in the “Theory Seminar” at ASCA, Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Mieke Bal 

2002/2003
Preparatory research for PhD-project in Berlin. Participation as affiliated PhD-student in the DFG Graduate School “Rhetorik – Repräsentation – Wissen” at the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Institut für Literatur und Politik at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder.

Scholarships from the Doctor Catharine van Tussenbroek Fund and the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD)

2000 – 2002
Project manager ‘Colour in the Curriculum’ at the Centre of Expertise GEM (Gender, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism), Utrecht University. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Gloria Wekker

2001
NOISE European Summer School in Women’s Studies from Multicultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives at Complutense University Madrid. Theme: ‘Diasporic Identities and Medi@ted Cultures: Gender, Power, Representations’

1992 – 1998 (leave 1997)
M.A. in “Algemene Letteren” (Culture studies) at Utrecht University. Specializations: Gender Studies and Modern Western Literature. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Buikema and Dr. Aleid Fokkema

1995/1996
Erasmus International Exchange: Participation in the M.A. Programme Women’s Studies at WERRC (Women’s Education, Resource and Research Centre), University College Dublin, Ireland

1986 – 1992
Secondary School, Pre-University, Goes

Teaching activities

I am currently teaching:
- Inleiding Interculturele Literatuurbenaderingen
- Basisbegrippen Culturele Vakken
- Historische Avant-garde en Modernisme
- Postmodernisme
- Gender en Seksualiteit
- Marvellous Worlds: The Literary Fantastic
- Literary Theory: Barthes, Bakhtin, Foucault
In the past I also taught Literatuurbenaderingen and Approaches to Literature. Every semester I contribute to the courses Wereldliteratuur and (Post-)koloniale Literaturen.
At Trier University I taught courses on literature of migration, Berlin in 20th century German literature and literature from/on the margins of society.

Publications

‘De succesvolle wisselwerking tussen parodie en performance. Voorstellingen van Moreaanse mannelijkheid in Hafid Bouazza’s Paravion.’ In: Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies, 2006, 3 (September), pp. 49-62. [Special issue on ‘Verbeelding van mannelijkheid’]

‘Mein Istanbul, mein Berlin. Emine Sevgi Özdamar's literary re-negotiations of Turkish-German division.’ In: Alexandra Karentzos and Regina Göckede (eds.), Der Orient, die Fremde. Positionen zeitgenössischer Kunst und Literatur. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2006, pp. 83-100.  

‘Hafid Bouazzas fliegender Teppich. Die Imagination eines niederländischen Arkadiens.’ In: Graduiertenkolleg „Identität und Differenz“ (ed.), Ethnizität und Geschlecht. (Post-)Koloniale Verhandlungen in Geschichte, Kunst und Medien. Cologne; Weimar ; Vienna : Böhlau, 2005, pp. 263-80.  

‘Playing Kanak Identity: Feridun Zaimoglu's rebellious Performances.’ In: Herbert Arlt (ed.), Das Verbindende der Kulturen. TRANS Studien zur Veränderung der Welt. (Book, CD and DVD). Vienna : INST, 2004.

‘Playing Kanak Identity: Feridun Zaimoglu's rebellious Performances.’ In: TRANS Internet Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften, 2004, 15 (May). (www: http://www.inst.at/trans/15Nr/05_05/minnaard15.htm)

‘Free Mobility and the Promise of one European Labour Market.’ In: The European Journal of Women’s Studies, 2002, 4 (November), pp. 490-492.  

‘Foto’s, vaandels en feestrokken; Schatten uit het beeldarchief.’ In: Lover - Tijdschrift over feminisme, cultuur en wetenschap, 2001, 3 (September), pp. 52-53.  

‘Kennisachterstand; Interculturalisatie aan de universiteit.’ In: Pandora, 2 (June), 2001, pp. 20-21.  

‘Tussen afhankelijkheid en autonomie; Het Korean Women’s Development Institute te Seoul.’ In: Lover - Tijdschrift over feminisme, cultuur en wetenschap, 2000, 1 (March), pp. 21-22.  

‘Anne MacClintocks Imperial Leather. Race, gender and sexuality in the colonial contest’. In: Lover - Tijdschrift over feminisme, cultuur en wetenschap, 1998, 3 (September), p. 41.  

Koorddanseressen en trapezewerksters; een onderzoek naar de profilering van intermediaire zmv-vrouwen in theorie en praktijk. Utrecht: Project Aisa, 1997.