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Current projects

Scroll down for past projects. 

Research projects

  • Studying the Complex Role of the Environment in Shaping Practices and Experiences of Serious Illness, Caregiving, Dying and Grieving through Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation in Compassionate Communities (COCO_ENV).

    Co-promotor: Elisabeth Bekers. (2024-2029).

  • Afropress-Recovering Global Exchanges from Sub-Saharan Africa's Cultural and Political Magazines in the Age of Black Internationalism, 1918-6.

    Postdoc researcher: Rikus van Eeden. PhD researcher: Tessa van Wijk and Martinely Iata. Supervisor: Cedric Van Dijck. Funded by European Research Council (2025-2029; ERC consolidator grant). 

  • Meritocracy and Literature: Transcultural Approaches to Hegemonic Forms.

    Postdoc reseacher: Maria Pace Aquilina. PhD researchers: Josephine Delali Ofei, Ceydanur Temurok and Maxime Louise Honinx. Supervisor: Eva Ulrike Pirker. Funded by European Research Council (2024-2028; ERC consolidator grant). Link to project: merlit.vub.be

  • Crossing the Border between English and Spanish. (Research group alliance VUB-UGent)

    Supervisors: Diana Castilleja (VUB), Renata Enghels (UGent) & An Vande Casteele (VUB) (2015-2024). 

  • Broadcast Biographies. Innovations in Genre and Medium (1945- 2020).

    PhD researcher: Iana Nikitenko. Supervisors: Inge Arteel & Birgit Van Puymbroeck. Funded by FWO (2022-2025; senior research project fundamental research). 

  • Rebuilding Post-Revolutionary Identities in England, France and Italy: the Reception, Discussion and Stigmatization of Unruliness in Novels through the Periodical Press (1816-31).

    PhD researcher: Chiara Cremona. Supervisors: Andrea Penso & Dirk Vanden Berghe. Funded by FWO (2022-2025; junior research project fundamental research).  

  • Self-Reflexivity and Generic Change in 21st-Century Black British Women’s Literature.

    PhD researcher: Katrijn Van den Bossche. Supervisor: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2021-2024; junior research project fundamental research).   

  • Cahiers Jean Cocteau. 

    Supervisor: David Gullentops. Private funds (2007-2026). 

 

Postdoctoral research

  • Rethinking Emotions, Inequality, and Resistance through Afropean Women's Fiction.

    Researcher: Isabella Villanova. Funded by MSCA & FWO (2025-2028).

  • Pathways to an African Ecocriticism. Environmental Forms and Imagination in Postcolonial Francophone Literature from Sub-Saharan Africa (1990-present).

    Researcher: Sara Buekens. Funded by OZR (2025-2029).

  • Sociological Translation of Violence.

    Researcher: Stéphanie Engola. Funded by MSCA (2024-2026).

  • Identity, Gender and Embodiment in Neo-Avant-Garde Fiction and Art by Women in the United States (1970-1982).

    Researcher: Hannah Van Hove. Funded by FWO (2023-2026). 

 

PhD Research 

  • Far from Innocent: Modernism, Children and the British Empire (1897-1960).

    PhD researcher: Beau Serrus. Supervisors: Birgit Van Puymbroeck & Cedric Van Dijck. Funded by FWO (2025-2029).

  • The Breath Art Project.

    PhD researcher: Maribeth Diggle. Supervisors: Janine Hauthal, Magdalena Górska & Ezequiel Menalled. (2022-2026).

  • Chinese Perspectives of Affective Spaces and Urban Memories in Transitional European Cities.

    PhD researcher: Yu Wang. Supervisor: Guillermo Sanz Gallego & Arvi Sepp. (2022-2026).

  • xxx

    PhD researcher: Zhijie Tang. Supervisors: Philippe Humblé, Arvi Sepp & Hai Xu (GDUFS). (2024-2028).

  • Trauma and Self-Reflexivity on the Contemporary British Stage. 

    PhD researcher: Eszter Vass. Supervisors: Janine Hauthal and Christina Wald (Universität Konstanz). (2024-2028)

  • Ken Liu’s English Translation of Chinese Science Fiction from Sociocultural Perspectives.

    PhD researcher: Dandan Wei. Supervisor: Arvi Sepp. (2020-2024).

  • Ethnic Minority Groups in the Shaping of Fiction Musical Films in Mainland-China.

    PhD researcher: Yuxin Yan. Supervisors: Sabine Hillen & Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans. Funded by China Scholarship Council (2022-2026).

  • Towards Hybridization: Postcolonial and Diasporic Identities in Black Canadian Literature (1997-2020).

    PhD researcher: Yanrong Wang. Supervisor: Janine Hauthal. Funded by China Scholarship Council (2022-2026).

  • Self-Translation and Nostalgia: A Case Study of 'Pai Hsien-Yung’s Taipei People' and 'Ha Jin’s A Good Fall'.

    PhD researcher: Mo Zhu. Supervisors: Guillermo Sanz Gallego & Philippe Humblé. (-2025).

  • Representing Blackness: Metatheater and Genre Remediation in 21st-Century African American Plays.

    PhD researcher: Jade Thomas. Supervisor: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (-2025).

  • Poetik deutschsprachiger Exilnarrative im Kontext der ‘Flüchtlingskrise’.

    PhD researcher: Alice-Lacoue Labarthe. Supervisors: Arvi Sepp & Christine Meyer (Université de Picardie Jules Verne). (-2025).

  • The Rewriting and Narrative Reframing of Yan Fu’s Translation of Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics in Tian Yan Lun.

    PhD researcher: Qi Yuhan. Supervisors: Arvi Sepp & Philippe Humblé. (-2025).  

  • Street Poetry and Socio-Political Engagement in Contemporary Western Europe.

    PhD researcher: Rachele Gusella. Supervisors: Ann Peeters & Andrea Penso. Funded by FWO (-2025).

  • Multidirectional Memory and Trauma: Representing and Remembering Japanese and German Crimes against Humanity During WWII in Literature. 

    PhD researcher: Rui Luo. Supervisor: Arvi Sepp. Funded by China Scholarship Council (2021-2025).

  • Translation Critique and the Reassessment of the Original: A Case Study.

    PhD researcher: Brenda Bressan Thomé. Supervisors: Arvi Sepp & Marie-Hélène Catherine Torres (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina). (-2025).

  • Thomas More’s Utopia in China.

    PhD researcher: Jiao Jiang. Supervisors: Sabine Hillen & Guillermo Sanz Gallego. Funded by China Scholarship Council (2021-2025).

  • Towards a Model for Humour in Nineteenth-Century Poetry - A Conceptual Study and an Analysis of a Growing Subjectivity.

    PhD researcher: Anthony Manu. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. Funded by FWO (-2024).

  • Le haïku et la poésie brève chez les poètes français modernes: enquête sur la mystique dans la littérature.

    PhD researcher: Gert Valentijn. Supervisors: Marcela Scibiorska and Michael Rosenfeld. 

 

Past projects

Research projects 

  • After the Senses: Landscape and Perceptions in Interwar Travel Writing.

    PhD researcher: Florian Deroo. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde, Christophe Verbruggen & Birgit Van Puymbroeck. Funded by FWO (-2025).

  • Freedom to Philosophize and Freedom of Thought and Speech. The Contemporary Reception of Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus. 

    Supervisors: Sonja Lavaert & Karen François. Funded by FWO (2021-2024; senior research project fundamental research). 

  • Redes y Rutas: Mujeres de origen judío y español en el exilio latinoamericano [Networks and Routes: Women in the Jewish and Spanish Exile in Latin America].

    Directed by Diana Castilleja, Helena Houvenaghel (U Utrecht), Carmen Alfonso (U Oviedo).

  • Cost Action project: iCOn-MICs: ‘Investigation on Comics and Graphic Novels from the Iberian Cultural Area’.

    Supervisor: Viviane Alary. Member: Diana Castilleja (2020-2024).

  • Ecrits sur l’art de Jean Cocteau.

    Sabbatical David Gullentops. Funded by OZR (2018-2019).

  • The Literary Radio Play in the Low Countries (1960-2000): Form, Function and Innovation.

    PhD researcher: Siebe Bluijs. Supervisors: Lars Bernaerts (UGent) & Inge Arteel. 2016-2019; funded by FWO.  

  • Daily Life and Crisis in Literary Journals. A Multiperspective Reading of Diaries Written during the Second World War. 

    PhD researcher: Janna Aerts. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde, Arvi Sepp, Gunther Martens (UGent) & Nico Wouters (Cegesoma). Funded by FWO (2015-2019).  

  • Black British Women’s Writing Website.

  • Literature and Media Innovation.

    PI: Johan Callens. Partner: David Gullentops. Inter university consortium with KULeuven, U Liège, UCL, Ohio State U, UQuébec à Montréal. Funded by BELSPO IAP7/01 (2012-2017).

  • Text Theatricality.

    Supervisors: Inge Arteel, Johan Callens, Benjamin Biebuyck (UGent), Katharina Pewny (UGent) & Gunther Martens (UGent). Funded by FWO (2012-2015).

  • Mapping the Black Atlantic of Black British Women’s Writing and Criticism.

    Supervisors: Elisabeth Bekers & Johan Callens. Funded by FWO (2011-2013; Krediet aan Navorsers).      

Postdoctoral research 

  • Paperwork: Modernism and Bureaucracy in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1884-1966.

    Researcher: Cedric Van Dijck. Funded by FWO (2022-2025).

  • Daring to Speak Love’s Name: Collaborative Strategies of Queer Intellectuals in Belgium, France and the Netherlands between 1885 and 1910. 

    Researcher: Michael Rosenfeld. Funded by FWO (2022-2025).

  • Rebuilding Post-Revolutionary Identities in England, France and Italy: The Reception, Discussion and Stigmatization of Unruliness in Novels through the Periodical Press (1816-31).

    Researcher: Andrea Penso. Funded by OZR (2020-2022). 

  • Gestural Constellations. Genre, Narrativity and Performance of Gestures in Post-1945 and Contemporary German-Language Drama and Theatre. 

    Researcher: Mathias Meert. Funded by OZR (2020-2022).

  • Unstable Subjectivities in British Post-War Experimental Women's Writing (USEWW).

    Researcher: Hannah Van Hove. Funded by FWO (2018-2022).

  • Europe in the Anglophone Settler Imagination after 1989.

    Researcher: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2017-2020).

  • Writing Pantomime: Genre Conventions and Developments of Text, Gesturality and Theatricality in German-Language Drama.

    Researcher: Mathias Meert. Funded by FWO (2017-2020).

  • The Reception of the English novel in the Italian Literary Press between 1700 and 1830: A Transcultural Enquiry into the Early Shaping of the Modern Italian Literary and Cultural Identity.

    Researcher: Andrea Penso. Funded by FWO (2017-2020).

  • Britain in Europe: The Emergence of Post-Insular Identities and Transcultural Discourses in Contemporary British Literature.

    Researcher: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2014-2017).

  • The Redefinition of a Diaspora-Based National Identity on the Basis of the Novels from the Italian Community in Congo (1885-1960).

    Researcher: Daniele Comberiati. Funded by OZR (2013-2014).

  • Case Studies on Specific Mediaturgies.

    Researcher: Christophe Collard. Funded by BELSPO IAP7/01 (2012-2017). 

PhD Research 

  • Protocol, Database, Interface: Text as Data in Postdramatic Mediaturgies. 

    PhD researcher: Claire Swyzen. Supervisors: Janine Hauthal & Bertrand Gervais. Funding: BELSPO IAP7/01 (-2025).

  • Claus Kijkt: Creatieve Kunstkritiek van een Dichter (1947-1965).

    PhD researcher: Stefan Clappaert. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. Funded by BAAP (-2024).

  • The Literary Cartography of Tehran: A Geocritical Analysis of Urban Narratives in Azar Nafisi's Prose.

    PhD researcher: Zhaleh Hosseini. Supervisors: Philippe Humblé & Arvi Sepp. (-2024).

  • xxx

    PhD researcher: He Li. Supervisors: Diana Castilleja & Jian Shi (Sichuan University). (-2024).

  • Sustainable yet Forgotten. Rediscovering the Contribution of the Belgian Art Networks to the Second Wave of Environmentalism.

    PhD researcher: Senne Schraeyen. Supervisors: Inge Arteel & Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans. Funded by FWO (-2024).

  • Narrativity of Philip Glass's Minimalist Music in Operas Based on Literary Works.

    PhD researcher: Carolien Van Nerom. Supervisors: Ann Peeters & Bart Bouckaert (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel). Funded by FWO (-2024).

  • The Transformation of the Field of Journalism: A Sociological Analysis of the Interrelatedness of Macro-societal Developments, the Socialization of Journalistic Doxa, and the Interpretation of Journalistic Nomos.

    PhD researcher: Nils Wandels. Supervisors: Jelle Mast & Hilde van den Bulck (UAntwerpen). (-2024).

  • Gender Representation in the Multimodal Translation of Children’s Folktales: The Translations of the Four Classic Folktales of China.

    PhD researcher: Jingyi Zhan. Supervisor: Arvi Sepp. (-2024).

  • Les plis et postures de Tahar Ben Jelloun: Agencements et pouvoir.

    PhD researcher: Ihab Abumallouh. Supervisors: Philippe Humblé & Arvi Sepp. (-2023).

  • 'Une poésie cinématographique'. Étude génétique et intermédiale des scénarios et dialogues de Jean Cocteau. 

    PhD researcher: Fanny Van Exaerde. Supervisor: David Gullentops. Joint PhD Université de Lille (-2023).

  • Images of Modern-Day China in Chinese-European Literature since the Second World War.

    PhD researcher: Zhuyun Song. Supervisors: Elisabeth Bekers & Janine Hauthal (-2022).

  • The Politics of Pleasure: Danmei and the Quiet Gender Revolution of Chinese Women.

    PhD researcher: Wei Yang. Supervisor: Inge Arteel. (-2022).

  • Überall Einengung des jüdischen Lebensraums: Städtische Erfahrung in deutsch-jüdischen Selbstzeugnissen aus Breslau im 'Dritten Reich'. 

    PhD researcher: Annelies Augustyns. Supervisor: Arvi Sepp & Vivian Liska (UAntwerpen). Funded by FWO (-2021).

  • Staging Siege: Imagineering Violence in the Dutch Theatre, 1645-1686.

    PhD researcher: Yannice De Bruyn. Supervisors: Karel Vanhaesebrouck, Klaas Tindemans & Kornee Van Der Haven (UGent). (-2021).

  • xxx

    PhD researcher: Wang Feng. Supervisors: Phillipe Humblé and Arvi Sepp. (-2021).

  • Belgische Literaturen in deutscher Übersetzung: Mehrsprachigkeit und Kulturtransfer (1945 bis zur Gegenwart).

    PhD researcher: Anja Van de Pol-Tegge. Supervisors: Arvi Sepp & Vera Elisabeth Gerling (Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf). (-2021).

  • Analyse van de Narratologische Categorieën ter Ondersteuning van de Vertaling: Het Geval van 'Une si longue lettre', door Mariama Bâ.

    PhD researcher: Alexandra Almeida de Oliveira. Supervisor: Arvi Sepp. (-2020).

  • Les mélodies de Joseph Jongen: étude stylistique et interprétation.

    PhD researcher: Sarah Defrise. Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-2020).

  • A apreciação de uma mulher: uma tradução comentada de Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman, de Elizabeth Porter Gould.

    PhD researcher: Daniela Schwarcke do Canto. Supervisors: Philippe Humblé & Arvi Sepp. (-2020).

  • Jacques Brel et Serge Gainsbourg: Étude intermediale de l’oeuvre de deux auteurs-compositeurs-interprètes devenus réalisateurs.

    PhD researcher: Catherine Thomas. Supervisor: David Gullentops. Joint PhD Université de Valenciennes (-2020).

  • An Ecocritical Study of Kenneth Rexroth’s Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry.

    Phd researcher: Meiou Zhao. Supervisors: Philippe Humblé, Arvi Sepp & Jiyong Geng, Jiyong. (-2020).

  • L'évolution de l’émanicpation de la femme en droit belge, quels liens et quelles interactions avec l’image de la femme dans les oeuvres romanesques de Neel Doff, Marie Gevers, Suzanne Lilar, Lilane Wouters et Eliza Brune?

    PhD researhcer: Kathleen Caenen. Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-2019).

  • What's So Funny? Absurdist Humour in Absurdist Fiction from a Cognitive Perspective.

    PhD researcher: Olivier Couder. Supervisors: Inge Arteel & Lars Bernaerts (UGent). Funded by FWO (-2019).

  • DANCE FIRST. THINK AFTERWARDS. THINK AGAIN: Samuel Beckett and the Strange Loop.

    PhD researcher: Thomas Thoelen. Supervisors: Christophe Collard & Douglas Atkinson. Funded by FWO (-2019).

  • Kunst als Ding en Voorstelling: Kunstwerken in het Oeuvre van Huub Beurskens en Stefan Hertmans.

    PhD researcher: Alyssa Verhees. Funded by BAAP (-2019).

  • Unlocking the Secrets of Accelerating Times: On Paul Virilio’s Dromology Theory.

    PhD researcher: Zheng Xing. Supervisor: Christophe Collard. (-2019).

  • Prompt! van Papier tot Podium: Een Theaterwetenschappelijke Analyse van het Postdramatische Regieboek.

    PhD researcher: Edith Cassiers. Supervisors: Johan Callens & Luc Van Den Dries (UAntwerpen). (-2018).

  • Surrealism and the 'Arbitrariness' of Metaphor. A Cognitive Approach to the Poetry of Two Experimental Generations of Flemish Poets.

    PhD researcher: Elke Depreter. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. Funded by FWO (-2018).

  • Tegen het Verzinnen: Documentair Proza in de Nederlandstalige Literatuur van de Lange Jaren Zestig.

    PhD researcher: Lieselot De Taeye. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde & Gunther Martens (UGent). Funded by FWO (-2018).

  • 'Chanson de fou'. Een Tranversale Compositie.

    PhD researcher: Jan Van Landeghem. Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-2018).

  • 'Land ohne Grenzen': Heimatbilder und Erinnerungskultur im Werk von Hannes Anderer, Freddy Derwahl und Leo Wintgens.

    PhD researcher: Lesley Penné. (-2018).

  • Diachrone Vergelijkende Studie van Zelfvertalingen van Chinese Literatuur (continent vs. diaspora). 

    PhD researcher: Luo Jin (Sichuan U). Supervisor: Elisabeth Bekers. Funded by VUB China Scholarship Council PhD Exchange Fellowship (2016-2017).

  • An Intertextual Analysis of Richard Beer-Hofmann's 'Klassiker'-reception. 

    PhD researcher: Mathias Meert. Supervisor: Inge Arteel. Funded by FWO (-2016).

  • Language, Death and the Demonic in Maurice Blanchot's désœuvrement of Heidegger's Hermeneutic Phenomenology.

    PhD researcher: Douglas Atkinson. Supervisor: Daniel Acke. (-2015).

  • El ensayo como modalidad discursiva en las obras de Ricardo Piglia y de Rodrigo Fresán.

    PhD researcher: Nathalie Losseau. Supervisor: Diana Castilleja & Geneviève Fabry (UCLouvain). Funded by FNRS (-2015).

  • Tennessee Williams's Metatheatre.

    PhD researcher: Laura Michiels. Supervisor: Johan Callens. Funded by FWO (-2015).

  • Naar een Ethiek van de Literaire Vertaling. 

    PhD researcher: Gys-Walt Van Egdom. Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-2015).

  • De Ijdele Façade. Over de Ironische Zelfvergroting van Harry Mulisch. 

    PhD researcher: Adrianus (Marc) van Zoggel. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. (-2015).

  • The Spatial Expressions Containing French 'travers' and Italian 'traverse'. A Functional Semantic Description from a Diachronic Perspective. 

    PhD researcher: Thomas Hoelbeek. Supervisor: Dirk Vanden Berghe & Annick Englebert (ULB). Funded by OZR-VUB (-2013).

  • ‘De ornamentenversierde cither heraangeraakt’: De Metapoëzie van Jacques Hamelink.

    PhD researcher: Anneleen De Coux. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde & Bart Vervaeck (UGent). (-2012).

  • ‘Alles heeft een rand’: Intermediale Verwijzingen naar Beeldende Kunst in het Werk van Peter Verhelst (1987-2005).

    PhD researcher: Kim Gorus. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde & Bart Vervaeck (UGent). (-2011).

  • Variazioni su un tema: le riscritture per musica dei 'Promessi sposi'. 

    PhD researcher: Ann Peeters. Supervisors: Dirk Vanden Berghe & Piero Floriani (U Pisa). Funded by FWO (-2010).

  • xxx

    PhD researcher: Noël Reumkens
     

  • De Figuur in het Tapijt. Op Zoek naar Zes Auteurs. 

    PhD researcher: Daniël Rovers. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde & Bart Vervaeck (UGent). (-2008).

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