PROJECTS

Research projects

Meritocracy and Literature: Transcultural Approaches to Hegemonic Forms. Supervisor: Eva Ulrike Pirker. Postdoc reseacher: Maria Pace Aquilina. PhD researchers: Josephine Delali Ofei, Ceydanur Temurok and Maxime Louise Honinx. Funded by European Research Council (2024-2028; ERC consolidator grant). Link to project: merlit.vub.be
Broadcast Biographies. Innovations in Genre and Medium (1945- 2020). Supervisors: Inge Arteel & Birgit Van Puymbroeck. PhD researcher: Iana Nikitenko. 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). 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. Supervisor: Janine Hauthal. PhD researcher: Katrijn Van den Bossche. Funded by FWO (2021-2024; junior research project fundamental research).
The Road to Alexandria. The Sensation of Landscapes in European Travel Writing, 1919-1939. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. PhD researcher: Florian Deroo. Funded by FWO (2021-2024; senior research project fundamental research).
Freedom to Philosophize and Freedom of Thought and Speech. The Contemporary Reception of Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus. Supervisor: Sonja Lavaert. 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).
Crossing the border between English and Spanish (Research group alliance VUB-UGent). Supervisors: Diana Castilleja, Renata Enghels (UGent) & An Vande Casteele (VUB) (2015-2024)
Cahiers Jean Cocteau. Supervisor: David Gullentops. Private funds (2007-2026).

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).

PhD Research

Ethnic Minority Groups in the Shaping of Fiction Musical Films in Mainland-China. PhD researcher: Yuxin Yan. Supervisor: Sabine Hillen. Co-supervisor: 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).
Representing Blackness: Metatheater and Genre Remediation in 21st-Century African American Plays. PhD researcher: Jade Thomas. Supervisor: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2021-2025).
Street Poetry and Socio-Political Engagement in Contemporary Western Europe. PhD researcher: Rachele Gusella. Supervisors: Ann Peeters & Andrea Penso. Funded by FWO (2021-2025).
Thomas More’s Utopia in China. PhD researcher: Jiao Jiang. Supervisor: Sabine Hillen; co-supervisor: Guillermo Sanz Gallego. Funded by China Scholarship Council (2021-2025).
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 (2020-2024).
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 (2020-2024).
L’évolution de l’émancipation juridique de la femme en droit belge, quels liens et quelles interactions avec l’image de la femme et l’être femme au sein de l’œuvre romanesque de Neel Doff, Marie Gevers, Suzanne Lilar, Liliane Wouters et Elisa Brune? PhD researcher: Kathleen Caenen. Supervisor: David Gullentops.
Le haïku et la poésie brève chez les poètes français modernes: enquête sur la mystique dans la littérature. PhD researcher: Gert Valentijn. Supervisor: David Gullentops
Mapping transnational Selves across Borders: Autocartographies by Latin American Women Authors (1990-2020). PhD researcher: Laura Bak. Supervisors: Helena Houvenaghel (U. Utrecht) & Diana Castilleja (VUB).
Protocol, Database, Interface: Text as Data in Postdramatic Mediaturgies. PhD researcher: Claire Swyzen. Supervisors: Janine Hauthal and Johan Callens. Funding: BELSPO IAP7/01.

PAST PROJECTS

Research projects

Unstable Subjectivities in British Post-War Experimental Women's Writing: Harry Ransom Center Research Stay. Supervisor: Hannah Van Hove. Funded by FWO (Kredieten aan Navorsers, 2020).
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. 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).
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).
Black British Women’s Writing Website
Text theatricality. Supervisors: Inge Arteel, Johan Callens, Benjamin Biebuyck (UGent), Katharina Pewny (UGent) & Gunther Martens (UGent). Funded by FWO (2012-2015).
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).
Crossing the border between English and Spanish (CROS). Research Group VUB–UGent: ALO OZR2840. Promotors: Diana Castilleja (VUB) and Renata Enghels (UGent). (2015-2021)

Postdoctoral research

Unstable Subjectivities in British Post-War Experimental Women's Writing (USEWW). Researcher: Hannah Van Hove. Funded by FWO (2018-2022).
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).
Europe in the Anglophone Settler Imagination after 1989. Postdoctoral researcher: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2017-2020; senior postdoctoral fellowship).
Writing Pantomime: Genre Conventions and Developments of Text, Gesturality and Theatricality in German-Language Drama. Postdoctoral 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. Postdoctoral researcher: Andrea Penso. Funded by FWO (2017-2020).
Britain in Europe: The Emergence of Post-Insular Identities and Transcultural Discourses in Contemporary British Literature. Postdoctoral researcher: Janine Hauthal. Funded by FWO (2014-2017; junior postdoctoral fellowship).
The redefinition of a diaspora-based national identity on the basis of the novels from the Italian community in Congo (1885-1960). Postdoctoral researcher: Daniele Comberiati. Funded by OZR (2013-2014).
Case Studies on Specific Mediaturgies. Postdoctoral researcher: Christophe Collard. Funded by BELSPO IAP7/01 (2012-2017).

PhD Research

Lyrische kunstkritiek: Vlaamse dichters over schilderkunst (1890-1980). PhD researcher: Stefan Clappaert. BAAP (2019-2024).
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 (2018-2023).
Spectral Inversions of Beckett. PhD researcher: Douglas Atkinson. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde.
Une poésie de cinéma. Etude historique, génétique et intermédiales des scénarios et dialogues de Jean Cocteau. PhD researcher: Fanny Van Exaerde. Supervisor: David Gullentops. Joint PhD Université de Lille (2017-2022).
Constructing Images of Modern and Contemporary China in Chinese-European Literature Since the Second World War. PhD researcher: Zhuyun Song. Supervisors: Elisabeth Bekers & Janine Hauthal (2017-2022).
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 (UA). Funded by FWO (2020-2024).
Étude intermédiale de l'œuvre de deux auteurs-compositeurs-interprètes de la chanson française devenus réalisateurs. Jacques Brel et Serge Gainsbourg. PhD researcher: Catherine Thomas. Supervisor: David Gullentops. Joint PhD Université de Valenciennes (2016-2020).
Les mélodies de Joseph Jongen: étude stylistique et interprétation. PhD researcher: Sarah Defrise . Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-2020)
Diachrone vergelijkende studie van zelfvertalingen van Chinese literatuur (continent vs. diaspora). PhD researcher: Luo Jin (Sichuan U): Supervisor: Elisabeth Bekers. VUB China Scholarship Council PhD Exchange Fellowship (2016-2017).
DANCE FIRST. THINK AFTERWARDS. THINK AGAIN: Samuel Beckett and the Strange Loop. PhD researcher: Thomas Thoelen. Supervisors: Christophe Collard & Douglas Atkinson. Funded by FWO (2015-2019).
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 (2014-2018).
Dutch Experimental Realism of the 1960s - Reading Documentary Literature through Autobiographical Genres. PhD researcher: Lieselot De Taeye. Supervisor: Hans Vandevoorde. Funded by FWO (2013-2018).
Chanson de fou. Een tranversale compositie. PhD researcher: Jan Van Landeghem. Supervisor: David Gullentops. (-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 (2013-2017).
An intertextual analysis of Richard Beer-Hofmann's "Klassiker"-reception. PhD researcher: Mathias Meert. Supervisor: Inge Arteel. Funded by FWO (2012-2016).
Kunst als ding en voorstelling: Kunstwerken in het oeuvre Huub Beurskens en Stefan Hertmans. PhD researcher: Alyssa Verhees. BAAP (-2015).
El ensayo como modalidad discursiva en las obras de Ricardo Piglia y de Rodrigo Fresán. PhD researcher: Nathalie Losseau. Supervisor: Geneviève Fabry & Diana Castilleja. Funded by FNRS (-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).
‘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).
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. Supervisor Université Libre de Bruxelles: Annick Englebert. Funded by OZR-VUB (2009-2013).
De figuur in het tapijt. Op zoek naar zes auteurs. PhD researcher: Daniël Rovers. Supervisors: Hans Vandevoorde & Bart Vervaeck (UGent). (-2008).
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 (2006-2010).