Jelmar Hugen is a postdoctoral researcher investigating the multilingual networks of lyrics in the Southern Low Countries (1400-1550). His project is part of the FWO-SBO project 'New Perspectives on Medieval and Renaissance Courtly Song' (File: S005525N). His research interests include literary multilingualism, Arthurian fiction, European romance traditions and fan fiction theory. He has published on all of these topics, which he analyses through different methodological lenses, such as literary history, material philology, sociolinguistics and translation studies.

More information about Jelmar Hugen

Fields of interest

I am intrigued by how medieval romance literature functioned as a cultural product in a world without national literatures or languages marked by the circulation of texts, manuscripts and ideas across Europe. My research activities surrounding these aspects are characterized by interdisciplinary, transnational approaches in which literary history coincides with the study of multilingual cultures, manuscript studies and modern literary theories.

Research

My current research project investigates the multilingual context of the lyrical tradition in the Southern Low Countries (1400-1550) by charting the different nodes and actors in the  international networks that facilitates the production, reception and transformation of songs. It incorporates textual traditions in both manuscript and early print as well as surviving book lists and historical documentation of writers, readers, printers, patrons and owners.

Grants and awards

In 2013, as a bachelor student at Leiden University, I was awarded an Erasmus Exchange Grant to support my stay at the University of Cambridge (Clare College) between September 2013 and June 2014. In Cambridge, I attended courses on medieval Dutch and Middle English literature and wrote my bachelor thesis on the Eneasroman, the earliest surviving Dutch romance, and its source text, the Old French Roman d'Eneas.

On May 27th 2015, during my Research Master at Utrecht University, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend Harvard University between September 2015 and February 2016 to develop as a researcher of medieval literature, by following courses on Middle High German, Middle English, Old French and Literary Theory, and to study the literary continuation practices in the medieval Dutch Roman van Walewein under the supervision of Emerita Prof Matilda Bruckner (Boston College, Medieval French Literature), an expert of medieval continuation works, in particular the Old French Perceval Continuations. The findings of this research were presented in my master thesis, which was nominated for the Humanities Faculty Thesis Award at Utrecht University in 2017. 

Curriculum Vitae

2025-2029: Postdoctoral research appointment (Leiden University, LUCAS)
2024-2025: Lecturer (Utrecht University, Dutch Department (TLC))
2023-2024: Lecturer (Leiden University, Dutch Department (LUCAS))
2022-2023: Lecturer (Utrecht University, Dutch Department (TLC))
2018-2022: PhD research appointment (Utrecht University, UUCMS)
2017-2018: Lecturer (University College Utrecht, Literature & Classics)
2016-2018: Lecturer (Utrecht University, Dutch Department (TLC))
2014-2016: Research Master Ancient, Medieval & Renaissance Studies (Utrecht University)
2011-2014: Bachelor Dutch Language & Culture (Leiden University)