Liesbeth Minnaard is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

More information about Liesbeth Minnaard

Research

Since September 2007 I have been working as an assistant professor (UD) at the Film and Literary Studies department of Leiden University. Aside teaching a broad variety of “general” courses in the field of comparative literature and literary theory, I am particularly committed to the Interculturality track within the Literary Studies curriculum.

My main fields of expertise are interculturality in literature, postcolonial theory, and issues of gender and sexuality. My research particularly focuses on cultural effects of migration and globalisation, exoticism in literature, representations of “the national”, and intersectionality.

Education

In 1998 I obtained a MA degree in cultural studies (specialisations Modern Western Literature and Gender Studies) from Utrecht University. Between 1998 and 2002 I worked for several NGO’s (Project Aisa, TransAct, Vrouwenalliantie) that were engaged in drawing the attention to intersections of gender and ethnicity in the socio-political field. 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.

In 2002 I received two research grants from the DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst) and the Catharine van Tussenbroek Fund that enabled me to start my PhD research on imaginations of national identity in German and Dutch literature of migration in Berlin and at the Viadrina University in Frankfurt/Oder. From 2003 to 2006 I received a DFG-scholarship for participation in the interdisciplinary, DFG-funded graduate school “Identity and Difference. Gender and Interculturality from the 18th to the 21st century” at Trier University. From 2003 to 2006 I participated in Mieke Bal’s “Theory Seminar” at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis. In 2006 I received a grant to participate in the Spring Term Graduate Programme of Cornell University (upon invitation by Leslie A. Adelson). In 2007 I obtained my PhD degree in from Trier University. My dissertation was published with Amsterdam University Press in 2008.

Key publications

I have published widely on Dutch and German literature of migration, as well as on exoticism in literature. I am the author of the monograph New Germans, New Dutch. Literary Interventions (Amsterdam University Press, 2008) and co-editor of the volumes Ethnizität und Geschlecht. (Post-)Koloniale Verhandlungen in Geschichte, Kunst und Medien (Böhlau, 2005), Literature, Language and Multiculturality in Scandinavia and the Low Countries (with Wolfgang Behschnitt and Sarah De Mul, Rodopi 2013), Beyond the Myth of Monolingualism and Nach der einen Sprache: literarische Mehrsprachigkeit? (both with Till Dembeck, KultuRRevolution, 2013 and Rodopi 2014). Most recently I published De lichtheid van literatuur. Engagement in de multiculturele samenleving, together with Maria Boletsi, Sarah De Mul, and Isabel Hoving (Acco, 2015).

International activities

- Partner in the CORE-project ‘The Construction of Identity in Multilingual Literature: A Comparison of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands’ funded by the FNR Luxembourg. Other partners are Luxembourg University (project leader, Prof. Dr. Georg Mein and Dr. Till Dembeck), Leuven University (Dr. Anke Gilleir) and University Duisburg-Essen (Prof. Dr. Rolf Parr and Dr. Thomas Ernst).
- Co-organizer of the bi-annual Flemish-Dutch Platform for Postcolonial Readings (Leiden University /Antwerp University): https://hum.leiden.edu/lucas/pocoplatform.
- Member in the German Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies (Trier University)
- Member of the transnational network (Post-) Colonialism Across Europe (chair: Prof. Dr. Dirk Göttsche, Nottingham University).

Teaching activities

Over the last years I have been teaching a broad variety of courses on all levels, ranging from
- BA1 courses like Representatie: Cultuur en Betekenis and Inleiding Comparative Studies,
- BA2 courses like Inleiding Interculturele Literatuurbenaderingen and Symbolisme, Historische Avant-garde en Modernisme,
- BA3 courses like Globalisering en postkoloniale literatuurtheorie and Postmodernisme,
- Minor courses Gender en Seksualiteit
- MA courses like Marvellous Worlds: The Literary Fantastic and Literary Theory: Barthes, Bakhtin, Foucault to
- ResMA courses like Approaches to Literature and Interculturality: The Key Concepts.

At the German Department of Trier University I taught courses on
- literature of migration ( “Ausländer
– Türken – Kanaken?” Kulturelle Identität in der Literatur von Deutschen türkischer Herkunft, WS 04/05),
- the imagination of Berlin in 20th century German literature ( Berlinin der Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts, SoSe 06), and
- non-canonical German literature ( Literatur vom Rande der Gesellschaft (nach 1945), WS 06/07).

Curriculum Vitae

2007 – present
Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at Leiden University

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 Scholarships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Trier University Research Council

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

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

Publications

Activities