I am an Associate Professor of English Literature. My research focuses on early modern literature and culture, the history of emotions, ecocriticism and the environmental humanities. My teaching ranges from Shakespeare to Winterson, from first-year BA to PhD level.
I am a member of De Jonge Akademie (KNAW), The Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
I co-founded the Environmental Humanities Center at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. We aim to foster an exchange between a wide range of disciplines on the environment. We believe the environmental issues of the Anthropocene are complex, and therefore need an approach that accommodates and works with all kinds of different perspectives on this complexity -- from the humanities as well as the natural and social sciences.
I am also one of the directors of the Amsterdam Centre for Cross-Disciplinary Emotions and Sensory Studies. Founded by cultural historians who analyze the cultural history of emotions, this center seeks to engage in cross-disciplinary explorations of the role of culture in the arousal, experience, and expression of emotions.
