Summer Bulletin
2023
Pas op voor de hitte!
Denk aan juffrouw Scholten,
die is vandaag gesmolten,
helemaal gesmolten, op de Dam.
Dat kwam door de hitte,
daar is ze in gaan zitten
- als je soms wil weten hoe het kwam...
Dear Members of the ALCS,
Another academic year has come to an end and a new one is around the corner. But before we open the doors of our offices again, we want to look back on the past year in Dutch Studies, celebrate success, and look forward to some things to come.
On behalf of the ALCS Executive Committee we want to thank you for your continued support of our Association.
Christine Sas (Chair) & Filip De Ceuster (Director)
Association for Low Countries Studies in the UK and Ireland
CELEBRATING SUCCESS: ALCS PRIZES
Winner of the ALCS Undergraduate Dissertation Prize: Daniel Corcoran (University of Sheffield)
Daniel Corcoran was awarded the ALCS Undergraduate Dissertation Prize 2023. In "They grow up with teargas, rifles and tanks, yet they know no fear": Children, Youth, and Resistance in the Anti-Apartheidsbeweging Nederland, 1884-1987, Daniel examines how the Anti-apartheidsbeweging Nederland reported on and engaged with young people’s political resistance in the wake of the violent action taken by young black South African protesters during the mid1980s, and how these interactions reflected the organisation’s beliefs about the role of young people in resistance.
Winner of the ALCS Undergraduate Essay Prize: Nitya Raghava (University College London)
The ALCS Essay Prize 2023 was awarded to Nitya Raghava. In her Critical analysis of Michele Hutchinson's translation of 'De avond is ongemak' she looks into the English edition of Marieke Lucas Rijneveld's debut novel, which centres around the story of a family rocked by the tragic death of their eldest son, set in the cultural context of the Dutch 'platteland'. In this essay Raghava focuses on the paratexual elements of the original and the translated version, identifying shifts in the language and tone, in order to shed light on the underlying translation strategy.
LOOKING FORWARD...
Dutch at the University of Edinburgh!
The ALCS is pleased to announce that from this academic year onwards, the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh offers a Dutch language module. Open to all second year undergraduates, 'Dutch for Beginners' marks the return of Dutch to Edinburgh after a gap of almost 30 years.
It is thanks to the support of the Nederlandse Taalunie and sustained efforts of ALCS Treasurer Dr Jenny Watson, who will also teach the course, and the support of the Nederlandse Taalunie that Dutch finally makes its reappearance on a Scottish University curriculum!
Watson did a BA in German with Dutch at the University of Sheffield and holds a PhD from the University of Swansea. Her current research focuses on post-war fiction and colonial memory. In addition to her academic activities, Watson is also a Dutch-English translator. Her translated excerpt of Pork Ribs by Amarylis de Gryse appeared in Asymptote 2021.
The ALCS community congratulates Jenny Watson and the University of Edinburgh on this achievement.
Paulien Cornelisse:
Sheffield Artist in Residence
Writer, broadcaster and allround theater person Paulien Cornelisse will spend the coming academic year in the UK, at the University of Sheffield. Together with Sheffield and UCL students she will develop Hèhè – Beter vertellen in het Nederlands, a short course in informal spoken Dutch, a project sponsored by the Taalunie. In addition, she is interested in meeting alumni from our UK universities for a new publication (sponsored by the Dutch Embassy) as part of the 75 Years of Dutch at Sheffield festivities. So here is a message for our UK alumni: please get in touch with the ALCS if you are interested in taking part.
75 Years of Dutch at University of Sheffield
2023-2024 will be a festive one! We celebrate 75 years of Dutch Studies at the University of Sheffield. In addition to the yearlong visit of Paulien Cornelisse, there will be a suite of events throughout the academic year to mark the occasion, such as an exhibition in Black History Month, events around new publications in English in collaboration with Flip Through Flanders, The ALCS Summer School, the ALCS Biennial Conference, and a festive day for students, alumni and colleagues in May 2024. More details to follow soon!
Flip Through Flanders: Flanders' finest writers and their books are crossing the Channel!
Flip through Flanders is an initiative that promotes Dutch-language literature from Flanders across the UK and Ireland. Catch authors and translators at live events and workshops as they shine a spotlight on the literary landscape of northern Belgium. From picture books to theatre, from poetry and novels to non-fiction: come and flip through Flanders.
Conference: 'Britain and the Low Countries: Cultural Exchanges Past, Present & Future'
2024 marks the first time in the forty-year history of the Historians of Netherlandish Art that their biennial conference will be held in the UK. The conference is comprised of workshops in London and Cambridge from 10 to 13 July.
LOOKING BACK...
Steden van de Toekomst!
ALCS Zomercursus 2023
From 25 June until 1 July the University of Edinburgh was home to the ALCS Nederlandse Zomercursus. The theme of this year's edition was Steden van de toekomst. Learners of Dutch from all over the UK took part in our Dutch language classes, culture workshops and other activities. The ALCS Zomercursus was generously sponsored by the Nederlandse Taalunie, Flanders House and the Dutch Embassy.
ALCS Postgraduate Symposium 'Beyond Dutch: Multilingualism in the Neerlandophone World'
Our ALCS Postgraduate Symposium 2023 offered interdisciplinary talks that took attendees “Beyond Dutch” by exploring instances and impacts of multilingualism in the Neerlandophone world. Researchers at varied stages in their careers met around a round table in London’s Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies to discuss topics in music, literature, history, translation, and media, with examples spanning several centuries of cultural production. Each talk was followed by lively discussion, with many links drawn between each of the talks throughout the day. The whole was certainly greater than the sum its parts.
Our keynote speaker was Dr Arnoud Arps with a talk entitled “The past is not a fleeting moment: Border crossing memories of the Dutch East Indies in Dutch and Indonesian popular culture”. Finally, our spirited conversations continued well into the evening at a merry colloquium supper to mark the occasion with new friends and colleagues.
Zo hoog de zon stond - Dutch Translation Project with Simone Atangana Bekono
In February and March of this year, students of Dutch from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield embarked, under the guidance of literary translator Jonathan Reeder, on a collaborative project to translate an excerpt from Zo hoog de zon stond (2022), Dutch poet and writer Simone Atangana Bekono’s second novel, following on from the success of her debut novel Confrontaties (2020). Zo hoog de zon stond – or in our translation: High Was The Sun – was also nominated for the 2023 Libris Literatuur Prijs.
With many thanks to the Dutch Language Union, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Jonathan Reeder and Simone Atangana Bekono for their support.
Anglo-Dutch Performance: Kom terug! A Course of History
On 14 March 2023, the Sheffield Drama Studio was home to the cast and crew of Kom Terug! A Course of History, the Dutch contribution to the Modern Languages Drama Festival.
A crowd of about 25 students of Dutch took the stage to guide the audience through their own take on some key moments in Low Countries history. From disillusioned dinosaurs to prehistoric painters, from spying loom smugglers to crying kings. A sold out performance, a happy cast, and above all: a great confidence boost in Dutch. Kom terug! was written and directed by Dr Filip De Ceuster.
DUTCH CROSSING. JOURNAL OF LOW COUNTRIES STUDIES
"Like every few months, I have the pleasure of introducing the contributions to the latest issue of Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies. As I believe is well known by now, we are operating an online-first publication model, in which articles are published online first, with timestamp, Digital Object Identifier and all bells and whistles, before in a second step, the articles are assigned to individual issues that are published both online and in print. But in spite of all fondness for ‘the Digital’, what can beat perusing a paper copy of a new journal issue while sitting on a recliner in a garden, in a park, or elsewhere! We hope and believe this issue is a very good example for this." -- Ulrich Tiedau, Editor-in-chief
Our flagship journal Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies continues to develop successfully. At present it has a very healthy h-index of 9 according to Harzing's Publish and Perish. The complete journal run from 1977 to the present day is now available online.
Does your library have a subscription to Dutch Crossing? Please encourage them to do so!
