Alisa van de Haar is Assistant Professor in historical French Literature. Her research focuses on the multilingual situation in the early modern Low Countries, relations between French and Dutch literature, language and migration, and historical language education. Her book The Golden Mean of Languages: Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Countries (1540-1620) was published by Brill in 2019. From 2022 to 2026, she conducts a research project titled ‘Languages as Lifelines: The Multilingual Coping Strategies of Refugees from the Early Modern Low Countries’, funded by the Dutch Research Council (Veni scheme).

More information about Alisa van de Haar

Fields of interest

• French language and culture 
• Early modern Low Countries 
• Historical multilingualism 
• Historical language education 
• Early modern migration 

CV

Education
2018 PhD, Department of Historical Dutch Literature, University of Groningen, cum laude.
2015 Visiting graduate student, King’s College, University of Cambridge.
2013 Research MA Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Groningen, summa cum laude.
2011 BA Romance Languages and Cultures (main language: French), University of Groningen, cum laude.
2011 Exchange student, Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, Université François Rabelais, Tours.

Employment

2019 – present Assistant Professor at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society 
2018 – 2019 Curator of the Special Collections department of the University Library, University of Groningen. 
2019 Lecturer, Honours College, University of Groningen. 
2018 Lecturer, Bachelor Dutch Language and Culture, University of Groningen. 
2018 Herzog Ernst Fellow, Gotha Research Centre, University of Erfurt. Funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation. 
2017 – 2018 Lecturer, Bachelor French Language and Culture, Leiden University. 
2015 Lecturer, Bachelor European Languages and Cultures, University of Groningen. 
2013 – 2017 PhD candidate, University of Groningen, Department of Historical Dutch Literature. Funded by NWO, PhDs in the Humanities. 
Supervisors: Prof. B.A.M. Ramakers (University of Groningen), Prof. P.J. Smith (Leiden University) & Prof. A.C. van Dixhoorn (University College Roosevelt, Utrecht University). 
 

Grants and awards

2023 Research fellowship at the KU Leuven, LECTIO, Institute for the Study of the Transmission of Texts, Ideas and Images in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 
2022 NWO Veni grant for the research project ‘Languages as Lifelines: The Multilingual Coping Strategies of Refugees from the Early Modern Low Countries’. 
2022 Research fellowship at the Université de Lille as part of the ERC-project AGRELITA, ‘The Reception of Ancient Greece in Pre-modern French Literature and Illustrations of Manuscripts and Printed Books (1320-1550)’. 
2018 Herzog Ernst Scholarship of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for a research fellowship at the Gotha Research Library and the Gotha Research Centre of Erfurt University. 
2015 COST Action (IS1301) grant for a research fellowship at King’s College, University of Cambridge. 
2013 NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant for the individual doctoral research project ‘A Tale of Two Tongues: The Interplay of Dutch and French in the Literary Culture of the Low Countries, 1550-1600’. 

Key publications

A. van de Haar, The Golden Mean of Languages: Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Countries (1540-1620), Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Boston & Leiden, Brill, 2019. 

A. van de Haar & D. Schoenaers (eds.), Francophone Literature in the Low Countries, 1200-1600, special issue of Queeste, 28, 1 (2021). Read here. 

A. van de Haar, ‘The Linguistic Coping Strategies of Three Netherlanders in England: Jan van der Noot, Lucas d’Heere, and Johannes Radermacher’, in: Early Modern Low Countries, 5, 2 (2021), 192-215. Read here. 

Activities