Evert Jan van Leeuwen
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. E.J. van Leeuwen
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 3949
- e.j.van.leeuwen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-4704-3492
I am a university lecturer in English-language literature and culture, specialising in the history and development of Gothic, Horror and Science Fiction, and recently also Noir, from about 1750-present. In my research I explore social and ethical questions relating to these genres.
Fields of interest
- Gothic, Horror, Noir and Science Fiction
- Genre theory
- Monster theory
- Critical theory of ideology
- Humanistic psychological theory
- Contemporary moral philosophy
Research
Currently, I am completing a book-length study of Horror-House fictions (forthcoming 2025). This study explores through the critical lens of humanistic psychology the various ways in which horror narratives from the early nineteenth to the late twentieth century have represented and explored the theme of possession, not in terms of the supernatural usurpation of the soul, but in terms of how the ideology of mass-production and consumption has shaped notions of human wellbeing and how these have been encoded as horror-scenarios of human beings possessed and destroyed by their possessions. This project was nominated for the Klokhuis Science Prize of 2021 and is aimed at making a contribution not only to the history of horror genre but also to enter into the wider pressing debate surrounding the inherent wastefulness and ecological hazardousness of modern western consumer culture.
Together with my students in the BA English Language and Culture and the MA Literary Studies, I am working on a volume of English translations of Dutch author Carel van Nievelt’s fantastic short stories. This is a project in cultural preservation, as Van Nievelt should be considered the Dutch Edgar Allan Poe, and is a significant exponent of Dutch Romanticism, but in danger of being forgotten (forthcoming 2025).
Curriculum Vitae
Since 2006 lecturer in English-language Literature and Culture, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
2001-2006: PhD thesis at Leiden University, the Netherlands: Anarchic Alchemists: Dissident Androgyny in Anglo-American Gothic Fiction from Godwin to Melville (cum laude).
2000-2001: MPhil in the Gothic Imagination, Stirling University, Scotland: Masculinity as Monstrosity in William Godwin’s Fiction (with distinction).
1993-1998: Undergraduate degree (drs) in English Language and Literature, Leiden University: The Nineteenth-Century American Short Story as Hoax: An Inquiry into the Short Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville and Mark Twain.
Teaching activities
- Literary Studies (MA)
English Literature and Culture (MA)
Literature in Society. Europe and Beyond (MA) - I also teach in the Humanities Lab as well as the Two-Year Educational Masters
Grants and awards
In 2020, I received 2000 euros from the Lakenhal Museum to develop my "doublespeak translator" project, which aims at developing teaching strategies to give young people the tools they need to properly read pernicious advertising messages.
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Moderne Engelstalige letterkunde
- Leeuwen E.J. van (20 May 2024), Waarom is het genre horror zo populair?. Interviewed by Benji Heerschop for De Nacht van KRO-NCRV. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van & Augé E. (3 July 2024), Een kloon als collega: Science F(r)iction. Interviewed by Imke Smeets. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (18 May 2022), Dracula: Dagonderwerp. Interviewed by Lucien Geelhoed for Seutelstad.nl (Radio Weetlust). [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (21 January 2021), Hoe werkt een sonnet?. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (19 April 2021), "The House as Gothic Locus". Interviewed by Mónica Fernández Jiménez . [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (1 November 2021), Bovennatuurlijke gerechtigheid. Interviewed by Frank van der Meijden for SF Terra: 36-37. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (14 October 2021), De hoofdpersoon in horror is het spook van de moderne consumptiemaatschappij. Interviewed by Laura van der Hauw. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (27 October 2021), We willen meer, sneller en beter, maar wat zijn de consequenties?: De ware boodschap van reclames. Interviewed by Lisanne Bos. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (24 February 2020), Schotland: de Romantiek van het Noorden (HSVL event). [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (26 August 2020), Radio Horzelnest - "Aflevering 4: Nathaniel Hawthorne". Interviewed by Peeters Norbert. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (23 December 2020), Radio Horzelnest - Aflevering 13: Edgar Allan Poe. Interviewed by Norbert Peeters. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (14 May 2019), "We're Not Gonna Take It" - Theodore Roszak, de professor van de tegencultuur. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (31 August 2019), Terrible Trees and Other Demonic Plant Life, Guest Lecture at Albion Weekend. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (1 April 2018), Het rendez-vous met Evert Jan van Leeuwen. Interviewed by Colin Jean-Paul for EdgarAllanPoe.nl. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 14 September 2018 - 15 September 2018. Sublime Cognition: Science Fiction and Metaphysics. London. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2 June 2018), Nature and Horror (flits college/mini lecture): Museumnacht Leiden. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (12 March 2018), Onder invloed van De Quincey - Edgar Allan Poe’s nachtmerrie esthetica in woord en beeld; Studium Generale: The Dope Show. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (10 October 2018), Frankenstein: Icoon van de tegencultuur; Studium Generale: Frankenstein, op weg naar een nieuwe mens. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (31 October 2018), Invasie van de Plastic Soep Monsters: Horror, Science Fiction en het Ecologisch Bewustzijn van 1972 tot de Apocalypse. A.S.V. Prometheus. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (30 April 2018), "Haunted Houses: Paranormal Vehicles for Personality Growth"; at 7th Leiden Symposium on New Religiosity: Stories of the Supernatural: Encounters with the Other Side in Literary and Everyday Narratives. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (26 October 2017), Het spookt hier!. Interviewed by Bongers Vincent for Leids Universitair Weekblad Mare. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (28 October 2017), Verborgen Gebreken: Het spookhuis als metafoor voor een verrotte samenleving [Naturalis After Dark Halloween Edition, Leiden, October 2017]. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (28 October 2017), 'Jane Austen’s ‘Horrid Novels': Northanger Abbey and the Sociology of Popular Culture [Leiden University English Department Alumni Day, October 28 2017]. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2017), Tales from the Panic Room: Adolescent Horror versus the Moral Majority [Halloween Lecture, Albion Association , Leiden University, October 2017]. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 9 June 2016 - 10 June 2016. Haunted Europe: Continental Connections in English-Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media. The Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. Leiden. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 16 January 2016 - 16 January 2016. Asylums, Pathologies, and the Themes of Madness’, Patrick McGrath Symposium. Stirling. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 6 January 2016 - 8 January 2016. BSECS 45th Annual Conference. BSECS. Oxford. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2016), “Ghost Fiction/Ghost Fact; or, what makes a story (just) a story?” Pre-Union Day BA English Language and Culture. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2015), Interviewed with A.A. Foster and D. Smakman for High School students' Project On English Accents and Cultures; Visser 't Hooft Lyceum, Leiden. . [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2015), Horror and the Supernatural interview by Linda Boutellier in The Angler 11.2 (December 2015). . [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2015), “The Ugly Christmas Sweater” lecture for Albion Association Christmas Fundraiser, Leiden University. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 8 January 2014 - 10 January 2014. BSECS 43th Annual Conference. BSECS. Oxford. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2014), “Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Horror” Albion Association Halloween Lecture, Leiden University. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2014), “Poe as a Brand.” OSL Workshop Literary Celebrity at UVA. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2014), “De bovennatuurlijke verbeelding.” S.V.Prometheus, Leiden. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (31 October 2013), Mijn eerste thema is spookhuizen. Interviewed by Borrel Daan for De Groene Amsterdammer, special. [interview].
- Leeuwen E.J. van 20 March 2013 - 24 March 2013. The 34th International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts: Fantastic Adaptations, Transformations, and Audiences. International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Orlando. [conference attendance].
- Leeuwen E.J. (2013), “The Night Horror Came Home: Sex, Suspense and the Supernatural in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978).” Albion Association Halloween Lecture, Leiden University. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. (2013), “The Ageless Attraction of the Haunted-House Formula.”Propedeuse Ceremony Lecture BA English Department, Leiden Univeristy. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. (2013), “Paranormal Activities: Supernatural Fiction in the Classroom”. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2012), “The Gothic Novel and Medievalism” Guest Lecture invited by prof.dr. Wim van Anrooij, Leiden University, NL. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (2 November 2010), "Rights for the Civil Dead" Guest Lecture at Radboud University Nijmegen. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (26 November 2008), A Sense of Wonder: Dissecting “the heart of science fiction” Guest Lecture for Albion. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (19 March 2008), "Making Monsters" guest lecture at Insula College Dordrecht. [lecture].
- Leeuwen E.J. van (10 April 2008), Monster Workshop at "Days of Evil" Stanislas College Delft. [lecture].