Fleur Praal
Scholarly Communications Librarian
- Name
- Dr. F.E.W. Praal
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2161
- f.e.w.praal@library.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0002-8654-5364
Fields of interest
My research interests are clustered around scholarly communication 'habits' and academic publishing: business models and the conceptual role of the (academic) publisher in our age of digital revolution; new digital technologies for text processing and publication; and digital tools for quantitative research on textual data in the humanities. Besides this, I enjoy educating myself in compiling and interpreting statistics, and I am interested in the development of music notation systems since the advent of the printing press.
Research
Academic publishing and scholarship form a symbiotic system of scholarly communication: researchers produce new ideas and knowledge, but need the publishing sector for distribution and certification of those. Currently, this symbiotic system has evolved into a curious dichotomy: scholarly communication and publication behavior in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM) differs significantly from that in the Social Sciences, Law and Humanities (SSL&H), and this difference affects academic publishing in each branch accordingly.
The current state of academic publishing in the Humanities field especially has been depicted as one of crisis or at least unbalance, in which the traditionally strong position of the publisher is weakened, not in the least by new (digital) developments, such as Open Access, and the crisis of the scholarly monograph, to name just two. Publishers need to redefine their role in the field.
Contingency research on scholarly communication and publication behaviors or habitus in the Humanities will be the starting point of my dissertation. The status quo of the field, divergent as it is from the STEM-fields, will not be taken as an inescapable premise ‘that is’, but rather as a framework to expose mechanisms that caused the field to evolve as it did. These mechanisms should be sought in: scholarly practices inherent to the Humanities field; salient properties of textual forms dominant in Humanities scholarship; and the influence of digital developments in the processing and publication of texts. The same mechanisms might, once exposed, be used to explicate the added value that publishing can still offer scholarship in the current, increasingly digital, environment.
The precise research proposal for this dissertation is at this stage (April 2014) far from finished. Please contact me with any further enquiries.
Teaching activities
In the MA 'Book and Digital Media Studies', drs. Peter Verhaar and I teach Digital Media Technology, a course in the MA core curriculum in which students learn to work with basic text processing technologies (such as XML and XSLT) and data management methodologies (relational database modelling and SQL). Besides this, I coordinate the courses taught by professionals from the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek), and I assist prof. dr. Adriaan van der Weel in the MA specialisation Publishing Studies. In the Minor 'Boek, boekhandel en uitgeverij' (Books, the booktrade and publishing), I will coordinate and teach two courses from 2014-2015: 'Beroemde Boeken' and 'Uitgeven Anno Nu'.
Curriculum vitae
Professional experience:
since 2014: PhD-candidate under supervision of prof. dr. Adriaan van der Weel, LUCAS, Leiden University
since 2012: junior lecturer in MA Book & Digital Media Studies, Leiden University
2012-2014: research assistant 'Leiden Ranking' and project coordinator for ACUMEN, Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University
2008-2012: teacher in debating, public speaking and argumentation strategy at various levels of education
Education:
2012: MA degree in Book and Digital Media Studies, cum laude, Leiden University
2010: BA degree in History, Leiden University
2008: BA degree in English Language and Culture, Leiden University
Scholarly Communications Librarian
- Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden
- Collecties & Onderzoek
- Centre for Digital Scholarship
- Praal F. (2023) De invloed van technologie op de allernieuwste boekgeschiedenis: Review. Review of: Hisgen R. & Weel A. van der (2022), De lezende mens: de betekenis van het boek voor ons bestaan. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Atlas & Thompson, J.B. (2021), Book wars: the digital revolution in publishing. Cambridge: Polity. Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 30: 115-125.
- Praal F.E.W. (2023), Celebrating a decade of TXT: anniversary introduction to the Xth issue, TXT 10: .
- Praal F.E.W. (2022), Laveren tussen wereld en wetenschap: Een interview met Maurits van den Boogerd bij Brill, De Boekenwereld 38(1): 22-27.
- Praal F.E.W., Ommen K. van, Verhoeven G. & Roo D. de (2022), Speciale uitzending - Van kluis naar kussen: uitgeverij Brill (Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden). [other].
- Praal F.E.W (2020), Springer in het schaakspel: Traditie en strategie in een negentiende-eeuws drukkersmerk. In: Anrooij Wim van, Dlabačová Anna, Geleijns Erik, Schaeps Jef, Warnar Geert & Zanen Sylvia van (Eds.), Om het boek: Cultuurhistorische bespiegelingen over boeken en mensen. Hilversum: Verloren. 220-225.
- Weel A.H. van der & Praal F.E.W. (2020), Publishing in the digital humanities: the treacle of academic tradition. In: Edmond J. (Ed.), Digital Technology and the Practices of Humanities Research. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. 21-48.
- Praal F.E.W. (12 November 2020), Symbolic capital and scholarly communication in the humanities: An analysis of sociotechnical transition (Dissertatie. Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Weel A.H. van der, Leeuwen T.N. van.
- Praal F.E.W. (2020) Overleven en Overleveren: De monumentale roman versus digitale media. Review of: Ven Inge van de (2019), Big books in times of big data. Media | Art | Politics. Leiden : Leiden University Press . Vooys: tijdschrift voor letteren 38(4): 73-77.
- Praal F.E.W. (26 January 2017), For practice or preaching: Why do academics blog?. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Polak S.A., Praal F.E.W., Laporte K., Damme Y.A.A. van, March A. de, Feenstra N.H., Janssen K.P.S. & Mitchell E. (Eds.) (2017), Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference 5: 'Breaking the Rules: Artistic Expressions of Transgression'. Journal LUCAS Graduate Conference. Leiden: Leiden University Library.
- Praal F.E.W. (2017), Exploring the Navigation Tools: A Sociocultural Perspective on Online Search Technologies, TXT (4): 92-99.
- Praal F.E.W. (17 July 2017), Trust me, I'm an expert! What AirBNB and Academia have in common. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. & Reyes Elizondo A. (7 September 2017), Exploring the Game of Thrones Citadel's library: Knowledge repositories in history and fantasy. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. & Weel A.H. van der (2016), Taming the digital wilds: How to find authority in an alternative publication paradigm, TXT 3: 97-102.
- Praal F.E.W. (18 April 2016), The LEGO Parable – on Purpose in Academic Publishing. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. (23 June 2016), Open Science: A Necessary Call for Action?. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. (25 August 2016), We love what we see, so make the Humanities count!. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University - Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. (27 October 2016), The Frankfurt Book Fair: 16th century to 2016. Leiden Arts in Society Blog. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. [blog entry].
- Praal F.E.W. (2015), Auteurs, lezers, uitgevers: Botsende belangen op het speelveld van de geesteswetenschappelijke monografie. In: , Van boekenvak naar informatieketen. Boeketje boekwetenschap no. V. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press/ Tielestichting.
- Praal F.E.W. (2015), Academic publication overload, TXT 2: 82.
- Praal F.E.W. (2015), KNAW Hendrik Muller Zomerseminar Paper: Publicatievormen in de Digital Humanities (7e KNAW Hendrik Muller Zomerseminar 2015). [other].
- Praal F.E.W. (2014), Fleur Praal, 'Geesteswetenschappelijke communicatiegewoonten en de academische uitgeverij', Den Haag: Leerstoelendag van de Dr. P.A. Tiele-Stichting, 4 december 2014.
- Praal F.E.W., Kosten M.J.F., Calero Medina C. & Visser M.S. (2013), Ranking universities: The challenge of affiliated institutes. Hinze S. & Lottmann A. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International conference on Science and Technology Indicators: Translational Twists and Turns: Science as a Socio-Economic Endeavour. 18th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators 4 September 2013 - 6 September 2013. Berlin: IFQ. 284-289.
- voorzitter Raad van Toezicht