Laura Bertens
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. L.M.F. Bertens
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2154
- l.m.f.bertens@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-9974-9887
Laura Bertens is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
Research interests
* Contemporary art and theory of art
* Memory studies, specifically representations of cultural memory in contemporary art and popular culture
* Environmental history and its relation to cultural memory and exctinction studies
* Posthumanism and bio-art
Research
Laura Bertens is a university lecturer of Art History at Leiden University with interests in the fields of memory studies, contemporary art and cultural studies. She analyses the construction and functioning of cultural memory in art, as well as everyday culture. She has published book chapters and articles for journals such as Third Text, Holocaust Studies and German Life and Letters, on topics ranging from cultural memory in music videos, the Berlin Wall Memorial, Holocaust remembrance in art, to the construction of memory through museum audio guides and the representation of extinction in the natural history museum. She is currently co-coordinator (with Sara Polak) of the research theme Identity and Memory and co-coordinator (with Johannes Müller) of the research theme Ecologies, Environment, Extinctions.
Curriculum vitae
After completing a BA+MA in Classical Studies and a BA+MA in Biology (both Leiden University), Laura Bertens combined a PhD project in Bio-informatics with a BA+MA program in Art History. In 2012 she obtained her PhD degree at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (Leiden University), with a dissertation about computerised modelling solutions for developmental biology, focusing in particular on ontological modelling and reptilian heart development.
Between 2012 and 2015, she worked as a researcher and lecturer for the BA programs Art History, International Studies and Leiden University College and as an external lecturer for the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. The focus of her research was mainly on Digital Humanities and Posthumanism. As organisor of the NWO KIEM project "E-Canon" she explored the possibilities of applying ontological modelling to the study of Art History, in particular the process of canon formation. And as a postdoc in the HERITAGE PLUS project EUWATHER she helped collect, annotate and present cultural heritage related to historic waterways by creating a Spatial Database Infrastructure.
Since 2016 she has been working as university lecturer, currently teaching in the track Art, Media and Society (part of the BA Art History) and at Leiden University College. Her research interests have shifted towards the interaction between Memory Studies and Art History. She studies the workings of monuments, as well as artworks which reflect on specific cultural memories or the functioning of memory itself. Within the research theme Ecologies, Environment, Extinctions she explores the representation of extinction and the cultural memories attached to extinction events.
Teaching
Current courses in the BA programs Art History (track Arts, Media and Society) and Leiden University College:
* Modern and contemporary visual art after 1800
* Art and Cultural Memory
* Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices
* AMS on site: Curating the city
* What is culture?
* BA Thesis seminar Arts, Media and Society, theme ‘Art, medicine and death’
Previous courses:
* Cultural Studies (BA International Studies)
* Primitivism and beyond (MA Arts and Culture)
* Humanities Lab, introductory module
* Globalisation, Culture and Language (BA International Studies)
* Cultural Interaction: a global perspective (BA International Studies)
* The human condition: the body in art 19th century - present (MA Arts and Culture)
* How we are human (BA International Studies)
* Contemporary Art (BA Leiden University College)
* Art and Technology (BA Art History)
* Microscopy, modelling and visualisation (BA Computer Science)
* Human Computer Interaction (MA Media Technology)
* Biomodelling and Petri Nets (BA Computer Science, MA Media Technology)
* Thesis seminars in BA Art History, BA International Studies
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- KG Moderne beeldende kunst
- Bertens L.M.F. & Wilson A.M. (2022), Wonder, empire, science: the quagga and other extinctions on display at Naturalis, Museum & Society 20(1): .
- Bertens L.M.F. (2022), Modeling the art historical canon, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 21: 240-262.
- Bertens L.M.F. (2022), Tracing memories : the guided trail as an aid to cultural memory in the artworks by Janet Cardiff. In: Svensson D., Saltzman K. & Sörlin S. (Eds.) Pathways: exploring the routes of a movement heritage.: White Horse Press. 167-185.
- Bertens L.M.F. (2021), ‘Doing’ memory: performativity and cultural memory in Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s Alter Bahnhof Video Walk. In: Popescu D.I. & Schult T. (Eds.), Performative Holocaust Commemoration in the 21st Century: Routledge.
- Bertens L.M.F. & Polak S.A. (2019), Using museum audio guides in the construction of prosthetic memory, Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies 17(1): 1-12.
- Bertens L.M.F. (2019), ‘Doing’ memory: performativity and cultural memory in Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s Alter Bahnhof Video Walk, Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History 26(2): 181-197.
- Bertens L.M.F. (2017), “Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation!”: Music Videos and the Construction of Cultural Memory, Open Cultural Studies 1(1): 88-98.
- Bertens L.M.F., Kleijn J., Hille S., Heiner M., Koutny M. & Verbeek F.J. (2016), Modeling Biological Gradient Formation: Combining Partial Differential Equations and Petri Nets, Natural computing 154(4): 665-675.
- Bertens L.M.F. (2016), Playing and Dying Between the Real and the Hyperreal. Processes of Mediation in Mroué’s The Pixelated Revolution and Cardiff and Bures Miller’s Alter Bahnhof Video Walk, Third Text 30(1-2): 90-99.
- Becker A., Bertens L. & Deicher S. (2015), Mondriaan en Nolde in de natuur. In: , Mondriaan en Nolde in de natuur: De Vrije Uitgevers.
- Bertens L.M.F., Kleijn J., Hille S.C., Koutny M., Heiner M. & Verbeek F.J. (2013), Modeling biological gradient formation: combining partial differential equations and Petri nets. Newcastle: University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
- Bertens L.M.F. (12 September 2012), Computerised Modelling for Developmental Biology (Dissertatie, Faculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen, Leiden University). Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Kok J.N., Verbeek F.J.
- Bertens L.M.F., Kleijn J. & Verbeek F.J. (2012), Biomodelling and Petri Nets, Eureka magazine : 6-8.
- Bertens L.M.F., Slob J. & Verbeek F.J. (2011), A generic organ based ontology system, applied to vertebrate heart anatomy, development and physiology, Journal Integrative Bioinformatics 8(2): 167.
- Bertens L.M.F., Kleijn J., Koutny M. & Verbeek F.J. (2010), Modelling gradients using petri nets. Donatelli S., Kleijn H.C.M., Machado R.J. & Fernandez J.M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the workshops of the 31st international conference on application and theory of petri nets and other models of concurrency (PETRI NETS 2010). RAPNeC-2010 Recent Advances in Petri Nets and Concurrency 21 June 2010 - 22 June 2010. CEUR Workshop Proceedings no. 827: CEUR-WS. 39-53.
- Yan K., Bertens L.M.F. & Verbeek F.J. (2010), Image Registraton and Realignment using Evolutionary Algorithms with High resolution 3D model from Human Liver. Sappa A.D. (Ed.), Proceedings 11th IASTED International Conference on Computer Graphics and Imaging (CGIM 2010)},. 11th IASTED International Conference on Computer Graphics and Imaging (CGIM 2010)}, 17 February 2010 - 19 February 2010: Acta Press. 679-014.
- Bertens L.M.F., Kleijn H.C.M., Koutny M. & Verbeek F.J. (2010), Modelling Gradients Using Petri Nets. Leiden: Universiteit Leiden.
- Bertens L.M.F., Richardson M.K. & Verbeek F.J. (2010), Analysis of cardiac development in the turtle Emys orbicularis (Testudines: Emidydae) using 3-D computer modeling from histological sections, The Anatomical Record 293(7): 1101-1114.
- Bertens L.M.F., Jansen H.J., Kleijn J., Koutny M. & Verbeek F.J. (2009), Using Petri Nets in Higher Level Development Biology: a case study on the AP axis development in Xenopus laevis. Extended abstract. Leiden: LIACS.
- Brittijn S.A., Duivesteijn S.J., Belmamoune M., Bertens L.M.F., Bitter W., Bruijn J.D. de, Champagne D.L., Cuppen E., Flik G., Broucke-Grauls C.M. van den, Janssen R., Jong I.E.M. de, Kloet E.R. de, Kros A., Meijer A., Metz J.R., Sar A.M. van der, Schaaf M.J., Schulte-Merker S., Spaink H.P., Tak P.P., Verbeek F.J., Vervoordeldonk M.J., Vonk F., Witte F., Yuan H. & Richardson M.K. (2009), Zebrafish development and regeneration: new tools for biomedical research, The International Journal of Developmental Biology 53(5-6): 835-850.
- Putten P.W.H. van der, Bertens L.M.F., Liu J., Hagen F., Boekhout T. & Verbeek F.J. (2007), Classification of yeast cells from image features to evaluate pathogen conditions. Hanjalic A., Schettini R. & Sebe N. (Eds.), Proc. SPIE 6506: Multimedia content access: algorithms and systems. MultiMedia Content Access: Algorithms & Systems. SPIE Proceedings no. 6506: SPIE.