On​ ​Friday,​ ​June​ ​6,​ ​and​ ​Saturday,​ ​June​ ​7,​ ​2025 (with a Welcome Reception in the evening of June 5),​ ​the​ American Association for Netherlandic Studies welcomes you at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill  to the ​biennial​ ​Interdisciplinary​ ​Conference​ ​for​ ​Netherlandic Studies: ICNS 2025 - Shaping the Future: Interdisciplinary Explorations in Netherlandic Studies with special focus on Suriname at 50.​ ​​ The conference (see preliminary program below) is divided into several parallel sessions, each with a clear topic and presentation schedule. The program includes a variety of topics, from language and identity to cultural legacy presented by a range of researchers from international universities and institutions.

  • Airport: Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) is your destination, if flying. Several airlines offer direct service from Europe. Taxi service from RDU to Chapel Hill will cost about $50.
  • Conference location: All sessions will be held at the FedEx Global Education Center (GEC) on the campus of the University of North Carolina, 301 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516. The conference dinner (Friday, June 6) will be held at the Ackland Art Museum, a short walk from GEC.
  • Conference details: Please see the preliminary program below; keeping in mind that there may be some revisions prior to the start of the conference. All sessions take place in the GEC.

· Workshop for Teachers of Dutch: 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 5 (by prearrangement only)

· Opening Reception of the ICNS: Thursday, June 5, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

· Conference Dinner: Friday, June 6, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

· Conference Sessions: Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

. Walking Tour, Saturday, June 7, 5:00 - 6:15 p.m.


 


Registration:

 

The official registration site for the ICNS 2025 Conference is Live! Please click here.

 

The conference fee is set at $225 for regular participants and $125 for students (service costs to be added). The fee also covers refreshments during the welcome reception, one lunch, the conference dinner, as well as coffee and tea available throughout the duration of the conference.

Chapel Hill has a number of very nice hotel options near the GEC. However, we recommend Granville Towers, a comfortable private dormitory that is available for our conference attendees. Accommodation at Granville can be booked directly through the above mentioned conference booking site as a separate ticket.  Please note: do NOT contact Granville Towers directly. Questions about Granville Towers can be directed to Dan Thornton (dan_thornton@unc.edu). If you wish to stay at Granville Towers, please register by May 1 at the latest.

AANS membership is required and includes a subscription to the journal Dutch Crossings. Annual fees are $90 for regular members, $30 for full-time graduate students, and $70 for emeriti/retired members. Memberships can be initiated or renewed via the following link: https://www.netherlandicstudies.org/members.

For questions regarding the conferentie on site, the programme, and related matters: Dan Thornton: dan_thornton@unc.edu. For questions regarding bookings: Ineke Huysman: ineke.huysman@huygens.knaw.nl.


 

 Preliminary program: 

 

THURSDAY, JUNE 5th

WORKSHOP FOR TEACHERS OF DUTCH (only by prior invitation) - GEC 4003

8:30-4:00 with break for lunch from 12:00-1:00 (lunch provided on site)

CONFERENCE PACKETS AVAILABLE 2:00-5:00 - GEC Atrium

OPENING RECEPTION: 5:30-7:30 - GEC Atrium

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 6th

CONFERENCE PACKETS AVAILABLE 8:00-9:00 - GEC Atrium

Day 1 / Session 1 A + B

9:00-10:30

 A:  Art History 1 - GEC 1009

  • Juliet Huang, University of Maryland, “Taking Pleasure in Gloves in the Seventeenth-Century Netherlands”
  • Marjolein Kooijmans, Universiteit van Amsterdam, “The Colonies in Seventeenth-Century Prints in the Atlas of Abraham van Stolk”
  • Michelle Moseley Christian, Virginia Tech University, “The Painter-Baker in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Self-Portraits: Art Criticism and “Eating with the Eyes”

 B:  Archives, Collections & Translation - GEC 3024

  • Marja Kingma, British Library, “The Dutch Language Collections of the British Library: support for multidisciplinary research”
  • Hanna de Lange, Trinity College Dublin, “Colonial Knowledge in Print: The Perception of Suriname in the Dutch 18th Century Fagel Collection”
  • Rita Tjien Fooh, Nationaal Archief Suriname, “Suriname Archives: A journey through colonial legacy and post-independence transformation”

10:30-11:00 BREAK

Day 1 Session 2

11:00-12:00 - GEC 4003

Panel 1:  Early Modern Dutch Theater and Transnational Exchange

Moderator: Ineke Huysman, Huygens Instituut

  • Nigel Smith, Princeton University, “The Human Passion Machine: Theater Reform in the Dutch Republic in International Context”
  • Jim Parente, University of Minnesota, “The Transnational Origins of Dutch Tragedy”

12:00-1:45 LUNCH AND AANS MEMBERSHIP MEETING (lunch provided) - GEC Auditorium

Day 1 / Session 3 A + B

2:00-3:30

 A:  History 1 - GEC 1009

  • Ulrich Tideau, University College London, “Nico van Suchtelen’s Plan for a Federation of the States of Europe (1914)”
  • Justin Gregg, Columbia University, “Music for the People? Contrasting Ideas of Musical Democracy in Post-WWI Amsterdam”
  • Michal Wenderski, University of Poznan, ‘Dutch and Belgian Cold War Cultural Policies towards Eastern Europe:  a case study of Poland”

 B:  Literature 1 - GEC 3024

  • Anna Lynn Dolman, University of California-Berkeley, “The ‘Neutral Netherlands’ in 1940: The Poetics of Resistance on ‘Both Sides’”
  • Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”: Continuity and Discontinuity in Tommy Wieringa’s Nirwana”
  • Annemarie Toebosch, University of Michigan, “Songs to Start Our Class: Creating Connected Space in a Decolonial Holocaust Course”

3:30-4:00 BREAK

KEYNOTE 1 and POST-KEYNOTE PANEL – Srefindensi: Suriname at 50

4:00-5:30 – GEC Auditorium

Keynote: Hilde Neus, Anton de Kom Universiteit, "Rising to a Suriname future by learning from the past"

  • Panel discussion to follow with Hilde Neus, Anton de Kom Universiteit; Rita Tjien Fooh, Nationaal Archief van Suriname; Denice van Gravenstijn, University of Michigan; and Annemarie Toebosch, University of Michigan

7:00 – Dinner at Ackland Art Museum

 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7th

Day 2 / Session 1 A + B

9:00-10:45

 A:  History 2 – GEC 1009

  • Frans Blom, University of Amsterdam, “Children of God: Dutch Labadists’ Colonies in the Americas
  • Johan Visser, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, “’ Dutch Seeds’ in Warm Climates
  • Julie van den Hout, Stanford University, “A Multi-Disciplinary Assessment of the 1638 Hurricane at St. Kitts”
  • Michael Green, University of Lodz, “Early Modern Egodocuments, Privacy, and God”

 B:  Literature 2 – GEC 3024

  • Ben De Witte, Columbia University, “Astrid H. Roemer’s Diasporic Caribbean Modernism”
  • Thomas Siemerink, Freie Universität Berlin, “Venice between Nature and Culture: Intercultural Ecology in Mann, Nooteboom, and Pfeijffer”
  • Elizabeth Hwei Sun, University of California-Berkeley, “Refugee Literature in the Netherlands in the Context of Boekenweek and the Dutch-language Literary Market”

10:45 – 11:00 BREAK

Day 2 / Session 2 A + B

11:00 -12:30

A:  Cross-Border Networks in the Low Countries – GEC 1009

  • Ineke Huysman, Huygens Instituut, The Resilience of a Polymathic Friendship: Constantijn Huygens and Johan Brosterhuisen
  • Jesse Sadler, Virginia Tech University, “Family, Friendship, and Enmity in the Dutch Revolt”
  • Herman de Vries, Calvin University, “Border Cultures: The Case of the Euregion The Netherlands-Germany”

 B:  Colonial Legacies and Cultural Translations– GEC 3024

  • Guillermo Pupo Pernet, University of Oxford, “Black Matter: Assegais in Provincia de Venezuela”
  • Priscilla Layne, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, “From the Absurd to the Surreal: Debunking “Colorblind” Racism in the Netherlands in Atlanta”
  • Daniel Penner, Columbia University, “Translating Discipline, Disciplining Translation: A Study of Nishi Amane’s Studies at Leiden”

12:30 -1:45 LUNCH on your own

Day 2 / Session 3 A + B

1:45-3:15

 A:  Panel 2: Transnational Exchanges in the Netherlands and New Netherland – GEC 4003

 Moderator: Nigel Smith, Princeton University

  • Julianne Werlin, Duke University, “University Poetics in Oxford, Cambridge, and Leiden”
  • Amanda Pipkin, University of North Carolina-Charlotte, “Transnational Adaptations of Reformed Domestic Advice”
  • Elizabeth Hines, Johns Hopkins University, “Imperial Mapping in Anglo-Dutch-Swedish North America: What Happened to the Hartford Treaty of 1650?”

 B:  Linguistics - GEC 1009

  • Rachyl Hietpas, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “He was very adamant that everybody speak English”: Language Ideologies and Maintenance in Wisconsin Heritage Dutch”
  • Finn Shepherd, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “’We are not the same’ or ‘We zijn niet hetzelfde’?: An analysis of Dutch-language memes originating from English-language media”
  • Charlotte Vanhecke, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “A variationist perspective on laryngeal contrast in Dutch obstruents”

3:15-3:30 BREAK

KEYNOTE 2

3:30-4:30 – GEC Auditorium

Ton van Kalmthout, Huygens Instituut/Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, “Dutch-American Emigration Literature after World War II”

 4:30-4:45 Closing remarks

 5:00-6:15:  WALKING TOUR: BLACK HISTORY OF UNC – Robert Porter, Department of African, African-American and Diaspora Studies, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill