Moments of Meaning-Making

Rather than writing a conventional autobiography or a scholarly retrospective, Bal chose to explore her intellectual and personal journey through a series of terms – Anachronism, Becoming, Criticism, Friendship, and many others – that together form a web of meaning. With photographs by Lena Verhoeff and design by Lotte Lara Schröder, the book is also a visual and tactile experience.

Several artists, writers, and scholars will reflect on Mieke Bal’s work through the lens of their own practices and fascinations. How have Bal’s work and presence influenced their thinking or development: personally, intellectually, or collaboratively? With: Marlene Dumas, Tingting Hui, Maaike Meijer, Abram de Swaan, Roos Theuws, and Mieke Bal.

About the speakers

Mieke Bal has been a Professor in Literary Theory (University of Amsterdam). In 1994 she was a co-founder of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA). Bal has been teaching at many institutes and universities in Europe, the US, and beyond. She is known for her specific ways of “deep-reading” artworks (e.g. Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Louise Bourgeois, Nalini Malani), and intertwining her research with various disciplines, such as contemporary and nineteenth-century literature, psycho-analysis, gender studies, philosophy, bible studies. Bal also works as a video artist, which she approaches as a specific form of cultural analysis. www.miekebal.org

Marlene Dumas is one of today’s most influential painters. Since settling in Amsterdam in the 1970s, her emotionally charged and psychologically complex paintings and drawings have explored themes of identity, race, sexuality, and politics. Often drawing from an extensive archive of press and magazine photography, she investigates how images shape our perception. Referencing both art history and current events, her expressive yet reflective work challenges conventions of representation and painting itself in a visually saturated era. www.marlenedumas.nl

Tingting Hui is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University, specializing in critical theory and contemporary literature and arts. Her research spans diverse areas, including care ethics, multilingualism, and translation theory. She has received multiple awards, such as the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Fund (2023) and the Horst Frenz Prize (2019). In addition to her academic work, Tingting has contributed to the development of the innovative What’s Your Story? diversity card game, which fosters intercultural dialogue.

Maaike Meijer is a literary scholar, feminist, and emeritus professor of gender studies (Maastricht University). She has published extensively on gender, poetry, popular culture, and cultural representation, including acclaimed biographies of M. Vasalis and F. Harmsen van Beek. Her recent book Radeloze helden (Desperate Heroes, 2023) explores masculinity in literature and film. Meijer lives in Amsterdam and is currently writing a biography on Doeschka Meijsing. She chairs the P.C. Hooft Foundation and advises various cultural and feminist organisations. www.maaikemeijer.nl

Abram de Swaan has been University Professor of Social Science at the University of Amsterdam since 2001 and, as of 2007, holds the title of emeritus. He served as Professor of Sociology from 1973 to 2001 and was co-founder and director of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (1987–1997), later serving as its chair until 2007. De Swaan authored Words of the World and received the prestigious P.C. Hooft Prize in 2008. He has taught at Columbia, Cornell, the Sorbonne, and the Collège de France. www.deswaan.com

Roos Theuws is a Dutch media artist known for installations that explore light, sound, and video as intrinsic media. She studied at Jan van Eyck Academie (1981–83) and co-founded Stichting Time-Based Arts in 1983 to champion video art in the Netherlands. Active internationally since the mid-1980s, her work is held in private and public collections including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and Huis Marseille. She taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie until 2022.

Astrid Vorstermans (moderator) is the publisher/founder of Valiz, with a background in art history and a long path in publishing. www.valiz.nl