Aafke Hulk, professor of French Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been appointed rector/director of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in Wassenaar by the Dutch Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The appointment is effective from 1 August 2010.

Professor Hulk has chosen to join the NIAS as it offers her the opportunity to stimulate interdisciplinary research in the fields of the humanities and social sciences. She also looks forward to working with talented researchers from the Netherlands and abroad who make use of the facilities that the NIAS has to offer. The appointment of Aafke Hulk fits in with the KNAW policy of appointing more women to top positions.

About Aafke Hulk

Aafke Hulk is professor of French Linguistics at the UvA. In recent years, her research has concentrated on the linguistic aspects of early multilingualism in children. In addition, she holds / has held various managerial positions. For example, she was on the governing board of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for five years, is director of the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH) and was dean of the Faculty of Humanities of the UvA. She will continue to conduct research at the UvA for the foreseeable future.

About NIAS

The NIAS is one of 19 KNAW research institutes. The NIAS promotes advanced research in the humanities and social sciences and the internationalisation of that research. Each year, the NIAS offers research facilities to more than 50 prominent researchers from the Netherlands and abroad for this purpose. In addition, the NIAS has several multidisciplinary thematic research programmes, in which both Dutch and foreign researchers participate.