Short Biography

Ieme van der Poel is Professor emeritus of French Literature at the University of Amsterdam. From 2010 - 2012 she served as the Director of the College of Humanities and was Director of the Research Master in Literary Studies from 2004 - 2010. Her main fields of interest are Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures in French, including (Post) Colonial History, especially the Maghreb, Postcolonial Theory, and French Intellectual History. She directed the research project: "Diasporic Writing: A Comparative History of the New Moroccan Literatures in French, Spanish and Dutch", 2006-2010, funded by NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). She is currently preparing a book for Liverpool University Press, entitled Diasporic Writing : New Moroccan Voices in French, Spanish and Dutch. Besides , she continues her work on an annotated edition of Prousts Recherche for the Dutch market (in collaboration with Ton Hoenselaars).  De kant van Swann was published in a new translation by Thérèse Cornips in the fall, 2009 (see below), followed by a paper-back edition in 2015. In 2004 van der Poel was appointed Chevalier dans l´ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2005-2006 she was a fellow at NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences). From 2006 till 2015 van der Poel served at the scientific board of NIMAR, the Netherlands Institute in Rabat (Morocco). In the same year she initiated (in collaboration with prof. Andy Stafford, Leeds University) the international research group "Maghreb-Europe", a collaborative project of UvA, Leeds University and the University of Casablanca Ben M'sik. In 2009 van der Poel was appointed professeur invité at the University of Angers, France. More recently, she was invited at Yale ("Beyond French" - Conference, March 2013) and gave lectures at the Universities of Casablanca, Meknès (September 2013), Grenoble (February 2014) and Lille III (March 2014). Viva boards over the last two years included  Lille III (Habilitation, December 2012); Cergy-Pontoise (December 2013) and La Manouba (Tunis, December 2013). In May 2015 van der Poel was one of the co-organizers, together with Mohamed Lehdada, of an international conference held at the University of Meknès, dedicated to the representation of Morocco in Moroccan (migrant) literatures. In 2015-2016, she gave lectures and participated in conferences in Fes, Rabat, Cérisy, Leipzig, Saarbrucken, and Dakar, Senegal. Since 2013 van der Poel serves at the Research Committee of Antwerp University (BOF). In 2015 she was part of the jury of the Jan Hanlo prize for non-fiction.        

Marcel Proust

De kant van Swann (translated by Thérèse Cornips and with an introduction and notes by Ieme van der Poel and Ton Hoenselaars), Amsterdam, De Bezige Bij, 2009. ISBN: 978 90 234 2763 6. 2015 for the paperback edition.

My current teaching includes

• "Morocco Express", two weeks intensive course (elective, BA) on the culture and society of contemporary Morocco. The course is taught on location (Rabat, Morocco), in collaboration with NIMAR (Netherlands Institute, Morocco).    

Editorships

• FPS (Francophone Postcolonial Studies)
• Etudes Littéraires Africaines, revue de l'Association pour l'Etude des Littératures Africaines
• La Tortue verte, revue en ligne des littératures francophones (Université Lille 3) 
• RELIEF
• Septentrion/Ons Erfdeel
• Transversalités (U. Leipzig)

Key Publications

• Congo-Océan. Un chemin de fer colonial controversé (two volumes), Paris l'Harmattan, 2006, 394 pp.
• Villes d'échange(s): Maghreb-Europe (éd. Ieme van der Poel et Abdelmajid Kaddouri), Casablanca, Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines Ben M'sik, 2009.
• 'Unlike(ly) Home(s): "Self-orientalisation" and Irony in Moroccan Diasporic Literature', The Postcolonial Low Countries (ed. Elleke Boehmer and Sarah De Mul), Lanham, Lexington Books, 2012, pp. 221-239.
• 'Recycler l'orientalisme: Le Chat du rabbin de Joann Sfar', Expressions Maghrébines 12 (2), PP. 7-23.  

Research Interests and Supervisions

Ieme actively welcomes expressions of interest from prospective research students on any of the following research interests:

• migrant and minority literatures
• Maghrebi history, culture and literature
• French colonial history and culture (incl. literature)
• postcolonial studies and literary theory
• Literatures inFrench (19th., 20th., 21th. century)

Recent and on-going research supervisions:

• Secularism and Assimilation in the Writings of Marcel Proust
• L'Evolution de la mémoire littéraire de la guerre d'Algérie dans la fiction algérienne francophone (1958-2003)
• Anticolonialisme et Modernisme dans la littérature de voyage en Indochine (1919-1939)
• The Question of Commitment in Novels and Autobiographical Writings of Jews in Interbellum Central Europe
• Literatures of the Moroccan Diaspora
• Food in Jiddish Literature
• Vernacular Disruptions: Effects of Globalization on Postcolonial Literature In Dutch       

Monographs

• Congo-Océan: un chemin de fer colonial controversé , Paris, L´Harmattan, 2006 (2 volumes, 394 pp).
• Burgers van de Franse taal . Inaugural address, Universiteit van Amsterdam. Amsterdam, Vossiuspers, 2000 (27 pp).
• Une révolution de la pensée. maoisme et féminisme à travers Tel Quel, Les Temps modernes et Esprit, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 1992.     

Edited Volumes

• Traveling Theory: France and the US  (co-edited with Sophie Bertho, associate editor Ton Hoenselaars), Cranbury, N.J., Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 1999 (177 pp).
• Marcel Proust Jaarboek  1993, 1995, 1997, 1999 (co-edited with Jacques Plessen and Sabine van Wesemael).
• Villes d'échange(s): Maghreb- Europe (co-edited with Abdelmajid Kaddouri), Casablanca, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Ben Msi'k, 2009.  

Chapters in books

1. 'Camus: A Life lived in Critical Times' , The Cambridge Companion to Camus (ed. Edward Hughes), Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 13-25.
2. 'Julia Kristeva et Linda Le: citoyennes de la langue francaise' , Le Roman francais au tournant du XXIe siècle (ed. Bruno Blanckeman, Alina Mura-Brunel et Marc Dambre), Paris, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2004, pp. 241-249.
3. 'Entre Satan et Charcot: l'imaginaire de l'hystérie chez J.-K. Huysmans' , Ecriture et maladie  (ed. Arlette Bouloumié, avec une préface de Michel Tournier), Paris, Imago, 2003, pp. 56-71.
4. 'Possessions: la Sainte Trinité revue par Julia Kristeva' , French Prose in 2000  (ed. Michael Bishop and Christopher Elson), Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2002, pp. 165-173.
5. 'Franstalige literatuur van Noord-Afrika', in Theo D'haen (ed .), Europa Buitengaats.Kolonialeen postkoloniale literaturen in Europese talen , Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, 2002, pp. 65-91.
6. 'Julia Kristeva', in Filosofen van deze tijd  (ed. Maarten Doorman en Heleen Pott), Amsterdam, Bert Bakker, 2002, pp. 320-333.
7. 'Leila Marouane et Rachid Boudjedra. Le roman franco-algérien entre farce et tragédie' , La Subversion du réel. Stratégies esthétiques dans la littérature algérienne contemporaine (ed. Beate Burtscher-Bechter, Birgit Mertz-Baumgartner), Paris, L'Harmattan, 2001, pp. 39-51.
8. 'Het lichaam heroverd. De romans van Assia Djebar', Het labyrinth van de bevrijding: tien postkoloniale auteursportretten (ed. Kathleen Gyssels, Paul Pelckmans), Kapellen, Uitgeverij Pelckmans, 1999, pp. 133-151.
9. 'Hoe zwaar weegt de Larousse? Interculturele problematiek in de Franstalige literatuur van Noord-Afrika', Tussenfiguren: schrijvers tussen de culturen )ed. Michiel van Kempen, Elisabeth Leijnse, Amsterdam, Het Spinhuis, 1998, pp. 33-47. 
10. 'Maghreb', Imagology. The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters (ed. Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen), Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2007, pp. 211-214.            

Articles in journals and on the internet (a selection)

1. 'Georges Simenon parmi les critiques du Congo-Océan (1921-1934 )', Traces  16, 2005, pp. 303-321.
2. 'Homer`s Heritage: Writing the Mediterranean Today' , Pharos  vol. XII (2004), pp. 151-159.
3. 'Michel Houellebecq et l'esprit "fin de siècle", CRIN 43, 2004, pp. 47-55.
4. 'Albert Camus ou la critique postcoloniale face au "reve méditerranéen ", Francophone Postcolonial Studies 2.1., Spring-Summer 2004, pp. 70-79.
5. '"La mer au plus près"': La Méditerranée d'Albert Camus revue par Malika Mokeddem', site Mémoires de la Méditeranée (for link: see below)
6. 'De l'image peinte à la théorie littéraire. Giovanni Bellini selon Julia Kristeva' , Revue des lettres et de traduction , année 2002, pp. 231-241.
7. 'André Gide's Congo: The Possessor Possessed' , Remembering Empire: A Publication of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies , Autumn/Winter 2002, pp. 64-80.
8. 'Reizigers of gevangenen? Over de Frans-Algerijnse schrijfster Assia Djebar' , Semeian 21 (Tussen twee werelden. Het gevoel van ontheemding in de postkoloniale literatuur), eds. Theo D'haen, Peter Liebregts, Leiden, 2001, pp. 74-88.
9. 'Cri du coeur, cri du corps: la représentation du corps dans l'oeuvre d'Assia Djebar' , Le Maghreb littéraire  2:3, 1998, pp. 19-37.
10. 'Een kroon op de Congo. Waarom een verouderd museum niet verdwijnen mag.' De Academische Boekengids 59, november 2006, pp. 3-5. (see link below).
11. 'L'Interculturel chez Albert Camus: un dialogue de sourds?', "Dossier Camus et l'Algérie" (ed. Mustapha Trabelsi ), Lendemains. Etudes comparées sur la France. Vergleichende Frankreichforschung, 34 Jahrgang 2009, 134/135, pp. 109-117.