I am a professor at the department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Utrecht University. My working field is Dutch Television Culture in an International Context. I studied Dutch Language and Literature and Communication Studies at Utrecht University. Also I have a degree in Theatre Studies. I have been working as a researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences (Utrecht University): Film and Education in Third World Developments. I have taught Audiovisual Education (Film history, Video practice) at the Academy of Arts (Utrecht) and was a visiting professor in Theatre and Film History and Dramaturgy at the Academy of Design (Bielefeld, Germany) and at the University of Providence, Rhode Island.
I received my PhD. in Utrecht and published a book entitled Television Drama: Stage for Identity: A study on the relationship between identity of broadcasting companies and Dutch television drama 1969-1988. Amsterdam: Otto Cramwinckel, 1995). At Utrecht University I teaches Media Studies with a particular emphasis on Dutch and international television culture (both history and theory), on television fiction, on media and cultural diversity, and on media and youth (multiple subcultures, media education). My current research focuses on the history of Dutch television culture and I am preparing a new project on the role of media in the construction of identity in Diaspora communities.
In 2002 I hosted and organized Visible Evidence VIII at Utrecht University: a major Interdisciplinary conference on the representation of (social) reality in documentary film and video production. I have always been an active agent in the cultural field. I chair the yearly seminar on documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival, Amsterdam, discussing actual cultural topics in the documentary field. I have been co-organizer of the Oberhausener Filmgespräche (discussions on the documentary film, held at Oberhausen, Germany) and as an editor I was involved in several magazines, such as Jaarboek Mediageschiedenis. From 1996-2003 I was Crown Member of the Netherlands Council for Culture, representative for Film, also advising on matters of intercultural arts forms, media education, new media, and higher education in the arts. Currently I am chair of the board of the Promotion Fund for Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Productions, which subsidizes most of the cultural productions shown on Dutch public television.
