Since 1948 Dutch language has been part of the curriculum at the University of Sheffield. On 25 May 2024 we celebrated our 75th anniversary. Current and former students, staff, representatives of the Netherlands Embassy and Flanders House, our Artist in Residence, Paulien Cornelisse and comedian, writer and advocate for West Flemish, Wouter Deprez gathered for a day of talks, performances, of meeting new and old friends, of dining and dancing.
As part of our 75th Anniversary events, we will host the ALCS Summer Course at Sheffield from 1-6 July and the ALCS 14th International Conference from 7-9 July 2024.
Act of friendship
Every year for 75 years, students have, accidentally or consciously, chosen to study Dutch. Sometimes against the well-meant but misguided council of family and friends: “Why bother, don't they all speak English?” Dutch was and remains an important language for the UK. Historically the Low Countries and Britain are closely connected through trade, politics and art. Together The Netherlands and Flanders today are the third biggest trading partner of the UK behind the US and Germany. But more than economics, choosing to study a language is an act of trust and, as author John le Carré suggested, “an act of friendship”.
With our celebration day we also thanked our students and alumni for their trust and commitment. We have tried to capture a snapshot of their experience in our festive publication, Leve Nederlands! 75 years of Dutch in 15 portraits. Paulien Cornelisse interviewed fifteen staff and students about their choice and what it meant for them. She wrote an informative, funny and at times moving account.
I discovered that I wanted to be a translator when we did a translation project in my final year. We worked with Gerbrand Bakker and his translator David Colmer. I learnt what a professional translator actually does and decided to go for it
Alice Tetley-Paul, Literary Translator
Interview with Paulien Cornelisse for Leve Nederlands!
History
In 1945, Dr Frederick Pickering became the Head of German at the University of Sheffield after working in Bletchley Park during WW2 to crack the German code. He decided that the German curriculum needed jazzing up and enlisted the first tutor for Dutch, Bill Mainland, to start a course in Dutch Language in October 1948. Five years later Geoffrey Bird was hired as a second Dutch speaker and tutor. In 1966 the first Dutch native speaker language tutor appeared, Theodora Hoitink, from the University of Leiden. One of her successors Anneke Schoenmakers, who taught Dutch in the mid-seventies, produced the first Dutch play in Sheffield in 1977. A constant factor throughout those years was Prof. Gerald Newton.
Barbara Roosken made sure that Dutch was incorporated into the new degree of BA Modern Languages in 1985. Prof. Moray McGowan appointed his first Lecturer in Dutch in 1998, Henriette Louwerse who had been a lector since 1990. Louwerse's impact on Dutch Studies at Sheffield is hard to overstate. When Prof. Michael Perraudin came to Sheffield in 2000 as Head of Germanic Studies, he brought his enthusiasm and expertise in Dutch Studies and the foundations of Dutch became more solid. Iris van Erve came, followed by Eddy Verbaan and in 2003 Roel Vismans was appointed as Senior Lecturer at Sheffield after the closure of Dutch Studies at the University of Hull. Roel became the first Professor of Dutch Studies in 2018 and retired in September of that same year.
Low Countries Studies today
The arrival of Filip De Ceuster must be signalled as another milestone. Although we had had excellent Flemish teaching assistants at Sheffield, Ann Van Malderen and Bert Robberechts in particular, De Ceuster was the specialist in Dutch literature with a research record, a string of exciting connections and wide-ranging skills to match. He has had a profound impact on the curriculum and in 2019 launched the first Dutch theatre performance as part of his module. In 2024 EGEL (the longing of) Hedgehog was his fourth production to date for all our students. A sample of Egel was performed in Jessop West as part of our celebrations.
In terms of cultural orientation, there has been a profound shift over the years. With the arrival of De Ceuster, Dutch Studies broadened to Low Countries Studies to include a more sustained focus on Flanders and Belgium. Our research project Quaco has included greater attention for the colonial legacy of the Netherlands and Belgium. Our yearly Translation Project which we organise together with students and colleagues at UCL around our UK Writer in Residence reflects our broad connections and orientation: Paulien Cornelisse, Tülin Erkan, Rashif El Kaoui, Simone Atangana Bekono, Tessa Leuwsha, Carmien Michels to name a few.
We are grateful to all our loyal partners, in particular the Taalunie, Flanders House, Netherlands Embassy, UCL, Anglo Netherlands Society, the-low-countries.com. But, above all, we would like to thank our students over the past 75 years for their trust and friendship.
