Dr. Lieke Stelling receives Vidi grant
The Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) awards a Vidi grants to dr. Lieke Stelling, member of the Utrecht Young Academy. In the upcoming five years she can develop her own, innovative research track and research group. Vidi grants are awarded to experienced researchers who have conducted successful research after obtaining their PhD.
Lieke Stelling, Humanities: Discovering Europe through Early Modern Literary Bestsellers
What does Europe mean? The focus of this research project is on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period that witnessed the Reformation, which tore apart the fabric of European society, but also saw the emergence of an incipient secular understanding of Europe as a diverse community. This is apparent from Stelling's main sources: the popular stories of the era. Moreover, many of these works, including Cervantes’ Don Quixote and More’s Utopia, were circulated and consumed in different ways across the entire continent. As such, they also contributed themselves to the idea of Europe as a shared cultural community.
This project offers a modest contribution to exploring the question: what does Europe mean?
Besides Lieke, thirteen other Utrecht-based researchers have received a Vidi grant. The Vidi laureates will do research on a variety of subjects including how stress makes you gravitate towards junk food, and how biodiversity and fire contribute to carbon storage in the soil. Seven of the laureates are UMC Utrecht researchers, four are part of the Faculty of Science, two of the Faculty of Geosciences, and one of the Faculty of Humanities.