Research Pofile

Marleen Rensen studied Arts and Sciences at the University of Maastricht and took her PHD at the University of Amsterdam. Currently, she is Associate Professor of Modern European Literature, teaching in the department of European Studies. She specializes in twentieth century literature and life writing, with a specific focus issues of identity and belonging.

Other fields of interest are: transnational life writing; the artist's auto/biography; ideas of Europe and European identities; cultural relations between France and Germany; literary engagement; literature and eurofascism, East-West relations in Europe, Amsterdam diaries.

Research Projects

My main research projects are:

• The role of women in Fanco-German cultural relations (1870-present)
• East-West Perceptions in Women's life in Post-communist Europe
• Amsterdam Diaries and other Stories of the Self

Teaching

Currently, she is teaching BA and MA courses in European Studies (in Dutch and English) on subjects such as Franco-German relations, life writing and European identities, and development of teaching methods and materials about Europe for secondary schools. 

She is also the Programme Coordinator of the MA 'Identity and Integration' (European studies).

Articles (a selection)

• 'Time, Rhythm and Ritual: Imagined Communities in L'espoir (1937) and Les sept couleurs (1939), in: Imagining Communities (Amsterdam University Press, 2018) 
• 'Fascist Poetry for Europe. The Case of Robert Brasillach' in: Fascism beyond Borders (Berghanh 2017) https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BauerkaemperFascism
• 'Restoring the Republic of Letters: Romain Rolland, Stefan Zweig and Transnational Community-Building in Europe 1914–34', in: (Re)Constructing Communities in Europe, 1918–68 (Routledge 2016) https://www.routledge.com/ReConstructing-Communities-in-Europe-1918-1968-Senses-of-Belonging/Couperus-Kaal/p/book/9781138692282
• 'Writing European Lives. Stefan Zweig as Biographer of Verhaeren, Rolland and Erasmus' (2015) European Journal of Life Writing

Co-Edited volumes:

Networks, Narratives and Nations. Transcultural approaches to Cultural Nationalism in Modern Europe and Beyond (AUP, 2022)

Transnational Perspectives on Artists' Lives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

Unhinginging the National Framework. Perspectivs on Transnational Life Writing (Sidestone, 2020)

European Encounters. Intellectual Exchange and the Rethinking of Europe 1914-1945; European Studies 32 - Edited Volume (2014) European Encounters

This volume comprises the proceedings of a Conference with same name held at the University of Amsterdam.                                                           

Academic Monograph

Lijden aan de tijd. Franse intellectuelen in het interbellum (Aspekt, 2009)