Hi, my name is Paul and I’m a cultural and literary historian. I studied Classics, Literary Studies and Education at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. After working as a Classics teacher for several years, I began writing my PhD thesis at the Department of Modern Languages and Culture at Radboud University (at the Dutch Language and Culture section), which I defended on 24 October 2023. I have been employed as a Lecturer at the Department of Languages, Culture and Communication at Utrecht University (likewise at the Dutch Language and Culture section), and as a Lecturer at the RDA (Radboud Teachers’ Academy) at Radboud University. Starting November 2022, I am a researcher and lecturer at the Dutch Language and Culture section at Radboud University, where I specialize in training academic skills, cooperating with secondary schools, popularizing research in the field of Dutch language and culture, and studying historical relations between the Netherlands and Central-Eastern Europe.  In addition, I combine my work as a lecturer and researcher with other activities, such as writing social media posts for the Dutch Embassy in Warsaw, on Dutch-Polish historical relations, and translating Polish literature into Dutch.

I specialize in Early Modern relations between the Low Countries and Poland, particularly in the fields of cultural and literary exchange, as well as diplomacy. My PhD project concerned the development of Dutch perceptions of the Poland, and Polish perceptions of the Dutch Republic during the long seventeenth century. My sources ranged from travel accounts, letters and poems written in Dutch, Polish or Neo-Latin, to visual material such as maps and frontispieces.

This website provides information about my research interests, publications, grants and presentations, as well as my other activities. It also functions as a weblog, featuring blogs in English and Dutch relating to my research.

The painting used in the header is Haecht, Willem van (II) (painter), De kunstkamer van Cornelis van der Geest, RH.S.171, Collectie Stad Antwerpen, Rubenshuis, photograph: Bart Huysmans, Michel Wuyts (detail). It was painted in 1628, and features the Polish-Lithuanian Crown Prince Władysław Waza (next to the ‘P’) at the time of his visit to Antwerp in 1624.