For the last five years, I have been able to infect a number of our Utrecht University literature students, at BA and RMA levels, with enthusiasm for research on utopia and dystopia, with a focus on Transcultural Utopia. You will find details about some of the work I supervised under the blogpost The New Utopians: Humanities Honours Research Seminar project

At my suggestion, the wonderful New Utopians also published summaries and extracts from some of this other research I had supervised. See, for example, on http://thenewutopians.wordpress.com

-Maaike Zoelman, The Foundation and Building Blocks of Modern Young Adult Dystopian Worlds: Narratology, Appropriation, and the Evolution of a Literary Genre.

Maaike is now a doctoral student at University of Hull.

-Marloes de Vogel, Iain M. Banks’ Excession and Surface Detail: Science Fiction, Utopia, and Gender.

While this is a summary of Marloes’ BA thesis, she is continuing to pursue her interest in science, feminism, and utopia across borders in the RMA in Comparative Literary Studies.

-Eveline de Smalen, “Europe Is Absent”: Iceland as the Happy Place in Morris and Auden.

Eveline is now a doctoral student in the Environmental Humanities at LMU Munich.

-Gry Ulstein, In Search of the Universal Utopia.

Gry completed the Utrecht RMA in Comparative Literary Studies, edited the journal Frame, and currently works for Rosi Braidotti in Utrecht.

-You will find posts on the theses or extended essays of several other UU students also on thenewutopians.wordpress.com .

-Laurence Schaack, Martijn Gils, Leonie Brasser, and Alice Lambert are now taking Masterclasses on Transcultural Utopia under my supervision, under the RMA in Comparative Literary Studies. Stay tuned for more.

In 2018, I have been asked to offer a day-long Masterclass on Transcultural Utopia under the aegis of the Onderzoekschool Literatuurwetenschap, the Dutch Literary Studies School, bringing together the various  advanced graduate programmes  in Literary Studies in the country.