PIMSPontifical Institute
of
Mediaeval Studies

Joep Leerssen studied Comparative Literature and English at the University of Aachen and Anglo-Irish Studies at University College Dublin; he took his PhD in 1986 at the University of Utrecht. In that year he was appointed at the University of Amsterdam, where he obtained the chair in Modern European Literature in 1991.

He served as director of the Huizinga Institute (Dutch National Research Institute for Cultural Studies) from 1995 until 2006. He held the Erasmus Lecturership at Harvard University in 2003, was awarded the Spinoza Prize in 2008, and appointed Academy Professor by the Royal Netherlands Academy in 2010.