Ted Sanders named Desiderius Erasmus Chair in Belgium

Ted Sanders
Ted Sanders

In 2023-2024, Professor of Dutch Language Use and Discourse Studies Ted Sanders will head the Desiderius Erasmus Chair of Nederlands over de grenzen (Dutch Across Borders) within the Dutch programme of the Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres at the Université catholique de Louvain.

Exchange in Dutch Studies

The Desiderius Erasmus Chair was established on the initiative of the Dutch embassy in Belgium. The objective is to promote exchange in the fields of Dutch Studies and Dutch language, culture, society, and literature by annually inviting a renowned guest professor in the field of Dutch Studies.

"This invitation from UC Louvain makes me very glad," Sanders says. "We have long had good ties with the Faculty of Arts there, having cooperated a lot, particularly in research on the structure of text and discourse in various languages and the role that coherence plays in conversations and understanding texts. This appointment reestablishes those ties."

"But just as importantly, I will be working with students and young researchers. In doing so, I will pay particular attention to the relationship with intelligible language in communication. This will include a lot of recent research by and with Utrecht colleagues. It is inspiring to notice that in Belgium, too, the interest in these themes is high."

Ted Sanders

Ted Sanders is vice dean of Research and Impact at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Humanities and professor of Dutch Language Use and Discourse Studies. His research focuses on coherence in text, discourse and cognition, and the comprehensibility of texts. He has led several nationally and NWO-funded research programmes, including on causality and subjectivity in discourse and on comprehensible language and effective communication.

On 6 November 2023, Sanders will give his inaugural lecture Understandable Language: On Texts, Communication, Research, and Advice. During the year, he will give several lectures and attend activities with students.