Studie(s) en diploma's

PhD, English Literature, University of Leuven, Belgium, 2003
MA, Women and Literature in English, University of Hull, UK, 2000
MA, English and Dutch Literature and Linguistics, University of Leuven, Belgium, 1998
BA, English and Dutch Literature and Linguistics, Catholic University of Brussels, Belgium, 1996

Huidige functieomschrijving

Hoogleraar Engelse letterkunde

Ervaring

Professor of English Literature (Hoogleraar, BOF-ZAP until 2020), Ghent University, 2018-present
Associate Professor of English Literature (Hoofddocent BOF-ZAP), Ghent University, 2015-2018
Director, Cultural Memory Studies Initiative, Ghent University, 2010-present
Assistant Professor of English Literature (Docent BOF-ZAP), Ghent University, 2010-2015
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), English Department, Ghent University, 2006-2012
Assistant Professor of English Literature (Doctor-Assistent), Ghent University, 2003-2006

Relevante Publicaties

AUTHORED BOOKS

Bond, Lucy, and Stef Craps. Trauma. New Critical Idiom. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.

Craps, Stef. Postcolonial Witnessing: Trauma Out of Bounds. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; paperback (with a preface by Rosanne Kennedy) 2015.

Craps, Stef. Trauma and Ethics in the Novels of Graham Swift: No Short-Cuts to Salvation. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005.

EDITED VOLUMES

Craps, Stef, ed. Decolonizing English Literature. Spec. issue of Collateral: Online Journal for CrossCultural Close Reading 26 (November 2020) <http://collateraljournal.com/index.php?cluster=26&gt;.

Craps, Stef, and Mahlu Mertens, eds. Traag geweld: Kan kunst het klimaat redden? Spec. issue of Collateral: Online Journal for Cross-Cultural Close Reading 25 (June 2020) <http://collateraljournal.com/index.php?cluster=25&gt;.

Craps, Stef, ed. Ecological Grief. Spec. issue of American Imago 77.1 (2020).

Craps, Stef, and Rick Crownshaw, eds. The Rising Tide of Climate Change Fiction. Spec. issue of Studies in the Novel 50.1 (2018).

Bond, Lucy, Stef Craps, and Pieter Vermeulen, eds. Memory Unbound: Tracing the Dynamics of Memory Studies. New York: Berghahn, 2017; paperback 2018.

Craps, Stef, and Michael Rothberg, eds. Transcultural Negotiations of Holocaust Memory. Spec. issue of Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts 53.4 (2011).

Craps, Stef, and Gert Buelens, eds. Postcolonial Trauma Novels. Spec. double issue of Studies in the Novel 40.1-2 (2008).

Volledige publicatielijst: zie CV (https://www.stefcraps.com/wp-content/uploads/CV_Stef_Craps.pdf)

Relevante onderzoeken

My research interests lie in twentieth-century and contemporary literature and culture, memory and trauma studies, postcolonial theory, and ecocriticism and environmental humanities. Much of my work explores how literature bears witness to traumatic or otherwise disturbing events and experiences.

My study of Graham Swift brought the insights of trauma theory and ethical criticism to bear on this major contemporary writer. While earlier critics had stressed the ways in which his novels undermine the truth claims of history by foregrounding its conceptual overlap with fiction, my reading reoriented the debate by arguing that the central question Swift’s work raises is not whether reality can be represented truthfully, but whether and how it can be worked through.

In retrospect, this study can be seen as a first attempt on my part to extend trauma theory beyond the field of Holocaust testimony and literature to which its application was usually restricted.

My subsequent research took this endeavour a step further. It set out to strip trauma theory of its persistent Eurocentric and monocultural bias, which is at odds with the field’s commitment to the promotion of transcultural solidarity.

It called into question the tendency of the founding texts of the field to marginalize traumatic experiences of non-Western or minority groups, to take for granted the universal validity of definitions of trauma that have developed out of the history of Western modernity, to favour or even prescribe a modernist aesthetic of fragmentation and aporia as uniquely suited to the task of bearing witness to trauma, and to adopt an anti-comparativist, compartmentalizing approach to interconnected traumatic histories.

My work in this area is widely credited with spearheading the trend towards pluralization, diversification, and inclusivity that characterizes the latest wave of literary and cultural trauma scholarship.

My contribution to the study of memory more broadly has been, firstly, to help effect a shift from a celebratory or euphoric moment in transnational or transcultural memory studies to a more critical and reflexive one and, secondly, to initiate a dialogue between memory studies and the environmental humanities.

My latest research focuses on how contemporary literature and culture more generally grapple with the aesthetic, ethical, and existential challenges associated with climate change and the Anthropocene, the proposed new geological epoch defined by human impact of which global warming is the most salient manifestation.

While climate change is often discussed in strictly scientific, economic, or technical terms, it also raises profound questions of meaning, value, and justice, as it unsettles conventional ways of seeing and inhabiting the world. Climate change challenges the imagination, shakes the very idea of what it means to be human, and forces us to re-frame our relationship to the planet and to each other.

I examine the human imaginative engagement with climate change via literary texts and other artistic works telling innovative stories that seek to facilitate the perspective shifts and the new ways of thinking and feeling that the Anthropocene imperatively demands.

Mijn media ervaring

Interviewed as new chair of the Library Committee of the Faculty Library Arts and Humanities at Ghent University for “Humans of Humanities,” Nieuwsbrief LWBib & GhentCDH, 17 December 2021 <https://www.nieuwsbrievenlw.ugent.be/sites/default/files/attachments/In…;.

Interviewed about Raretijdenkabinet, a situation room running in parallel with COP26 in which delegations from Ghent University’s advisory and decision-making bodies met to discuss how to help the university live up to its climate ambitions, Raretijdencourant, December 2021 <https://www.ugent.be/nl/univgent/waarvoor-staat-ugent/duurzaamheidsbele…;.

Interviewed about Over over morgen: Andere verhalen over de toekomst, a collection of hopeful short stories about the future by ten Dutch and Flemish literary authors, and “2084: De toekomst is hoopvol,” the project that gave rise to it, for “Boekathon,” VRT, 6 November 2021. Video: <https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/de-boekathon/6-november/de-boekathon-s6-no…;. Accompanying article: <https://www.langzullenwelezen.be/nieuws/over-over-morgen-genoeg-met-toe…;.

Interviewed about a tree occupation at Ghent University for “Bezetting van Sterrebos groeit uit tot een tweede Lappersfort,” Apache, 21 October 2021 <https://www.apache.be/2021/10/21/bezetting-van-sterrebos-groeit-uit-tot…;.

Interviewed about student-author collaborations in the context of my climate fiction course for “UGent-studenten fungeren als klankbord voor bekende auteurs: ‘Het was heel waardevol voor hen om ideeën af te toetsen,’” Het Laatste Nieuws, 15 July 2021 <https://www.hln.be/gent/ugent-studenten-fungeren-als-klankbord-voor-bek…;.

Featured in “UGent-studenten helpen topauteurs met verhalen van hoop,” an article in UGent’s online magazine Durf Denken about student-author collaborations in the context of my climate fiction course, 1 July 2021 <https://www.durfdenken.be/nl/ugenters/ugent-studenten-helpen-topauteurs…;.

Featured in “BLM a Catalyst for Decolonization Efforts in Belgium,” UCLA International Institute webinar report, 30 April 2021 <https://www.international.ucla.edu/euro/article/240302&gt;.

Response by Marijana Mikić to my discussion of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower for the University of Tromsø’s public-facing online reading project “Literature / History / Human Rights,” 29 April 2021 <https://site.uit.no/readrespond/past-events/&gt;.

Interviewed about creative climate communication for “Mensentaal,” Urgent.fm, 20 April 2021. Podcast: <https://mensentaal.captivate.fm/episode/over-creatieve-klimaatcommunica…;.

Response by Jorge Sarasola to my lecture at the University of St Andrews’s Cultural Identity and Memory Studies Institute, “Reading Group: Stef Craps on the Anthropocene & Memory Studies,” 25 March 2021 <https://cims.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2021/03/25/reading-group-stef-craps-on…;.

Interviewed about the new vocabulary for the emotional impact of ecological and climate change for “Vocabulario para una crisis climática,” El País, Ideas no. 298, 4, 31 January 2021 <https://elpais.com/ideas/2021-01-30/a-la-pena-por-la-perdida-de-ese-par…;.

Interviewed about climate change fiction for Schamper, 2 and 10 March 2020 <https://www.schamper.ugent.be/editie/616/artikel/eigen-onderzoek-eerst-…;; <https://www.schamper.ugent.be/daily/longread-eigen-onderzoek-eerst&gt;.

Consulted for TV news report on eco-anxiety and climate depression, “Nieuwsuur,” NOS/NTR, NPO 2, 5 December 2019. Video and accompanying article: <https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2313399-ecorexia-en-klimaatdepressie-m…;.

Interviewed about memory and the Anthropocene for “Recuerdos del futuro,” La Marea 71 (July-August 2019): 80-82 <https://www.climatica.lamarea.com/recuerdos-del-futuro/&gt;.

Interviewed about climate trauma for “Punto de fuga” radio show, Cadena SER, 29 June 2019. Podcast and accompanying article: <https://cadenaser.com/programa/2019/06/28/punto_de_fuga/1561735073_8446…;.

Interviewed about climate trauma for “Prepararse para el desastre,” El País, 27 June 2019 <https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/06/26/actualidad/1561568653_487742.html…;.

Interviewed about creative writing and academic life for Simile 10, spring 2019 <https://prometheusgent.wordpress.com/get-lit-stef-craps/&gt;.

Featured in “Towards a Postcolonial Consideration of Trauma: A Look at Stef Craps's Recent Work,” Days and Memory blog post by Priscilla Charrat Nelson, 8 April 2014 <https://hgmsblog.weebly.com/blog/towards-a-postcolonial-consideration-o…;.