Ivo van Leeuwen

Caroline Vander Stichele

Tilburg School of Catholic Theology
Department: Biblical Sciences and Church History
Expertise: Gender Roles in Biblical Texts and Images

Caroline Vander Stichele

Linocut portrait by Ivo van Leeuwen

Part of the portrait series Women in Academia

 

Academic Portrait 

"The focus of my current academic work is related to the cultural impact of a remarkable book: the Bible. I am fascinated by the many and diverse ways in which biblical texts and figures appear in Western culture. I am intrigued by how characters and stories from the Bible are visualized in for instance paintings, films, cartoons, children’s bibles, advertisements, and postcards.

Of special interest to me is the question of what role gender plays in these representations. Why is God almost always represented as old, white, and male? And does it have to stay that way? How do such images relate to the underlying source texts and to earlier interpretations and representations? What does that tell us about our cultural heritage and its significance for us today? These are questions I seek to address in my research. Reading and writing about them is what makes me tick."

More about history and academic heritage

The Tilburg University academic heritage is a very diverse set of archives, visual materials, collections, devices, recorded stories, et cetera that relate to the history of the university.