Dr. Sander Bax appointed Professor of Education and Culture

Sander Bax: "The research that I would like to initiate from my chair focuses on the impact of media culture on the cultural field and on education. This means that research will be conducted into how writers, artists and other public intellectuals fashion themselves in what they do and what they make, and how they intervene with work and performance in public debates about social and political developments (in past and present).”

In addition, the research will concern the effects of media culture on education. Our education is changing pervasively due to digitalization and globalization, and the Covid 19 pandemic has reinforced this. New technologies have enabled new forms of education, but have also revealed the value of the forms of education that already existed. For the coming years, there is a need for exploratory research that examines the possibilities and challenges of educational innovations and for sound educational design research that tests new techniques and new questions.

Culture and literature education

Within this educational design research, specific attention will be given to culture and literature education and to the school subject of Dutch Language and Culture (which is developing strongly). What effects do globalization and digitalization have on changing forms of reading and writing? 
From January 1, the Tilburg Center of the Learning Sciences will be positioned as a department within TSHD. Together with the already existing staff of the department, Bax will stimulate  educational research within Tilburg University. Educational research within TICELS relates to the various layers of education (po, vo and ho). It is concentrated around four broad themes: digitalization (including blended learning), literacy (including digital and media literacy), citizenship and identity (including character building) and teacher learning. 

Boudewijn Haverkort, dean of TSHD: "We are extremely pleased with the appointment of Sander Bax as Professor in our School. Sander Bax is an outstanding researcher and teacher, who has demonstrated both inside and outside the university to achieve important goals at the intersection of literature, culture, learning and teaching that is crucial for our society and our students, with great expertise, but above all with an eye for the needs of the present time.”

Biography

Sander Bax (1977) studied Modern Dutch Literature and Literary Studies at Utrecht University and received his PhD from Tilburg University in 2007 with the study: ‘De taak van de Schrijver. Het poëticale debat in de Nederlandse literatuur (1968-1985)’. Since 2007, he has worked as an assistant and associate professor at the Department of Cultural Studies, where he teaches in the fields of literary studies and cultural history and conducts research on the way literary writers fashion themselves in an increasingly complex media culture. Bax has published several books, including The Mulisch Myth [De Mulisch Mythe] (2015) and As Literature Turns [De literatuur draait door] (2019). His history of authorship between 1880 and 2020 will be published by Prometheus Publishers in 2023. Currently, Bax is working on Bernlef's biography and a handbook for literature education in secondary schools.  

Since 2011, Bax has been part of the teaching team of the Tilburg University Teacher Training Program as a teacher of pedagogical content knowledge in Dutch Language and Culture. In this capacity, he is strongly committed to improving and deepening the school subject of Dutch Language and Culture. 
Bax has extensive managing experience. Between 2011 and 2016, he was program director of bachelor and master programs in the Department of Culture Studies, and as of 2020, he serves as vice dean of education at TSHD, a position he will step down from on 1-1-2023. 

For more information, please contact science editor Tineke Bennema, tel. 013-4668998 or via persvoorlichters@tilburguniversity.edu.