Rate My Professor Gaston Franssen

Gaston Franssen is Full Professor of Dutch Literary Studies and Intermediality in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. He defended his PhD thesis entitled Gerrit Kouwenaar en de politiek van het lezen in 2008, published by Vantilt in Nijmegen. Franssen's research specializations encompass authorship, celebrity studies, narrativity, intermediality, and health humanities. He has served as a faculty member in Dutch Language and Literature and in English Literature at the University of Amsterdam, previously holding the position of Assistant Professor of Literary Culture. Additionally, he is an affiliated researcher at the Verhalenbank Psychiatrie and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Amsterdam from September 2021 to February 2023.

Franssen has co-edited significant volumes on literary celebrity, including Celebrity Authorship and Afterlives in English and American Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, with Rick Honings) and Idolizing Authorship: Literary Celebrity and the Construction of Identity, 1800 to the Present (Amsterdam University Press, 2017, with Rick Honings). His peer-reviewed publications include Literary Celebrity and the Discourse on Authorship in Dutch Literature (Journal of Dutch Literature, 2010), The Celebritization of Self-Care: The Celebrity Health Narrative of Demi Lovato and the Sickscape of Mental Illness (European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2019), Narratives of Undiagnosability: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Life-Writing and the Indeterminacy of Illness Memoirs (Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 2020), and contributions to Celebrity Studies, Nederlandse letterkunde, and Frontiers in Psychiatry. He serves as the main editor of Nederlandse letterkunde, section editor of Celebrity Studies, and has guest-edited special issues such as Sincerity and Authenticity in Celebrity Culture (Celebrity Studies, 2019). Franssen has delivered public lectures on literary celebrity, fan culture, and illness narratives at venues including Spui25 in Amsterdam, the Open University Conference, and De Nieuwe Utrechtse School. He coordinated the Critical Health Humanities research group within the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and organized the Celebrity Crises and Conflicts conference held at the University of Amsterdam in July 2024. His scholarly contributions advance understandings of celebrity dynamics in modern literature and cultural representations of health and illness.