Hendrikje Dorussen

hendrikje dorussen
DPhil Candidate
St Anne's College
hendrikje.dorussen@st-annes.ox.ac.uk

Thesis title: Linguistic Crises: Imaginings of Language Endangerment in Contemporary Literary and Cultural Production

Supervisor: Professor Matthew Reynolds

 

My doctoral research explores the ways in which ‘endangered’ languages, and the idea of language endangerment, are imagined and represented in contemporary literary and cultural production. I am interested in the ways both native and non-native writers navigate working with and translating from languages in insecure states, particularly when their own relationship to the language in question is unstable. Through this work, I am considering larger questions about the value of (linguistic) diversity, the relationship between culture and language, and what contact with ‘endangered’ languages does to English & its literatures. 

 

My research is fully funded by the Rupert Murdoch Studentship. 

 

I am also an editorial board member of the peer-reviewed journal, the OCCT Review. 

 

Research interests: translation theory, 20th and 21st century poetics, visual culture, ecocriticism, indigeneity and postcolonial literature 

 

Research and conference papers: 

  • "(Dis)embodied Mother Tongues and postcolonial 'l/anguish'." OCCT Graduate Symposium, May 2026.
  • "Eqqumiitsuliorneq: Haptic Reading, Climate Representation and the Book-Objects of Nancy Campbell." FRAME: Journal of Literary Studies, June 2025 (38.1). https://www.frameliteraryjournal.com/38-1-page-to-planet/38-1-hendrikje-dorussen/
  • "Surface and Untranslatability in the Book-Objects of Nancy Campbell." Northwestern University Screen Cultures Graduate Student Conference, October 2024.

 

Teaching:

I am currently a Graduate Development Scholar in English at St Anne’s college; this position is allowing me to develop teaching experience across a range of Oxford undergraduate papers. These include: Paper 1 (Introduction to English Language and Literature), Prelims Paper 4 (1910-present day), and the running of Study Skills seminars for first year undergraduates. 

I also have experience supervising visiting students (e.g. for a minor paper in Modernism & Dance) and dissertation students (topics include: Helen Oyeyemi; transcription and orality).