Jacqueline Bel is Full Professor of Modern Dutch Literature (Multatuli Chair) at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She specializes in literature from the fin de siècle period, the first half of the 20th century, the two world wars, and (post)colonial literature. She serves as editor for Over Multatuli (the Multatuli Society's yearbook), Indische Letteren , and the Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde , and is a member of the advisory board for the Flemish-Dutch literary-historical journal Zacht Lawijd . Her research focuses on Dutch literary history with particular attention to Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker), women writers in the Low Countries, and postcolonial perspectives on Dutch literature. She is currently working on a book about the Jewish city novel in the first half of the 20th century and another on Multatuli. Her scholarly fingerprint includes strong engagement with women writers, authorship, 1930s literature, genre studies, and interwar period literature. Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on Multatuli's legacy, Dutch literary history, and postcolonial reinterpretation of canonical works. She has examined Max Havelaar in contemporary contexts including sensitivity reading and digital reading practices, while maintaining historical perspective on early 20th century Dutch literature. Bel holds leadership positions in several literary organizations: she is vice-chair of the Multatuli Society (with an ancillary activity listed through 2030), chair of the J.I. de Haan Society, and was until September 2022 vice-chair of the Willem Frederik Hermans Institute Foundation. She has served on literary prize juries including the BNG Literature Prize (until June 2022), and the Henriette Roland Holst Prize and Charlotte Köhler Stipendium in 2023. She teaches courses including Creative Writing, Dutch Literature and Society, and specialized courses on Multatuli and the literary field. Her academic activities include organizing conferences such as Multatuli Internationaal (2025) and 'Buffels, tijgers en witte mieren. Multatuli en het dierenrijk' (2024), as well as examining PhD theses on digital reading practices.
