Lecture | Research Seminar Medieval and Early Modern History
Language Professionals on the Move: the Language Sector and Migrant Agency in Early Modern Europe
- Date
- Friday 12 December 2025
- Time
- Serie
- Research Seminars Medieval and Early Modern History academic year 2025 - 2026
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
In the history of migration, language plays a crucial role. Migrants often find themselves in a new linguistic environment and face the need to learn the local language. However, the languages and linguistic skills they bring with them can also become important sources of agency. In this talk, I present my findings on and the diverse ways in which migrants from the sixteenth-century Southern Low Countries leveraged their language skills abroad, transforming linguistic capital into, for instance, financial capital. In doing so, they not only rebuilt their lives after migration but also left a lasting linguistic imprint on their host societies. This talk will highlight successful examples of migrants mobilising their language skills, while also considering the obstacles and conditions that shaped the extent to which early modern migrants could exploit their linguistic resources.
About the speaker
Alisa van de Haar is Assistant Professor in historical French Literature at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the multilingual situation in the early modern Low Countries, relations between French and Dutch literature, language and migration, and historical language education.
Research Seminars Medieval and Early Modern History
The seminars are informal and intended to foster discussion. There are drinks afterwards. Everyone is welcome to join.
If you would like to join a session, and/or receive invitations for the upcoming sessions, you can send an e-mail to: ngassistent@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Further information can be obtained from the organizers Shiru Lim, Judith Pollmann, Jeroen Duindam and Philippe Buc.