DJ Cloete

• Doctoral defence: 7 September 2026 at 10 a.m.
• UAntwerpen Stadscampus, room R.219 / online
• Supervisor: Kris Van de Poel
• ​Confirm your attendance through this form by 2 September​

Abstract

Insufficient academic literacy is a significant predictor of academic success and therefore requires targeted support within higher education. However, the emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) has complicated the identification of students' support needs, as well-formulated AI-generated texts can mask deficiencies in critical thinking and academic writing skills. To date, limited empirical research has examined how AI literacy and academic literacy intersect within structured support programmes, particularly in the South African and Afrikaans-speaking context.

This study investigates how an AI-supported approach can enhance the academic literacy, writing proficiency, and critical agency of first-year students. Based on the research findings, a conceptual framework is proposed in which academic literacy forms the foundation, AI literacy functions as a mediating competency, and AI-mediated writing practices constitute the interaction layer in which human judgement and responsibility remain central.

Situated within the pragmatic paradigm, a phased mixed-methods research design was employed to evaluate the Write It+ academic literacy support programme across five implementation cycles while simultaneously investigating an AI-supported writing intervention. Within this intervention, students produced successive versions of an academic paragraph using AI feedback aligned with the assessment rubric. Data collection included pre- and post-tests using the Toets van Akademiesegeletterheidsvlakke (TAG), analyses of successive text versions, AI interaction data, and a questionnaire measuring self-efficacy, processing fluency, and critical agency.

The findings demonstrate that the Write It+ programme leads to significant improvements in the academic literacy of first-year students and substantially reduces the proportion of students classified as high risk. In addition, the quality of students' academic writing improved significantly across successive text versions. Although GenAI provided targeted support throughout the writing process, students remained active authors of their texts by critically evaluating, adapting, or rejecting AI-generated suggestions. Furthermore, a moderate positive relationship was found between self-efficacy and critical agency, suggesting that structured interaction with GenAI not only strengthens students' confidence but also enhances their ability to evaluate AI-generated output critically.

This dissertation makes three important contributions to applied linguistics and digital pedagogy. First, it positions AI literacy as an integrated subdomain of academic literacy within higher education. Second, it provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of the Write It+ programme at scale, an aspect that has not previously been investigated systematically. Third, it introduces the HAIL model (Human-centred AI-mediated Academic Literacy), a human-centred conceptual model in which AI is employed to support academic literacy without displacing human agency from the writing process. In doing so, this study advocates a process-oriented approach to academic writing in which the student, rather than the technology, retains ultimate responsibility for the final text.

Sofie Moors

• Doctoral defence: 11 September 2026 at 3 p.m.
• UAntwerpen Stadscampus, Hof van Liere: Frederik de Tassiszaal
• Supervisors: Mike Kestemont (UAntwerpen), Remco Sleiderink (UAntwerpen) and Karina van Dalen-Oskam (UvA / Huygens Institute)
• Confirm your attendance through sofie.moors@uantwerpen.be.​​

Abstract

In the Middle Ages, scribes copied texts by hand, which inevitably affected their stability. Where classical-philological approaches sought to eliminate scribal variation in pursuit of the original authorial text, Codex and Code follows material philology in shifting the focus to the scribe and the text carrier: variation is treated not as a deviation from an original, but as valuable data on scribal behaviour.

At the centre of this study is the Martijn Trilogy, a thirteenth-century poem by the Flemish author Jacob van Maerlant. Remarkably, Maerlant did not opt for the then-dominant rhyming couplet, but for an intricate thirteen-line stanza (aab/aab/aab/aabb). The trilogy survives in eighteen textual witnesses. This rich transmission has so far been studied mainly to gain access to Maerlant’s original, as in the edition by Verdam and Leendertz (1918); how the text was actually transmitted received less attention.

To investigate these copying processes I employ digital methods. Scholars have suggested that digital philology can transcend the debate between classical and material philology. I therefore examine whether it is possible to build on the solid foundation laid by Verdam and Leendertz, even though their aim was an entirely different one.

In the chapter The Manuscripts, I discuss the production circumstances of the text carriers. The fragmentary codices fundamentally revise our picture of the transmission: the trilogy circulated not only in large composite manuscripts, but also in small single-quire manuscripts that point to intensive personal use. In Interrelationship of the Manuscripts, I map the relations between these manuscripts in a stemma. Traditional algorithms fail to reconcile the trilogy’s conflicting genealogical relations; a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis does – and it largely confirms the stemma that Verdam and Leendertz had already predicted.

In The Rhymes and The Structure of the Stanzas, finally, I examine how scribes handled the poem’s unusual textual form. For the first time, I provide empirical evidence for the assumption that the rhyme word is more stable in transmission than the rest of the verse. A comparison with the Rijmbijbel, a text by the same author in simpler rhyming couplets, shows that the unusual form did indeed affect copying behaviour: the stanzaic structure has a stabilising effect at the global level – verses are rarely omitted or added – while causing more confusion locally, such as transposed verses. Whether scribes carefully copied the trilogy’s rhythmic pattern remains unclear. The poem shows a regular alternation of four- and three-stress verses, but scansion always remains conjectural, even with digital methods.

With this study I demonstrate that examining the Martijn Trilogy through material and digital philology is challenging but, above all, worthwhile, and that codex and code can be complementary.

Merit Hondelink

• Doctoral defence: 24 September 2026 at 11 a.m.
• RUG: Academiegebouw Groningen
• Supervisors: Daan Raemaekers (RUG), Bruno Blondé (UAntwerpen) and Mans Schepers (RUG)
• ​Confirm your attendance by email before 18 september.​
• ​Read Merit's article on the faculty blog Bladspiegel (English version at the bottom)​

Abstract

Dietary habits of the past are a tough nut to crack. This dissteration looks into the consumption of plant-based foods in early modern Dutch cities (1500–1850) using a multidisciplinary approach that combines archaeobotanical and historical research. Data from cesspit finds, cookbooks, a herbarium, kitchen accounts, and experimental archaeobotanical research are integrated to reconstruct plant-based food consumption.

Two questions are central to the dissertation: 1) which plant-based foods were consumed regularly, and 2) how can culinary archaeobotanical and historical sources best be integrated?

The research shows that the plant-based diet of early modern Dutch citizens was characterised primarily by continuity. Although food trends, local availability and the diversity of (exotic) ingredients changed, the fundamental composition of the daily diet appears to have remained stable.

At the same time, it appears that neither source alone can provide a complete reconstruction of past food consumption. Archaeobotanical remains show what was actually prepared, consumed, and discarded by a household, but the specific dishes and their composition remain unknown. Historical sources reveal what was available, prescribed, purchased, or culturally valued, but say less about the prevalence and popularity, nor the consumer.

By systematically combining both perspectives, a more nuanced picture emerges of daily consumption, local variation, and global imports. Further methodological innovation, such as plant tissue analysis, analysis of volatile organic compounds and ‘learning by doing’, offers opportunities to further refine future reconstructions. Just as with a good meal, it is all about the thoughtful combination of the ingredients.