How do communication revolutions affect international relations? Recent events such as the Arab Spring have inspired many studies into the role of social media in shaping modern international relations. As the Dutch National Research Agenda emphasizes, however, it is also important to investigate how media innovations shaped international relations in the past. In contrast to developments in the present, past communication revolutions can be analysed in the long term, and teach us about alternative strategies and outcomes of new media uses in diplomacy. This project examines how one of the greatest communication revolutions of all time, the introduction of print, influenced international relations when diplomacy itself was taking on its modern shape. The overall aim is to analyse the impact of print on Dutch international relations in a comparative framework, and to assess its long-term development and effects (1568-1713). Through systematic, computer-assisted archival research we examine how, when and why European states used printed media to reach out to foreign audiences. Which new strategies of achieving both short-term goals and long-term soft power did states develop, and how did others respond to new diplomatic uses of print? Premodern diplomacy has long been studied as a business of elites managing relations amongst themselves, shielded off from the wider population. In a pilot study to this project, I recently challenged this narrative and argued that we need to historicize the study of public diplomacy. Innovatively connecting the histories of print and diplomacy, this project will lay the factual, methodological and conceptual foundations for the study of public diplomacy in premodern Europe. In cooperation with partner institutions, we will share and discuss the history, theory and practice of public diplomacy with professional diplomats, journalists and scholars in other fields, and co-curate an exhibition on Dutch international relations in 2022.

The visitor project Resistance: Risk and Responsibility (ResRisRes) focuses on scientists’ awareness of and resistance to metaphor in responsible health communication, which is defined as scientists’ clear and audience tailored language use. Our objective is to shed light on the risk and responsibility involved in metaphor use in scientific discourse and the ways in which this can or should elicit resistance, the visitor adding a dedicated perspective from the history and philosophy of science. We distinguish between two complementary sides: a conceptual analysis of risk and responsibility entailed in metaphor use in scientific discourse (WP1), and its validation in an empirical study of how and why scientists resist metaphor (WP2). This will eventually open up new directions of research into how responsibility in health communication can be fostered, which is intended to lead to more extensive collaboration between the visitor and the host in a new Marie Curie-Sklodowska Individual Fellowship. This project will be applied for in the fall of 2017 (call and date still to be released) with Dr. Giulia Frezza as main researcher and University of Amsterdam as Host Institution (WP3).

The discovery of the Texel wreck BZN17 recently attracted worldwide attention, not least as a result of the intervention of the applicants. Unique objects retrieved from the wreck, some related to the British royal House of Stuart, made international headlines, exciting professional archaeologists, historians and general audiences alike. The project seeks to promote a new engagement with early modern material culture in general, and those unique objects found in the wreck in particular, using cultural historical sources and methodologies. In doing so, it will speak directly to NOaA 2.0, exploring one of its key questions in new and exciting ways: how do individual and group identities find expression in material culture? While archaeology and history often work in separation – to their mutual disadvantage – this project seeks to bring both disciplines closer together. Two postdocs will conduct archival research in the UK and the Netherlands, establishing a historical context as well as yielding basic facts on the owners of both goods and ship. Subsequent co-operation with researchers of materiality will further our understanding of how the history of Anglo-Dutch mobility and displacement of exile affected material culture, and how individual and group identities were shaped through that culture on both sides of the Channel. A pilot study for a transdisciplinary European project, this project seeks to build a bridge between maritime archeologists and cultural historians, in association with experts from the Conservation, Heritage and Museum sectors. Research outcomes will be widely disseminated through international media and exhibitions.

The objective of the visit is to bring together Steen?s new three-dimensional theory of metaphor with innovative insights about the embodied nature of figurative language processing from cognitive neuro science developed by visiting researcher Cuccio. We aim to make explicit that and how the two approaches are entirely compatible with each other, complement each other, raise new questions about each other, and jointly contribute to the construction of a new and encompassing neuro scientific ground for Steen?s three-dimensional theory of metaphor. Both approaches will benefit from interacting with each other by making explicit which assumptions are made and have to be made by both sides. In particular, we aim to develop a unified, consistent and explicit model for metaphor that is grounded in embodied cognition but at the same time acknowledges that there is more to metaphorical cognition than its grounding in embodiment. Two work packages can be identified in our research project: WP1. We will elaborate a novel definition of Embodied Simulation that shows how the body plays a direct role in the initial stages of language comprehension, with a special focus on the area of metaphor comprehension (Cuccio, submitted a; Cuccio, submitted b). WP2. We will review contrasting findings in embodied language processing research on metaphor comprehension from this new Embodied Simulation perspective and explain apparent incongruities by exploiting Steen?s distinction between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor.

OASIS is an open database of non-technical summaries of high-quality research that is continuously fed by key Applied Linguistics journals that have incorporated accessible summary production in their publication routines. By establishing a culture of systematic production and dissemination of accessible summaries, research becomes physically and, most importantly, conceptually available to teachers, teacher educators, language programme designers, test designers, city counsellors responsible for education and equality, and caregivers. To strengthen its position, this project will 1) document evidence of OASIS’ impact; 2) improve the reach to stakeholders; 3) increase the number of participating journals; and 4) obtain structural financial support.