Biography

Adriaan van der Weel is a Professor Emeritus by special appointment at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.  Adriaan van der Weel is a prominent scholar in the field of book history and digital reading. His work primarily focuses on the historical development of reading practices and the impact of digital technologies on reading and literacy. Van der Weel has contributed significantly to understanding how digital media technology is transforming traditional reading habits, also in academic settings. His research integrates perspectives from history, technology studies, media studies, and cognitive psychology, making his work interdisciplinary and comprehensive. Van der Weel’s academic journey began with a degree in English Literature, after which he pursued further studies in the history of the book. His interest in digital media emerged in the mid 1990s, coinciding with the rise of the internet and digital scholarly publishing. He has since become a leading figure in analyzing how digital texts influence the cognitive processes involved in reading. His work is crucial for educators, publishers, and policymakers who seek to understand the implications of digital reading for literacy and education. In addition to his research, Van der Weel is actively involved in various academic and professional organizations. He has served on the boards of several journals and associations dedicated to book history and digital media studies. His contributions extend beyond academia through public lectures and consultations with educational institutions and publishing houses. To popularise his academic work, together with Ruud Hisgen he has also published The Reading Human: The significance of the book for our existence (2022; in Dutch; also translated into Russian). His interdisciplinary approach and commitment to bridging the gap between historical and contemporary reading practices make him a respected authority in his field.

Selected Publications:

   Van der Weel, A. (2011). Changing Our Textual Minds: Towards a Digital Order of Knowledge. Manchester University Press.
   Van der Weel, A., & Mangen, A. (2016). The evolution of reading in the age of digitization: An integrative framework for reading research. Literacy 50: 3 (September 2016), pp. 116-24 https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12086
   Kovač, M. & Van der Weel, A. (2018). Reading in a post-textual era. First Monday, 1 October 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i10.9416
   Van der Weel, A. (2019) Reading. In The Oxford Handbook of Publishing, eds. Angus Phillips and Michael Bhaskar, Oxford: OUP, pp. 55-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794202.013.18
   Schüller-Zwierlein, A., Mangen, A., Kovač, M., & Van der Weel, A. (2022). Why Higher-Level Reading Is Important. First Monday, 5 September 2022. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i5.12770
   Van der Weel, A., & Mangen, A. (2022). Textual reading in digitised classrooms: Reflections on reading beyond the internet. International Journal of Educational Research, 115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2022.102036
   Gerčar, J. & Van der Weel, A. (2023). Reading Health and the Reading Health Index. Societies 2023, 13, 86. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13040086