HOME
CONTACT US
BOARD
EVENTS
HISTORY
NEWSLETTERS
GOOD-TO-KNOW
DUES
History of the NAUL, kindly provided by Karla Vandersypen (updated December 2012, September 2019)
The Netherlands America University League (NAUL) was inaugurated on
December 3, 1976 on the University of Michigan campus. The
founder was Jan DeVries, a Dutch native and a professor at the UM
School of Public Health. He had talked of his plans with
attendees at the “Dutch lunch,” which started in the School of
Education in 1974 as a noontime occasion to speak Dutch while
discussing issues of interest to those with a connection to the
language or to the Netherlands. These Dutch-Americans and
lovers-of-things-Dutch became the NAUL's first members. (The
Dutch lunch has continued without a break until this day; it meets
every Thursday in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
in the 3rd-floor conference room, Modern Languages Building, noon to 1
pm.)
At first, DeVries envisioned an informal group whose objective was to
promote contact among people at the University and in the Ann Arbor
area who came from the Netherlands, had studied or worked there, or had
academic or other contacts in the Netherlands. He took as his
model an earlier Netherlands America University League which had met in
Ann Arbor from 1953 to1958. That group had in turn been inspired
by an organization which began at Columbia University during World War
II: a group of Dutch and American academics who by their cooperative
work aimed to make Dutch culture more known in the United States.
The NAUL carried on in an informal mode in the beginning, sponsoring
films and speakers, celebrating Sinterklaas, offering support and
friendship to Dutch students and faculty. For the first four
years, funding was also informal, dependent mainly on contributions
from individuals.
The group moved to incorporate early in 1980 and was granted tax-exempt
status. The Articles of Incorporation state that NAUL's purpose is “To
provide and promote academic, scientific and socio-cultural exchanges
with appropriate persons in the Netherlands and to operate exclusively
for educational and cultural purposes.” The first board of directors
was elected in the spring of 1980, and a dues schedule was established.
NAUL's programs and contacts continued to expand. One focal point
was the University of Michigan program established in cooperation with
the Dutch government in 1950, the Netherlands Visiting Professorship
(NVP). (The original interest leading to negotiations was due to
the upcoming celebration of the 100th anniversary, in 1947, of the
founding of the Dutch colony in Holland, Michigan.) Each visiting
professor traditionally presented a NAUL program on his or her subject
of expertise. The NVP program continued, with only three short periods
of hiatus, until the end of the fall term, 2010, when the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences decided to discontinue funding
of their half of the salary and travel expenses.
Another focal point was the joint program, inaugurated in 1981, between
the UM and the Stichting voor Vertalingen in Amsterdam (Foundation for
the Translation of Dutch Literary Work) by which the two institutions
would share the cost of the salary of an annual visiting Dutch
writer-in-residence on the UM campus. The initial spark came from
the visit to the UM of distinguished Dutch author Bert Schierbeek in
October 1979; Schierbeek was the unanimous choice to fill the position
of Writer-in-Residence in the inaugural year of the program,
1981/82. The visiting writers typically gave lectures and
readings, not only in Ann Arbor, but also on other campuses in the
U.S. Many visited Dutch language classes, in addition to holding
their own courses in creative writing. This program continues,
although on a more irregular schedule, with the candidates now proposed
by the Literair Produktie Fonds in Amsterdam. To date, eighteen Dutch
writers have spent academic years or terms in Ann Arbor.
In spite of considerable interest in Ann Arbor in things Dutch from
early in the 20th century, the first time Dutch was taught at the UM
was the Fall of 1968. A graduate student, a native Hollander,
gave instruction in elementary Dutch in the Department of Germanic
Languages and Literatures through the 1973/74 academic year. Then a
series of visiting instructors from the Netherlands offered a
first-year, and then also a second-year language sequence, plus an
advanced seminar on their various specialties. An agreement
between the UM and the Netherlands Ministry of Education and the UM
stipulated that each of the two parties would fund half the salary of
an instructor whose rank was to be Visiting Lecturer.
In the 1982/83 academic year, Ton Broos became the Visiting Lecturer in
Netherlandic Language and Literature. Later, the University
established the Dutch lectureship as a regular position in the
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. Ton Broos, now
Director of Dutch and Flemish Studies, continued in that position until
his well-deserved retirement in September 2012. Dr. Anne Marie
Toebosch succeeded him at that time.
Even before Broos's tenure, some of the Lecturers were solid
contributors to the activities of the NAUL, but Broos very soon became
central to the organization's functioning. After the death of
president and founder Jan DeVries in December 1984, Broos was elected
NAUL president at the March 1985 membership meeting. He has held
that office most of the time since then, up to the present
(2018).
Broos's academic connections have enriched the literary and cultural
offerings made possible through the UM, with assistance from the
NAUL. He has been active in fostering exchanges between local
Dutch scholars and those at other American colleges and
universities. In June 1986, he organized the meeting of the Third
Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies at UM. NAUL
members helped to host the event, and mounted two exhibitions in
support of the conference: one on the Dutch in Michigan, using
manuscript material from the holdings of the Bentley Historical
Library; and one showing early Revolutionary (late 18th-century)
pamphlets and caricatures owned by visiting Writer-in-Residence Arie
van den Berg, supplemented by material in the UM Library.
In 2002, Dr. Broos organized the meeting of the Eleventh
Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies which met in Ann
Arbor, for which the NAUL was one of the sponsors. Another
exhibition, “Netherlandic Treasures at the University of Michigan
Library,” was organized in conjunction with the conference by NAUL
member Karla Vandersypen. This exhibition's catalog is still available for
viewing online at
https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/120264/Netherlandic_treasures_14.pdf, as are
some images [Links checked 21 May 2018]
The NAUL, along with the families and friends of NAUL founder Jan
DeVries (d. Dec. 1984), and of long-time NAUL member Meindert Van der
Kooy, who died in March 1985, established a memorial fund at the
University of Michigan in their honor. In 1996, as part of an
effort to draw more attention to things Dutch, with the eventual aim of
fund-raising on behalf of the Dutch Studies program in the UM
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the DeVries-Van der
Kooy Memorial Lecture was inaugurated (supported by the UM memorial
fund, to which the NAUL continues to contribute). This Lecture
has become an annual event; the speakers make a distinguished list of
experts in various fields. See:
UM Germanic Languages and Literature
Over the years, the NAUL has presented for its members films, lectures,
readings, panel discussions, museum tours, musical afternoons, picnics,
rijsttafels, and their ever-popular Sinterklaas party. It has also
sponsored or co-sponsored a reception for the Rotterdam Philharmonic
Orchestra (1977), numerous carillon concerts, a Dutch Dada
Manifestation (1990) and a Symposium on Euthanasia (1993), participated
in the 1982 visit of Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus during the
Bicentennial celebration of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between
the U.S. and the Netherlands, and met with Miep Gies when she was at
the UM receiving the 1994 Wallenberg Award.
The following writers, artists, and scholars are among those who have
featured in programs arranged by the NAUL for its members and
university audiences. These include both Dutch visitors and speakers
from the UM or other American universities with a Dutch connection
through birth or through later academic ties and affiliations:
Artist Karel Appel;
Actor Jules Croiset;
Filmmakers Philo Bregstein, Johan van der Keuken, Ger Thijs;
Musicians Hudson Ladd, Percival Price, Jan
Krosenbrink, Maria Rose, Margo Halsted, Bernard Bartelink, Johan Van
Kempen, Joop de Lange, Todd Fair, Corinne Schat Hillebrand, Rob
Utterback, Jaap Schröder, Leone Buyse, Michael Webster, Louis
Andriessen;
Scholars J.W. Schulte Nordholt, H.G. Lammers, Loren
Barritt, Richard Lauwaars, E.M. Beekman, Ton Broos, Walter Lagerwey,
Sam Eldersveld, William Z. Shetter, F. L. van Holthoon, Rudolf Arnheim,
Frans Stokman, Margo Halsted, Roland Willemyns, Simon Schama, Celeste
Brusati, Willem Koops, Jelle Kingma, Rolf Wolfswinkel, Johanna H.
Prins, Freerk Loodsma, Rik van Daele, Ben Broos, Ton Beekman, Frits van
Oostrom, Arthur Verhoogt, Dick de Boer, Maarten Lindeboom;
Writers J. Bernlef, Remco Campert, Jules Deelder,
Frans Kellendonk, Hans Plomp, Jean Schalekamp, Simon Vinkenoog, Estaban
Lopez, Bert Schierbeek, Henk Romein Meyer, H. C. ten Berge, F. de Vree,
Henk van Kerkwijk, Hugo Brandt Corstius, Leo Vroman, Mischa de Vreede,
Peter Ten Hoopen, Cees Nooteboom, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Hugo Claus, Judith
Herzberg, James Holmes, Jan Holsbergen, Arie van den Berg, Kester
Freriks, Renate Dorrestein, Hella Haasse, Jan Donkers, Rob Schouten,
Andreas Burnier, Thomas Rosenboom, Marja Brouwers, Benno Bernard, Marga
Minco, Graa Boomsma, Christine Kraft, Dick Schouten, Jean-Pierre
Plooij, Bert Jansen, Mia Meijers, Maria Stahlie, Herman Stevens, Martin
Bril, Robert Vernooy, Rene Huigen, Arthur Japin, Patty Scholten, Karel
Glastra van Loon, Henk van Woerden.
The NAUL lay lecturers program started in 2012.
The first lecturer was Dr. Rob Van der Voo; U of M Professor of Geological Sciences;
subsequent ones have been:
- April 19, 2013
- Paul van den Muysenberg, former Honorary Dutch Consul in Detroit
- September 26, 2013
- Arthur Verhoogt, U of M Professor of Papyrology
- April 8, 2014
- Ton Broos, retired U of M Professor of Dutch
- October 14, 2014
- Erik Zuiderweg, U of M Professor of Biological Chemistry
- May 4, 2015
- Hugo Vandersypen, retired program manager at Ford Motor Company
- October 1, 2015
- Dirk van den Muijsenberg, senior program manager at KUKA Assembly and Test Corp.
- April 25, 2016
- David Dugger, Executive Director of the Washtenaw Educational Option Consortium
- March 30, 2017
- Henrike Florusbosch, Program Coordinator, U of M African Studies Center