Kees van Rees PhD

Biographical Note

Kees van Rees (1942) is presently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture (ERMeCC) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. From september 1986 until October 2007, he was Associate Professor of Sociology of Culture in the Department of Communication and Culture at Tilburg University. In 2005-2007 and 1999-2000, he worked as a (Fulbright) Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University.

His present research interests lie in the area of cultural tastes patterns and changing conditions of legitimacy in the cultural field. He authored or co-authored numerous publications on the interaction between institutions in the cultural and literary field, the institution of criticism and patterns of media use and culturale consumption. His most recent book publication (De Productie van Literatuur, 2006) considers the development of the Dutch trade book field from 1800 till 2000.

From 1991 till 2010, he served as the editor of Poetics. Journal of Empirical Research in Culture, Media and the Arts. He co-directed several research programs funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), including Conceptions of Literature (De impact van literatuuropvattigen in het literaire veld) consisting of 17 graduate and postdoctoral projects concerned with contemporary and historical Dutch and foreign literatures and Cultural Canons and Cultural Competences, consisting of six graduate and postdoctoral projects.