The KNAW Early Career Award rewards young researchers for exceptional achievements with a sum of 15,000 euros and a unique work of art. The KNAW honours Jeroen Dera for his distinguished research into how literature education is shaped in the Netherlands, praising his interdisciplinary approach. Thanks to a combination of literary and social scientific methods, Dera manages to identify the needs of teachers and pupils.
Influence of TikTok
Dera's research shows that pupils often choose books other than their actual preferences, as teaching methods, teachers and also online platforms such as TikTok influence their choices. He supervises studies on BookTok, a community of TikTokkers that posts videos about books and reading. Dera also looks at online 'reading challenges', in which readers try to read a certain number of books within a certain amount of time - think, for example, of the annual Goodreads Reading Challenge. In doing so, Dera is at the forefront of efforts to better understand reading phenomena.
KNAW Early Career Award
The KNAW Early Career Awards will be presented for the fifth time this year, to twelve laureates from various disciplines. Besides Dera, Jorge Domínguez Andrés of the Radboudumc will also receive an Early Career Award for his research on immune responses to infections. The KNAW Early Career Award will be presented during a celebratory event on 15 February 2024.
