Professor, poet and former dean Wiljan van den Akker has passed away

Van den Akker initially planned to become a doctor, as was customary in his family. He opted for the science stream at grammar school to keep that career path open. However, a German teacher who introduced him to Paul Celan’s poem Todesfuge convinced him of the beauty of the humanities. He ended up studying Dutch at Utrecht University.

His passion for language was reinforced by his mentor, the professor of Modern Dutch Literature Guus Sötemann, and by the fellow student Frits van Oostrom, who later became Professor of Middle Dutch Literature at Utrecht University. 

In 1985, Van den Akker obtained his PhD with Een dichter schreit niet, a study of Martinus Nijhoff's work. He was appointed to the professorship only three years later, at the age of 32. As the head of the department, he gave the staff freedom to hold diverse literary-theoretical views and debate amongst themselves. He also turned his attention abroad after discovering a considerable interest in Dutch Studies in Germany and the US.

In 1994, he co-founded and served as the first director of the Research Institute for History & Culture. Then, in 2002, he worked for the Dutch Research Council (NWO), serving as chair of its Humanities Domain Board. Later, he also served at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Fusion and Aspasia
As an administrator, he merged the faculties of Arts, Theology, and Philosophy, which were independent at the time, into the current Faculty of Humanities, of which he later became dean. “I spent endless hours trying to convince different groups that they could retain their own identity,” he recounted a while later. He worked tirelessly on behalf of the Humanities, which needed to be taken seriously in academia and be funded accordingly. “I don't mean a Calimero complex, but rather showing that you are necessary, that those beautiful books and exhibitions matter.”

His time as a dean was also marked by less pleasant experiences, such as the closure of the Portuguese and Theology programmes due to declining student interest. After it emerged that the Netherlands was languishing near the bottom of the ranking for the number of women working as professors, Van den Akker devised NWO's Aspasia grant to promote women’s careers in academia.

Wiljan van den Akker being interviewed by Bert van den Brink. Screenshot from a UU video.

Scholar and poet
Despite this incredibly busy life, his boundless energy enabled him to remain active as a researcher and lecturer. He published academic works on figures including Roland Holst, Van Schendel, Leopold and Lodeizen, and from the late 1990s worked with his Groningen colleague Gillis Dorleijn on Een Nieuw geluid - De geboorte van de moderne poëzie in Nederland 1900-1940, which was published last year.

In 2008, Van den Akker made his debut as a poet. He received the C. Budding Prize for his first collection, De afstand. In 2015, he published the novel Messias alongside his wife, Esther Jansma, who passed away last year. She was a professor of Dendrochronology and also a prominent poet.

They wrote the book under the pseudonym Julian Winter. Van den Akker described his fascination with poetry by saying that he “never ceases to be in awe about the act of touching on essential things in a concise manner." Weeks before his death, he was still regularly publishing poems on his Facebook page.

In addition to writing poetry, Van den Akker worked as a translator. His work in that area included Charles Simic's poetry. “This American Pulitzer Prize winner is world-famous but virtually unknown in the Netherlands,” Van den Akker remarked once, indignantly. Finally, he served on various literary juries, including the Libris Prize, the P.C. Hooft Prize, and the Prize for Dutch Literature. 

Even with all these activities, he still had time for hobbies: he played guitar every day, with flamenco as his favourite musical genre. “No, there’s no book waiting on my bedside table anymore. I’ve finished reading for the evening. If I have to fall asleep whilst reading as well, you’ll have to carry me away at some point.”

Wiljan van den Akker was 71 years old.