Who am I?

My name is Vincent Hernot. Born and raised in St Malo, Brittany, France, I then did a BA in English at Rennes University, an MA in Linguistics and Literature at Trinity College, Dublin, a Post-graduate degree in Irish Studies (Linguistics and political Science) and a PhD in the same department (and again in Linguistics and Political Science) at Caen University.

I moved to the Netherlands in 2001, and I taught here and there until I joined the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in their English department (Teacher training courses). I first worked for many years for the IDEE programme (International Degree in English and Education, a partnership with Wolverhampton Uni), teaching Academic skills, Linguistics and contemporary Literature. I then started working for the Master of Education in English (HvA) as well, still in Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Literature. I've also been the coordinator of that programme for a few years now. In our MEd programme, all students are practicing teachers, most with many years of experience in class.

Those experiences have given me a solid idea of what was going on at schools in terms of Literature, literature teaching, and with what many teachers struggle with: deciding what to do, how, what for, and also - let's be honest - interpreting texts themselves. Not all teachers of English are voracious readers, nor do all of them feel supremely confident when it comes to literature - it's not a criticism, or a lament, it's what the situation actually is.

For the last 5 years, I've been leading a project with my colleague Dr. Paul Moeyes, originally funded by the HvA, called 'Literatuur en Burgerschap' - literature and citizenship. This project focuses on developing material for language teachers to foster, encourage and develop citizenship competencies, especially Critical Thinking, Empathy, Perspective shifting, Curiosity, Knowledge of the world around.

Should you be interested in knowing more about this project Literature and Citizenship - a project in collaboration with school teachers - don't hesitate to make contact: v.hernot@hva.nl