Mieke Bal

Independent cultural theorist Mieke Bal was at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Professor from 2005-2011 and was at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam from 1991 to 2011.​

Bal's areas of interest include cultural analysis; critical semiotics; feminist theory; relations between verbal and visual arts; transcultural theory; anthropology; narratology; psychoanalysis; critique of capitalism; methodology of interdisciplinary approaches; museology; filmmaking as analysis; contemporary art from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture. 

Her many publications include A Mieke Bal Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology (4th edition 2017).

Mieke is also a video artist, her internationally exhibited documentaries on migration include Separations, State of Suspension, Becoming Vera and the installation Nothing is Missing and are part of the Cinema Suitcase collective. With Michelle Williams Gamaker she made the feature film A Long History of Madness, a theoretical fiction about madness, and related exhibitions (2012). Additional projects include Madame B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism.

Occasionally she acts as an independent curator. Her co-curated exhibition 2MOVE travelled to four countries. In 2017 she curated an exhibition for the Munch museum in Oslo.