Laurens Ham (1985) is a lecturer in Modern Dutch Literature, essayist and poet. Since February 2018, he has been working on a Veni project (supported by NWO) on the roles that authors have played in Dutch literature and subsidy policy since the 1960s: as activists, committee members of institutions such as the Dutch Foundation for Literature, public intellectuals, politicians or applicants. He is also writing a related public study, in which he outlines the history of Dutch-language protest songs from the Netherlands since 1966, in all pop genres (from Nederpop and cabaret to punk and hip hop).

Laurens’ doctoral research (2010-2014) also moved at the intersection of author representation and politics. For this project, he investigated the postures of ten Dutch authors (1820-1970) who combined “autonomous” self-representation with political engagement. The research showed how a plea for an autonomous position for writers can go hand in hand with a strong political and social positioning. In 2015, a commercial edition of the thesis was published by Literatoren: Door Prometheus geboeid. De autonomie en autoriteit van de moderne Nederlandse auteur (Captivated by Prometheus. The autonomy and authority of the modern Dutch author).