Renée Vulto studied Musicology at the universities of Amsterdam (BA), Berlin (Humboldt) and Utrecht (RMA) and has worked as doctoral researcher at the Department of Literary Studies (Dutch Literature) at Ghent University from 2017 to 2021.

Her research project Singing Communities investigated how people engaged through song and singing in political communities of the Dutch revolutionary period. In such a turbulent period, the song culture that was so deeply anchored in Dutch everyday life offered people a way to identify with and participate in collectives that could develop into communities engaging with the political developments of that time. She has distinguished various emotional regimes and pointed out how their politics of feeling took shape in song and singing practices. Song was used to disseminate ideologies, and singing practices were employed to mobilise people’s bodies to engage with political developments. Such mobilisation was essential to make imagined feelings available to the felt, embodied experience. At the same time, mobilisation was also dependent on imagination. For example, the imagining of realities that might be worth mobilising for. Both the imagined and embodied forms of community played a role in affirming new regimes after yet another political shift. Despite the many political shifts that occurred throughout the revolutionary period, I have also been able to distinguish patterns of repetition. Throughout the political song repertoire of the Dutch revolutionary period, the same tropes, tunes, and singing practices were employed over and over again. Although the specific significations of such tropes, tunes and practices changed, they were continuously used for the same goal: to bring people together in a singing community. It turns out that, to build and maintain sustainable communities, it was essential to create continuity in and of practice. The affective economy of Dutch politics relied on a fixed repertoire of feelings that was used throughout the Dutch revolutionary period to mobilise, imagine, and affirm communities within the current political regime.

Parts of Renée's research have been published in Dutch, English and German in journals like the Jaarboek De Achttiende Eeuw, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, TNTL, and several edited volumes. She has edited an ECR volume for the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, to be published with Honoré Champion in 2022 and was awarded the BSECS Michael Burden award for Musicology for her paper delivered at the BSECS Annual Conference 2021.

Renée is a member of the research groups GEMS and THALIA at UGent, UCEMS at Utrecht University and affiliated with the Huizinga Instituut. She is on the advisory board for the Stichting Jonge Historici and a member of the Forum committee of the Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands (KVNM).

In 2020, Renée initiated the Song Studies Network, a multi- and interdisciplinary forum for academic research and creative practice on song. The network was officially launched in spring 2021.

She occasionally writes for the historical blog Over de Muur and regularly provides program notes, concert reviews, and pre-concert talks for various orchestra's, ensembles and concert venues.

From November 2021, Renée is a lecturer in cultural history at Utrecht University.

Projects

Projects as PhD researcher

Singing communities. Politics of feeling in songs of the Dutch revolutionary period (1780-1815) (2017 - 2021)

Publications

Most recent publications

Full bibliography

Teaching

- 2020/2021 S1, BA2, Nederlandse Letterkunde III: vroegmoderne periode (assistant)

- 2019/2020 S1, MA, Onderzoeksseminarie Nederlandse Letterkunde: Publieks- en gebruikspoëzie in transhistorisch perspectief (co-teacher)

- 2019/2020 S1, BA2, Nederlandse Letterkunde III: vroegmoderne periode (assistant)

- 2018/2019 S2, BA3, Seminarie Nederlandse Letterkunde: Liederen en identiteitsvorming (co-teacher)

- co-supervisor and examiner BA and MA theses

Activities

2021

17 April, invited speaker for the 'Hanou-observatie' at the annual meeting of Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, Amsterdam (postponed).

26 March 2021, invited speaker at the online workshop 'Singing the Political'. Organised by the research group on Early Modern Vocal Power of the University of Basel.

23 March 2021, paper presentation at the annual Huizinga Instituut PhD conference.

9 February 2021, invited speaker at the GEMS-EEMN session (online). A collaboration of the Group for Early Modern Studies at Ghent University and the Edinburgh Early Modern Network.

18 January 2021, radio interview on Radio 2 (Belgium).

8 January 2021, paper presentation at BSECS 50th Annual Conference “Anniversaries, Jubilees, Commemorations”. Online conference organised by the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Paper awarded with the BSECS Michael Burden award for Musicology.

2020

1 July 2020, online workshop Song Studies (initiator and organiser).

1-3 July 2020, conference Song Studies 2020 (initiator and organiser). Ghent, Belgium. (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

28-30 May 2020, paper presentation at the Spheres of Singing conference. Online conference organised by the University of Glasgow, UK.

20 May 2020, presentation of outreach project at the GEMS Research Day 2020 (co-organiser). Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS), Ghent University, Belgium. (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

March & April 2020, visiting researcher at Kingston University School of Art, Kingston upon Thames, UK. (partially cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

30 March 2020, presentation at PGR Exhibition and Colloquium at Kingston University School of Art, UK. (cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic)

10 march 2020, guest lecture during MA course Critical Presentation of Performance at Kingston University School of Art, UK.

28 February 2020, invited speaker at the 'Studienamiddag gebruikspoëzie' initiated by GEMS, POWEZIE and library De Krook, Ghent, Belgium.

8 January 2020, presentation on Early modern song and drill as ‘emotional practices’, together with Cornelis van der Haven in the GEMS Seminar series. Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS), Ghent University, Belgium.

2019

12 & 13 September 2019, co-organiser of the workshop 'Performance Historiography: Examining Past Performances from a Present-day Perspective' . Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS) & THALIA Interplay of Theatre, Literature and Media in Performance, Ghent University, Belgium.

5 & 6 September 2019, paper presentation with Cornelis van der Haven at the DGEJ Tagung 2019 Zirkulation und Kontrolle: Dynamiken des 18. Jahrhunderts. Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts (DGEJ), Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany.

14 - 19 July 2019, paper presentation at the ISECS Congress 2019 Enlightenment Identities. International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS), Edinburgh, UK.

9 - 12 July 2019, participant in the ISECS International Seminar for Early-Career Eighteenth Century Scholars 'Participation, Collaboration, Association'. International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

29 June 2019, invited speaker at the RMA/KVNM Postgraduate International Research Symposium in Musicology. UK Royal Musical Association (RMA) & Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis (KVNM), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

3 - 6 January 2019, paper presentation at the MLA Annual Convention Textual Transactions. Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago (IL), USA.

2018

20 October 2018, paper presentation at the KZM Herfstvergadering 2018. Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis (KZM), Ghent, Belgium.

24 - 26 September 2018, paper presentation at FRIAS Junior Researcher Conference 'Popularität: Lied und Lyrik vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert'. Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Freiburg, Germany.

19 - 21 September 2018, paper presentation at the SPIN2018 international conference Cultural mobilization: Cultural consciousness-raising and national movements in Europe and the world. Study Platform for Interlocking Nationalisms (SPIN), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

3 - 5 April 2018, paper presentation at the conference New Perspectives on Imagology. Universität Wien, Austria.

25 January 2018, project presentation at the GEMS Atelier. Group for Early Modern Studies (GEMS), Ghent University, Belgium.

2017

29 November 2017, project presentation at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Research Day. Ghent University, Belgium.

Services

- 2019 - 2021 member of the steering group of GEMS (Group for Early Modern Studies)
- 2018 - 2021 OAP-representative Department of Literary Studies
- 2018 - 2020 OAP-representative Sustainability Committee UGent