Ben B. De Witte

Bio

Ben De Witte holds a PhD in Comparative Literature (Rutgers) and has research interests in modern drama, translation, language pedagogy, and multilingual literatures in Dutch, English and Spanish. Before joining Columbia, Ben taught courses in language, college writing, and literature at Rutgers and the University of Leuven. His research on queer visibility in Spanish and Argentinean drama has appeared in Theatre Research International and Modern Drama. Ben has also published in the area of intercultural performance (with a chapter on queer drama in translation for The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Sexuality) and has written on Surinamese writer Astrid Roemer (in Lexington Books’ forthcoming collection Other Fridas: The Lives and Works of Latin American Women Artist). Together with João Nemi Neto he translated In the Name of Desire, the first English edition of João Silvério Trevisan’s gay coming‐of‐age novel Em nome do desejo (Sundial House). He is a recipient of awards by the Belgian American Educational Foundation and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Courses

Spring 2025

• Elementary Dutch II (Dutch DTCHW1102, 4 Credits)
  Two sections: Professor Wijnie De Groot and Professor Ben De Witte
  Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.

Fall 2024

• Elementary Dutch I (Dutch DTCHW1101, 4 Credits)
  Two sections: Professor Wijnie De Groot and Professor Ben De Witte
  Fundamentals of grammar, reading, speaking, and comprehension of the spoken language. During the spring term supplementary reading is selected according to students' needs.
• Intermediate Dutch I (Dutch DTCHW2101, 4 Credits)
  Two sections: Professor Wijnie De Groot and Professor Ben De Witte
  Continued practice in the four skills (aural comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing); review and refinement of basic grammar; vocabulary building. Readings in Dutch literature.