Jasper Segerink

• Doctoral defence: 14 February 2025, 3 p.m.
• FelixArchief
• Supervisors: Hilde Greefs and Greet De Block
  
• ​Register: jasper.segerink@uantwerpen.be

Abstract

This dissertation studies the lodging house sector and its relation to changes in migration and urbanisation in Antwerp during the late nineteenth century (ca. 1850-1914). Although omnipresent in the historical cityscape, the lodging house features only scarcely in the works of historians. This dissertation aims to fill in this gap. It argues that the lodging house functioned as a crucial link between two of the period’s most impactful transitions: the urban transition and the mobility transition. The processes and social mechanisms that connected these two together, have often remained implicit. In this dissertation, the lodging house is treated both as an expression of these transition – and thus a peculiar historical phenomenon meriting an understanding of its own internal mechanisms – and a lens on them, a key site to investigate how such transformations reverberated in the lives of ordinary people. With this goal in mind, this thesis adopts an approach that is fundamentally spatial and relational across scales. This method is applied through novel digital tools like GIS-mapping and building biographies, to a broad variety of sources ranging from police documents, legislative texts, population and lodging registers, newspapers, and historical novels and imagery.

The dissertation is structured around five chapters, which each deal with one of the main perspectives on the topic, namely: the city, control, housekeepers, lodgers, and finally the lodging house itself. As the city and its migrant flows expanded and diversified, so too did the lodging sector, but not uniformly. Growth was segmented across urban space, and the sector adopted varying functions for different migrant groups across neighbourhoods. The specialisation of the sector was not new in the nineteenth century, but both transitions did strengthen this trend. In this process, lodging houses appropriated important functions for the city, and its labour market especially. Through their flexibility, the lodging house constituted a crucial pivot in rhyming the inherent dynamism of urban migration and work with a relatively more static built urban space. In conclusion, this thesis shows that, for understanding processes of migrant and urban change in the nineteenth century, the lodging house can no longer be ignored.

Jorge Fragua Valdivieso

• Doctoral defence: 20 February 2025, 11 a.m.
• Faculty of Fine Arts, Complutense University Madrid
  
• Supervisors: Pierre Delsaerdt, Benito Rial Costas and Agustín Martín Francés
• ​Register: jorge.fraguavaldivieso@uantwerpen.be​

Abstract

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary research that applies a quantitative methodology to evaluate the graphic quality of the Reformed Missal printed by Cristóbal Plantin and the Giunta family between 1570 and 1589. The study focuses on the first years of production, which were crucial for the graphic development of this liturgical text and is set in a historical context marked by the Catholic Reformation and the political and economic influence of the Court of Philip II and the Vatican.

The research is based on three fundamental principles: obtaining historiographical data on the object of study, understanding the context of production, and a detailed reading of the documentation relating to the creation of the missal. In order to understand the graphic evolution of the Missal, the analysis focused on the editions produced by Plantin and the Giunta family, making visual comparisons of the graphic structure of each. The analysis showed that the Plantin missal was more in line with the requirements of the Vatican and Pope Philip II, both in terms of graphic structure and historical documentation. The Giunta family editions, on the other hand, although they had a wider distribution network, were more unstable in their structure and less consistent with the graphic models and documentary requirements.

A key finding of the research is that the form and structure of the missal responded to a historical-cultural context defined by these institutions. In summary, the analysis shows how the historical context and political decisions influenced the production and graphic evolution of the Reformed Missal.

Mathijs Verhaegen

• Doctoral defence: 21 February 2025, 3 p.m.
• UAntwerp City Campus, S.KS.203
  
• Supervisors: Nina Reviers and Esther de Boe
  
• ​Register: mathijs.verhaegen@uantwerpen.be

Abstract

In face-to-face dialogue interpreting (F2FI), turn-taking management is of vital importance to ensure smooth interaction between all participants. A substantial part of this process is achieved multimodally (Vranjes & Bot, 2021). However, in video-mediated interpreting (VMI), participants’ multimodal turn-taking management can differ in terms of the resources they use and depending on the physical location of each participant (e.g., Licoppe & Veyrier, 2020). In particular, the effect of embodied resources (such as gaze) as tools for turn-taking management may be reduced (Davitti, 2019). In this regard, several studies have investigated video remote interpreting (VRI), in which only the interpreter participates from a remote location. Yet, few have studied other configurations such as three-point video interpreting (3VI), in which all participants are in a different location. Moreover, little research has been conducted that compares different VMI configurations (Verhaegen, 2024).

The present dissertation therefore explored participants’ multimodal turn-taking management in 3VI. Additionally, the findings regarding multimodal turn-taking management in 3VI were compared to similar interactions in VRI and F2FI. These questions were explored through a qualitative dominant mixed-methods study. The dataset consisted of nine simulated interpreter-mediated consultations between a Dutch-speaking educational counsellor and a Russian native speaker playing the role of a mother. A total of three Dutch-Russian dialogue interpreters participated in these simulations. Each simulation took place in a different configuration (i.e., F2FI, VRI and 3VI). This dissertation collected and triangulated both qualitative and quantitative data in the form of video recordings, mobile eye-tracking data, and semi-structured interviews with the participants.

The main findings indicate that the use of gaze can have a positive impact on turn-taking management in all three configurations, but that it is not a requirement for smooth and successful turn transfer. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the inherent multimodal nature of turn-taking management in all three configurations. Most differences in multimodal behaviour were found between F2FI on the one hand and VMI on the other, while in this regard only minor differences between VRI and 3VI were observed. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates the impact of participants’ awareness of the affordances of VMI and the institutional participant’s experience with interpreter-mediated interaction and VMI.

Through its findings, this dissertation (1) contributes empirical evidence regarding a previously underexplored VMI configuration (3VI), (2) serves as a call for more interdisciplinary training in interpreter education, and (3) extensively contributes to the limited body of research which combines eye tracking and (video-mediated) dialogue interpreting.