University of Basel


Moniek’s research focuses mainly on absorbing reading experiences. She did her PhD in empirical literary studies at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, investigating the textual features that can lead to absorption during reading. Her first post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany focused on the personality traits that predict absorbed reading and the eye movement correlates of absorbed reading. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Digital Humanities lab in Basel, Switzerland, where she is a PI on a SNSF-funded “Digital Lives” research project teaching machine learning algorithms to detect instances of absorption in online reader reviews. She is also a board member of IGEL (the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature) in charge of their training school program, and a member of PALA (Poetics and Linguistics Association) and E-READ (Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitization). Some of her other research interests involve (absorbed) reading and well-being, bibliotherapy, story literacy, reading habits, and psychometrics.


Personal website: www.moniekkuijpers.com

DHLab website: https://dhlab.philhist.unibas.ch/en/persons/moniek-kuijpers/


Kuijpers, M. M., Douglas, S., & Kuiken, D. (2020). Reading Habits: An alternative way to measure print exposure. Anglistik, 31(1). Manuscript accepted, publication in April 2020.

Kuijpers, M. M., Douglas, S., & Kuiken, D. (2019). Personality traits and reading habits that predict absorbed narrative fiction reading. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(1), 74–88. doi: 10.1037/aca0000168.

Kuijpers, M. M., & Hakemulder, F. (2018). Understanding and appreciating literary texts through rereading. Discourse Processes, 55(7), 619–641. doi: 10.1080/0163853X.2017.1390352.

Kuijpers, M. M. (2018). Bibliotherapy in the age of digitization. First Monday, 23(10), Article 5. doi: 10.5210/fm.v23i10.9429.

Kuijpers, M. M., Hakemulder, F., Tan, E. S. H., & Doicaru, M. M. (2014). Exploring absorbing reading experiences. Developing and validating a self-report scale to measure story world absorption. Scientific Study of Literature, 4(1), 89–122. doi: 10.1075/ssol.4.1.05kui.