Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Sarah De Mul
2026-2027
Home institution
Open Universiteit
Country of origin (home institution)
Netherlands
Discipline(s)
Literature; Psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis
Theme(s)
Behavior & Cognition; Cultural Studies; Health; Inequalities, inclusion & Social Innovation; Labor, Capital & Innovation; Visual Arts
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Professor of Literature, Culture and Diversity at the Open Universiteit
Research Project
The Art of Burnout
Burnout is widely discussed yet deeply misunderstood. Many still regard it as a personal weakness or an individual health problem, but this project argues that burnout is better understood as a reflection of modern work culture and its associated social inequalities.
Sarah De Mul draws on contemporary art and literature as a lens through which to explore these cultural dimensions of burnout. Weaving personal experience together with the analysis of artistic and literary works, she investigates burnout within the high-pressure work culture of the early twenty-first century. The project ultimately asks how art and literature can help us understand – and perhaps reshape – our relationship with work and exhaustion today.
Research Interests:
mental health; burnout; modern work ; contemporary art ; literature