Cisca Brier

Cisca Brier is a Lecturer in Dutch Language and Culture at UCLA, where she teaches Dutch language and interdisciplinary courses within the Dutch Studies Program—the largest of its kind in the United States with a strong emphasis on history and literature. Her teaching engages the Netherlands and its global context, introducing students to Dutch and Indonesian history, art, literature, and language.

Through her courses, students also explore related cultural and historical traditions in Belgium and Afrikaans-speaking regions. Cisca teaches Dutch language instruction each quarter and plays a central role in sustaining and expanding Dutch Studies at UCLA. She works alongside a distinguished group of faculty whose research spans early modern history, imperial and colonial studies, art history, and global intellectual movements. The Dutch Studies Program maintains a long-standing scholarly exchange with the University of Utrecht, enabling faculty and graduate student collaboration and offering intensive summer language training opportunities. This international partnership enriches Cisca’s teaching environment and provides students with direct access to global academic networks. In addition to language instruction, seminars associated with the program cover a wide range of topics, including the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Radical Enlightenment, Dutch imperialism, Southeast Asia and Indonesia, modern Dutch literature, and Dutch linguistics. Visiting poets, writers, and scholars regularly contribute to the program’s intellectual life through lectures and workshops, including the annual Van Tilburg Lecture series. Through her teaching, Cisca Brier helps students develop linguistic proficiency while situating Dutch culture within broader historical, literary, and global frameworks.