Cathelein Aaftink (1979) works in English Language and Culture, the Graduate School of Teaching and Literary Studies at the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication. Her research focuses on the interrelationships between (reading) Young Adult Literature (YAL) and meaning in life experiences. Another project that is of much importance to her pertains to self-transcendence in and through works of verbal art. She is also endlessly fascinated by Etty Hillesum's writing.

      She supervises BA and MA theses on 20th and 21st century literary prose, specifically Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and Marilynne Robinson, as well as YAL (preferably realistic fiction); short stories; slam poetry; phenomenology; empirical studies of literature; interdisciplinary research; education; spiritual themes, specifically nonduality; (literary) aesthetics; and controversial literature.