The content of this website was created by Gerard Steen. Since I do not like to write about myself in the third person, here’s a little background (see Prof. dr. G.J. (Gerard) Steen – University of Amsterdam).

I am an emeritus professor in Language and Communication from the Dutch Department at the University of Amsterdam. I took early retirement from this position on 1 January 2023. Since then I have combined the life of a pensionado with doing what I like best as a professional: reading, writing, and speaking about metaphor and the new science of metaphor that has developed since 1980.

As a web content creator, I am a novice. I know how to write for academic purposes, but mainly for genres like books, articles, book chapters, grant applications, and research reports. This web site is therefore a new adventure.

I am only too aware of the many ways in which the website may misfire without immediately knowing how to solve this. For instance, one way in which the website  definitely needs to be improved is to both insert brief illustrations and adequate references for the most important claims. I am therefore asking for your comments and suggestions whenever you think something seems to be missing or going wrong. That is what the email address at the bottom of each page is for.

For now I have started with two kinds of content. Most of this site is about presenting information. I see this as regular scientific writing for relatively well-informed specialists. It is not very different from what I do when I write for publication. In fact, this website can be seen as a new form of publication. I hope that over time this information will get optimized and become maximally explicit, systematic, and embedded in encompassing research. Any hints are much appreciated.

However, I am also including two blogs, one about metaphor in action and one about DMT in action. They give me and you an opportunity to tell stories that are meant to illustrate the rich life of metaphor and its scientific research in DMT in concrete and topical cases. These are pages that people can reply to in public. I will monitor the replies first, but as long as people don’t start shouting, I will be totally open to publishing any form of criticism. Only by genuine criticism can scientific knowledge be rationally tested and improved.