His research covers aesthetic practice and design, image theory and has its historical focus in the early 20th and late 18th century. His habilitation, filed at the University of Hildesheim, was awarded for a thesis on image, area and performance in the late Baroque sacred space of Zwiefalten. From 2010 to 2012 Van der Meulen was head of the research project ‘Shaping the future. The image as a generator of innovation’ in the context of the Strategic Initiative FHNW. From 2009 to 2012, he coordinated the master program ‘Iconic Research and Visual Communication’. From 2009 to 2010 he worked on the National Research Focus ‘eikones’ at the University of Basel, specifically the project ‘Entwurf’, together with Michael Renner. From 2002 to 2007 Van der Meulen worked as an assistant and lecturer at the Art History Department of the University of Basel with Prof. Dr. Gottfried Boehm.