From 2010 I have worked as senior lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (ISW) programme. In this undergraduate programme, I develop, teach and coordinate various Dutch and English courses on the cutting edge of disciplines, such as Human Geography, Sociology and Environmental Psychology.
These courses are part of ISW and/or the URBAN studies minor and focus primarily on cities. Examples relate to: Verkenning van In- en Uitsluiting; Perspectives on Amsterdam; Age, City & Work; Contemporary Debates Cities; Cities & Change; Amsterdam: Sense, Space & Public Design; Schaal, Plaats & Ruimte (Introduction in Human geography) and the Bachelorthesis Urban Studies.
In terms of (inter-)disciplinary education, I have a background in both Psychology (Free University of Amsterdam, MA, 1988) and Human Geography (University of Minnesota, MA, 1999). After I joined the University of Amsterdam in 2000, I have participated in many (inter)national urban research projects, while working on a PhD thesis (University of Amsterdam, 2007). These projects usually focused on comparing city policy and city dynamics, and were run by various (inter)national networks of both social scientists of urban research and non-academic partners.
My main research interests lie within an interdisciplinary (social science) field and focus on cities, city dynamics and urban planning. They combine insights from various disciplines, like Human Geography, Psychology and Sociology. Topics relate to: diversity and the inclusive city, sense of belonging, the multisensory city, the 'planned' & the 'lived' city and placemaking (design of public space).
Research projects that I have carried out in the past were primarily rooted in Urban and Political Geography. Topics related, for example, to: European and Dutch (area-based) urban policy (URBAN, Grotestedenbeleid, urban restructuring), urban and multi-level governance, the 'Europeanization' of Dutch cities, urban policy discourses and themes like diversity, identity and social cohesion.