I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and my work involves both theoretical and practical interventions in the field of gender, sexuality and diversity: through research, teaching, policy advice and workshops with professionals. Sexuality comprises fundamental beliefs about the nature of the self, identity, culture and nation; my focus is on how sexuality emerges through planned interventions (e.g. sex education) as well as mundane practices (e.g. teasing, gossiping, flirting). My approach lies at the intersection of gender studies, cultural anthropology and science and technology studies (STS).

In my PhD research Making Sex Moving Difference (2013-2017), based on extended ethnographic fieldwork in schools in the Netherlands, I advanced the theoretical claim that sexuality is not locked into individual bodies but is enacted through mundane practices. These practices bring sexuality into being, establishing what is sexual and what is not, drawing in scientific and popular knowledge, images and discourses. In my dissertation I attended to knowledge practices and the importance of categorization, leading to, for example, the demarcation between an us that is sexually ‘normal’ and a "them" that is not.

Over the past decades, Dutch sex education has gained international recognition. Programs developed in the Netherlands are now implemented across the Global South, from Yemen to Indonesia and Uganda to Bangladesh. My Veni research project, Traveling Sex Education (2022–2026), follows the trajectory of these programs from their inception in Dutch knowledge institutes to their translation by international NGOs and their implementation in classrooms in Indonesia. By examining the role of knowledge from the Global South in these processes and integrating theoretical insights from gender and sexuality studies and actor-network theory, the project contributes to ongoing discussions on decoloniality in cultural anthropology. It also investigates how the global circulation of anti-gender discourses and practices influences sex education in the Netherlands.

Another research project is inspired by the recent surge of initiatives centered on femininity, such as women’s circles and women-only spaces that aim to strengthen sisterhood and foster a reconnection with the ‘feminine’ and ‘nature.’ These initiatives blend feminism, personal wellness, and spirituality—for instance, by inviting women to ‘decondition and unlearn social norms’ in order to reconnect with ‘nature,’ and the ‘wild essence of womanhood.’ This project explores how these invitations and practices reshape people’s relationships with femininity, feminism, and activism.

I mainly teach in the BA program Interdisciplinary Social Science. Please see the study guide for the courses I teach this year.