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Dr. E.A.J. (Esther) Miedema

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
GPIO : Docenten GPIO

Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
  • Room number: B4.00
Postal address
  • Postbus 15629
    1001 NC Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Research and Teaching

    Overarching interests in my teaching and research relate to a) past, present and future imaginaries of development and the 'good life,' b) understandings of socio-ecological inequalities and justice that may underpin these imaginaries, and c) the (interconnected) actors involved in the (un)making and (un)doing of these imaginaries. In studying these kinds of questions, I draw on an intersectional lens in an effort to better understand lived lives of differently located people and their conceptions of development and a/the ‘good life.’ In so doing, I am also interested in how different actors contest, subvert and/or (inadvertently) entrench gendered, classed and racialised norms and violence that shape their own and others’ possible lives.

    I joined the UvA in May 2014, having received my doctorate from the Institute of Education, University College London in October 2013. Prior to this, I worked for the United Nations and in the NGO sector for almost 18 years. I worked for UNESCO in Indonesia, the Philippines and Mozambique, the International Bureau of Education (UNESCO/IBE) in Geneva and the International Institute for Educational Planning (UNESCO-IIEP) in Paris. In addition, I worked for various non-governmental organisations both within and outside the Netherlands with a focus on young people, human rights and health promotion.

    My doctoral research engaged with approaches to sexuality education in Mozambique, interrogating dominant concepts underpinning HIV-related education to more clearly articulate the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of this form of education. My research on sexuality education in Mozambique initially drew my attention to how notions of belonging, the ‘good citizen’ and socio-political participation and representation might be enacted and/or contested in educational spaces, broadly conceived. Subsequent work has only deepened my interest therein, whereby I am particularly drawn to questions regarding the spaces created in narratives of development for particular future imaginaries and forms of socio-ecological justice, and how these interact with past and present imaginaries. Who is in/excluded from these imaginaries, including their creation?

    I draw on decolonial feminist scholarship, and work in the fields of STS and anthropology in shaping methodological and ethical considerations, including those regarding my role in the ’production’ of knowledge. I seek to collaborate closely with societal partners and activists to ensure my work and writing at/retains a level of groundedness. Fiction keeps me sane as well as firing my imagination, and there is a special place on my bedside table for feminist science fiction and speculative fiction.

    At present, I am working on the following research projects:

    a. Alternatives to extractivism: An examination of ways of knowing, being and doing in relation to the (sub)soil: The goal of this interdisciplinary project, on which I am collaborating with colleagues from the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), Louvain (Belgium) and the VU Amsterdam is to contribute to debates on relations of different actors to land and (their) soil in resource-rich areas. We are particularly interested in how political decisions about the (sub)soil may provide opportunities for alternative 'future imaginations' and extractive development models, whereby I empirically focus on young women and men’s future imaginations, and theoretically on the potential of decolonial feminism. Our empirical focus began in Mozambique, but we intend to expand to other resource-rich sites, including the Netherlands. 

    b. Silencing of feminist and queer activists: in this project, colleagues and I investigate ways in which young activists deal with silencing within social movements and by counter movements. The project challenges the widespread assumption of silence as a marker of disempowerment and subjugation. We thus interrogate binary conceptions of silencing vis-á-vis ‘voice' or 'agency,' and investigate productive dimensions of silence. Examples include not only the potential political leverage of silence (e.g. silent protest), but particularly the spaces afforded in/by silence for care, being/becoming, and inclusion. A report on our initial exploratory research can be found here. At present we are conducting further literature review on this expanding field of scholarship. 

    c. Partnership & Power: doing partnerships authentically: in collaboration with Oxfam Novib, I am conducting a participatory study to study Oxfam Novib’s learning journey to decolonise its work, and specific programmes in particular. This project builds on earlier work with Oxfam Novib (for more detail see here). The present stage is geared to developing an audio-comic for educational purposes, to be used within the organisation itself, but more importantly, to contribute to public debate on the ‘doing’ of decolonisation in the field of international development.

    I am interested in working with BA and MA students and PhD candidates on the broad fields sketched above.

  • Publications

    2022

    • Adjogatse, K., & Miedema, E. A. J. (2022). What to do with ‘white working-class’ underachievement? Framing ‘white working-class’ underachievement in post-Brexit Referendum England. Whiteness and Education, 7(2), 123-142. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/23793406.2021.1939119

    2021

    • Gupta, J., Bavinck, M., Ros-Tonen, M., Asubonteng, K., Bosch, H., van Ewijk, E., Hordijk, M., Van Leynseele, Y., Lopes Cardozo, M., Miedema, E., Pouw, N., Rammelt, C., Scholtens, J., Vegelin, C., & Verrest, H. (2021). COVID-19, poverty and inclusive development. World Development, 145, Article 105527. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105527 [details]
    • Le Mat, M. L. J., Miedema, E. A. J., Amentie, S. A., & Kosar-Altinyelken, H. (2021). Moulding the teacher: factors shaping teacher enactment of comprehensive sexuality education policy in Ethiopia. Compare - A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 51(6), 862-880. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1682967 [details]

    2020

    • Miedema, E., Koster, W., & Pouw, N. (2020). Taking choice seriously: Emic understandings of decision-making about child marriage. Progress in Development Studies, 20(4), 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464993420965315 [details]
    • Miedema, E., Koster, W., Pouw, N., Meyer, P., & Sotirova, A. (2020). The Struggle for Public Recognition: Understanding Early Marriage through the Lens of Honour and Shame in Six Countries in South Asia and West Africa. Progress in Development Studies, 20(4), 328-346 . https://doi.org/10.1177/1464993420977790 [details]
    • Miedema, E., Le Mat, M. L. J., & Hague, F. (2020). But is it Comprehensive? Unpacking the ‘comprehensive’ in comprehensive sexuality education. Health Education Journal, 79(7), 747-762. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896920915960 [details]
    • Oduro, G. Y., & Miedema, E. (2020). "We have sex, but we don't talk about it": Examining silences in teaching and learning about Sex and Sexuality in Ghana and Ethiopia. In S. N. Nyeck (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Queer African Studies (pp. 236-253). (Routledge handbooks). Routledge. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351141963-25

    2019

    • Evelo, J., & Miedema, E. A. J. (2019). ‘You don’t want to come out from the crowd because you are a girl’: gendered differences in young people’s participation in sexuality education in Uganda. Sex Education, 19(2), 130-144. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1506758 [details]
    • Kane, S., Miedema, E., Dieleman , M., & Broerse, J. (2019). ‘You have a child who will call you “mama” ’: understanding adolescent pregnancy in South Sudan. Global Health Action, 12(1), Article 1553282. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2018.1553282 [details]
    • Miedema, E. (2019). ‘Culturespeak’ is everywhere: an analysis of culturalist narratives in approaches to sexuality education in Mozambique. Comparative Education, 55(2), 220-242. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2018.1541658 [details]
    • Spencer, G., Corbin, J. H., & Miedema, E. (2019). Sustainable development goals for health promotion: A critical frame analysis. Health Promotion International, 34(4), 847–858. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/day036 [details]

    2018

    • Adjogatse, K., & Miedema, E. A. J. (2018). ‘What to do with ‘white working-class’ underachievement? Framing ‘white working-class’ underachievement in post-Brexit England’. Manuscript submitted for publication.

    2017

    • Miedema, E., & Oduro, G. Y. (2017). Sexuality education in Ghana and Mozambique: An examination of colonising assemblages informing school-based sexuality education initiatives. In M. L. Rasmussen, & L. Allen (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of sexuality education (pp. 69-93). Palgrave Macmillan. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_4 [details]

    2016

    • Miedema, E. (2016). 'Let's move, let's not remain stagnant': nationalism, masculinism and school-based education in Mozambique. In Z. Millei, & R. Imre (Eds.), Childhood and nation: interdisciplinary engagements (pp. 183-206). (Critical cultural studies of childhood). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477835_10 [details]

    2015

    • Miedema, E., & Millei, Z. (2015). "We reaffirm our Mozambican identity in the fight against HIV and AIDS": Examining educational perspectives on women’s ‘proper’ place in the nation of Mozambique. Global Studies of Childhood, 5(1), 7-18. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610615573375 [details]
    • Miedema, E., Maxwell, C., & Aggleton, P. (2015). The unfinished nature of rights-informed HIV- and AIDS-related education: an analysis of three school-based initiatives. Sex Education, 15(1), 78-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2014.960075 [details]

    2011

    • Miedema, E. A. J., Maxwell, C., & Aggleton, P. (2011). Education about HIV/AIDS—theoretical underpinnings for a practical response. Health Education Research, 26(3), 516-525. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyq088 [details]

    2017

    2016

    • Hodgkinson, K., Koster, W., & Miedema, E. (2016). Understanding and addressing child marriage: A scoping study of available academic and programmatic literature for the HER CHOICE Alliance. University of Amsterdam. [details]

    Talk / presentation

    • Miedema, E. (speaker) (9-2017). Moulding the sex ed teacher: An analysis of comprehensive sexuality education in Ethiopia, UKFIET - The Education and Development Forum, Oxford.
    • Miedema, E. (speaker) (6-2017). 'Culturespeak’ is everywhere: an analysis of culturalist narratives in approaches to HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique, Gender and Education Association Conference 2017, London.
    • Miedema, E. (speaker) & Hodgkinson, K. A. (speaker) (2017). Will the real expert please stand up? Examining the utility and ethics of universalist frames in child marriage research, policy and programmes, Girls not Brides Expert Meeting.
    • Koster, W. (speaker) & Miedema, E. (speaker) (2017). Contextualizing young women’s choice and agency related to child marriage. Her Choice baseline study findings in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ghana, Girls not Brides Expert Meeting.
    • Miedema, E. (speaker) (2016). Culturespeak is everywhere: an analysis of culturalist narratives in approaches to HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique, Share-net International Youth Week.
    • Miedema, E. A. J. (speaker) (10-11-2015). Emancipating women? The role of school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education improving gender equality in Mozambique., AISSR Harvest Day 2015, Amsterdam.

    2022

    • Ajaz, N. (2022). Beyond the father and family: A feminist ethnographic study on early marriage decision-making, women's empowerment, and gender equality in rural Pakistan. [Thesis, fully internal, Universiteit van Amsterdam]. [details]

    2013

    • Miedema, E. A. J. (2013). Re-thinking education in a world with HIV and AIDS : a qualitative inquiry into HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • ICDI
      Senior Programma manager
    • University College London
      External Examiner of Education & International Developmt Umbrella Board