I research, write, and speak about democracy, rule of law, exclusion and social justice. In 2016, right after defending my PhD thesis at the Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam, I moved to the US with my husband and children to live there until the summer of 2022. In 2018, I started researching the meaning of exclusion in a democracy. My research led to the publication of my book Vreemde Eenden. Op zoek naar gelijkheid in een wereld vol anderen (2021, Uitgeverij Podium).

During law school at the University of Amsterdam (Masters in Constitutional Law and International Public Law), I studied at Université Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne for six months. On my return I was invited to participate in the BKB academy. After graduating and completing a thesis on the role of national parliaments in the European Union, I worked for two years as a strategist and researcher at BKB Campaign Agency. I returned to the university in 2009 to study the relationship between new media and democracy for Stichting Democratie en Media. In my subsequent PhD research, I studied the normative claim that NGOs contribute to the democratic legitimacy of international law. Between 2010 and 2011, I was a visiting researcher at the University of Sydney Law School, Australia. When I returned to the University of Amsterdam, while finishing my PhD, I worked as a lecturer at the Ad de Jonge Center for Intelligence and Security Studies.

For over nine years I have been involved in Join for Joy, a foundation that supports primary schools in rural East Africa by implementing playful learning programs. I designed and and implemented a Monitoring and Evaluation system, and developed a long-term strategy focusing on gender equality.

For three years (2022-2025), I have taught honors students at the University of Amsterdam an interdisciplinary course, Reimagining Equality, which I developed for the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. I guide students in their exploration of the meanings of equality and freedom within our democracy by examining social and psychological factors that lead to exclusion, such as group dynamics, bias, norm conformity, and prejudice. Together, we reflect on concepts like identity, action and emancipation, constructive criticism, empathy, and the role of science in perpetuating and combating exclusion.

In the first semester of the 2024-2025 academic year, I had the opportunity to teach the course History of Legal Theory to PPLE students at the University of Amsterdam. Additionally, I am involved with PPLE in the development and teaching of the course Making a Change in Amsterdam. This course invites students to explore the complex dynamics of polarization in Amsterdam: why polarization exists, how it could potentially escalate, and, more importantly, what can be done to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable gap between deeply divided local communities.