I am a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) and the department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. I hold a Bachelor in Law (University of Amsterdam) and a Master of Arts in Global Criminology (Utrecht University).
Already at a young age I became interested in societal issues. Due to my parent’s expat life I lived in countries such as Vietnam. There, I was confronted with poverty and harsh social marginalization. Back in the Netherlands, these experiences developed into active involvement as a volunteer at homeless shelters and prison.
My passion for societal issues took further shape when I started studying Global Criminology in 2015 and decided to write my thesis on the impact of the local and international stigmatisation of favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In order to understand the culture first-hand, and to write a rich and ethnographic master thesis, I lived in one of Rio’s favelas during my fieldwork.
After finishing my studies, I moved back to one of Rio’s favelas to work as a junior researcher for a research platform (www.rioonwatch.org) that aims to include the perspective of favela residents in research and news articles. While living in the favela, I developed a fascination for group dynamics, and more specifically group dynamics in antagonistic situations. With years of part time jobs in nightclubs and festivals and an enthusiasm for mixed martial arts and weightlifting, my interests align to focus on bouncers as part of the group-violence research program!