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Class of 2022

It is with great pleasure that we present the Class of 2022. Every year around 20 PhD-candidates from universities in the Netherlands and Belgium start with our PhD training program. Below PhD Candidates of the Class of 2022 introduce their PhD projects to you, throughout this year, more PhD candidates that join our training program will be featured on this page.

Thijs van den Berg

Erasmus University Rotterdam

My name is Thijs and I am currently a PhD candidate from the Department of Public Administration and Sociology at the Erasmus University. My research focuses on the relations of state agencies with politics, ministries and citizens. More specifically the goal is to better understand the information and steering relations of agencies with politics and ministries, as well as citizen’s perspective and expectations of state agencies. The project is funded by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) and aims to contribute to a better connection of state agencies with society and state.

Hessel Bos

Radboud University Nijmegen

I am a PhD candidate and junior lecturer at the Radboud University Nijmegen. My research focuses on the long-term institutionalization of co-production in the context of the energy transition. I have been working as a high school teacher in social studies for the last two years, but I missed the academic environment. I am looking forward to combine the joy I have in teaching and the curiosity I have in doing research.

Geert Brinkman

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I’m a PhD candidate at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. With a background in design, I am interested in the application and applicability of design approaches for public issues. In my research I aim to uncover how the conditions that are needed to be able to design within a public sector context can be created and sustained.

Anaëlle Bueno Patin

Tilburg University

I am a PhD candidate at the department of Public Law and Governance at Tilburg University. My research focuses on the participatory governance of the European Just Transition. More precisely and through an intersectional lens, I aim to better understand how marginalised communities are involved in climate-decision making and what are their perceptions and aspirations with regards to participatory processes. My research is part of the EU-funded project BOLSTER which tackles how marginalised communities are involved and affected by the European Green Deal.

Roos Entius

Radboud University Nijmegen

I’m a PhD candidate at the Department of Public Administration and Law at the Radboud University. My PhD research concentrates on the enforcement of EU legislation by national regulatory authorities specifically regarding the Netherlands and the transport- and competition sector. This interdisciplinary research is part of the EUROPAL research network.

Jessy Hendriks

Utrecht University

As a Junior Lecturer/PhD Candidate for Utrecht University, I have the unique pleasure of combining my research activities with teaching multiple courses throughout the year. My research centers around the phenomenon of bureaucrat bashing and what it looks like in this day and age.

Maisie Hopkins

Utrecht University

I am a PhD candidate working jointly at Utrecht University and Leiden University on the project “Complex Global Regulation and Corporate Crime”. My research focuses on how complexity within global governance influences corporate crime and corporate regulatory compliance. I will focus on understanding how international regime complexity theory applies in real-life situations by applying it to specific cases of corporate crime in the US and EU.

Lisa Janssen

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I am a PhD student from the Erasmus University Rotterdam stationed at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. In my research I focus on collaboration for a healthy living environment. More specifically I research how long-term collaborative arrangements between government, civil society and the private sector are governed and sustained over time. Using qualitative methods, I apply my background in political science to the field of public health.

Milan van Keulen

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I am a PhD candidate at the Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management. My research is part of the RUN-project (Reflexive regulation Using Narrative methods). The aim of the RUN-study is to develop reflexive regulatory arrangements, using narrative methods. My research will primarily focus on exploring, developing and implementing narrative methods of service provision for people with dementia, living at home. Afterwards, I will study how these methods can be used for the development of innovative regulatory arrangements.

Emma Leenders

Radboud University Nijmegen

I am a PhD candidate at the Radboud University Nijmegen. My research focuses on climate change policy in the European Union, specifically national coordination of EU policies and the relationships between multiple levels of government. Before joining the Radboud University, I worked for a not-for-profit research organisation, where I conducted research for EU institutions and the Dutch government.

Kay Mars

Erasmus University Rotterdam

My name is Kay Mars (hij/ hem, they/them), and recently I started as PhD candidate at EUR in the research project “Dilemmas of Doing Diversity (DiDi): practices and politics around Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) policy-making in sports and recreation”. In our project, the term ‘doing diversity’ is a central concept. Within the project, there is particular attention for ‘spaces of encounter’: arenas in which policy practitioners and citizens meet. More specifically, we look at so-called “diversity dilemmas” that occur in these spaces. How do policy practitioners prioritize certain forms of diversity over others? To what extent do DEI policies challenge or reinform in/equalities among and between specific groups in society? And how can policy practitioners develop and implement more transformational DEI policies.

Karel Nieukoop

Radboud University Nijmegen

I am a PhD candidate and junior lecturer at the department of Public Administration at Radboud University Nijmegen. My research focusses on the role of local government in the energy transition. Combining insights from public administration, economics, and law I study the opportunities for both the financing and responsible governance of local infrastructures. At the same time, I play my part in several courses of the PA-curriculum, thereby combining my passions for both knowledge-creation and transfer.

Spencer Poodiack-Parsons

University of Twente

My name is Spencer and I am a PhD-Candidate in the section Public Administration at the University of Twente. My PhD-research project will examine the unintended consequences of the use of algorithmic technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning for fraud detection and prevention. My research aims to help public sector organizations assess the risks and benefits of the adoption and implementation of algorithmic technology.

Lisa De Roeck

University of Antwerp

I’m a PhD candidate working at the University of Antwerp on the interdisciplinary CONTRA (Conflict in Transformations) project. My research focuses on how cities deal with conflict on climate change policies. Employing case studies, we seek to understand how conflict is handled in urban settings, while also studying how actors in governance processes can be induced to deal with conflict more productively with the use of theatre-based methods. This research project is funded by JPI Urban Europe.

Emma Ropes

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I am a PhD candidate working jointly at Erasmus University and Utrecht University on the project “Authoritative reputations of inspectorates in turbulent times.” My research focuses on how inspectorates form reputation with individual citizens, investigating the micro-level, psychological mechanisms at play. I will use insights from social-psychological theories such as message evaluation and psychological distance to understand bureaucratic reputation of regulatory agencies from a citizen point of view.

Lennart Stam

Utrecht University

I am a PhD candidate and junior lecturer at Utrecht University. In my research I focus on which kind of skills and knowledge are needed by civil servants to have a meaningful contribution to ecological sustainability. I will also look at if and how we could incorporate those findings in our education at the Utrecht School of Governance.

Rick Stegeman

Utrecht University

I’m a PhD canadidate at Utrecht University, working on the project ‘Authoritative reputations of inspectorates in turbulent times’. In this project, we study what public regulators can do to develop an authoritative reputation. Within this broader theme, I specifically focus on the relation between regulators and their regulatees, looking at how regulators strategically differentiate between the diverse groups of regulatees within their jurisdiction, by employing different enforcement- and communication-strategies to manage their reputation among these groups.

Julius Veenstra

Tilburg University

In my PhD-thesis, I would like to focus on obtaining an understanding of the livelihoods of youth in relation to climate transition plans. More specifically, as part of the EU-funded BOLSTER project (led by Tilburg University), I aim to conduct ethnographic fieldwork so as to grasp the ways in which young Europeans make claims for intergenerational justice. By doing so, this research aims to give a voice to future generations and so intends to positively contribute to the realisation of the just climate transition as set out in the EU Green Deal.

Eline Verheijen

Radboud University Nijmegen

I am a PhD-candidate at the department of Public Administration at Radboud University Nijmegen. In my research, I focus on the use narrative methods in health care regulation in the field of youth care. My research is part of the RUN-project (executed by EUR, RU and RUG). This project focuses on health care regulation aimed at services for vulnerable groups in society. More specifically, in my PhD-project I focus on the experiences of youngsters in regard to the transition from youth care services to adult care services.

Bram Verhulst

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

My research focusses on what happens when government stumbles upon its limits or boundaries; what happens when continuing this way clearly is no option, and how do people envision the new paths to be taken? Trained within public administration as well as in philosophy, I intend on applying philosophical understandings of concepts such as freedom and the opposition between system and lifeworld to explore and compare multiple cases in areas such as health care, housing, education, etc.

Leone Verweij

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I’m a PhD candidate in the Department of Public Administration and Sociology at the Erasmus University. My research aims to tackle the barriers that people who struggle with low literacy experience in their participation in society. Specifically, we aim to develop work processes at the municipal level that improve the signaling of low literacy and increase the participation in educational courses among people who receive welfare benefits. We do this using collaborative innovation, meaning that all relevant stakeholders come together to develop these work processes.

Martijn de Vries

Delft University of Technology

My current research focusses on identifying barriers for the operationalisation of the 'wellbeing economy' ('brede welvaart' in Dutch) in public policy evaluation. I also explore how these barriers can be overcome through participatory policymaking practices. To this end, I study participatory evaluation methods, with a particular interest in Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE).

Kees van der Wel

Utrecht University

Hi! My name is Kees and – just like the others – I am a PhD Candidate. I am part of both the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and the Utrecht School of Governance at Utrecht University. My doctoral research focusses on the widening gap between the winners and losers of the energy transition. I am interested in two questions. First, why do energy policies sometimes turn out to be unfair? And second, what does fair energy policy look like? By answering these questions, I want to contribute to closing the gap between the winners and losers of the energy transition.

Julia Wesdorp

Erasmus University Rotterdam

I am a PhD candidate working jointly at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Utrecht University with two other PhDs and one Postdoc on the project ‘Authoritative reputations of inspectorates in turbulent times’. In this project, we study how the reputation of inspectorates develops in a complex context. In my part of the research, I investigate the reputation of inspectorates on an institutional level and look further into the relationship of reputation and media.