Exploring Diversity: Critical ethnographies of belonging and exclusion
Re-imagine diversity
The term "diversity" is often used in conflicting ways, both by movements striving for equality and by conservative efforts aiming to dilute its significance. Throughout the history of anthropology, diversity has played a central role, fueling discussions that have challenged and supported various social norms and structures. Drawing from this critical perspective, Exploring Diversity aims to reclaim and redefine diversity in anthropology, focusing on contemporary issues that demand our attention.
The programme group studies how people feel like they belong or are excluded from different aspects of everyday life, and how this affects their sense of self, the way institutions work, and the world around them in the long term. People navigate these dynamics and pursue their goals in different ways, despite challenges. The research within Exploring Diversity looks at the creative aspects of these endeavors and how they shape the past, present, and future.
Filmmaking and challenging dominant narratives
Using a diverse range of research methods, Exploring Diversity focusses on various social environments. Through techniques like filmmaking, it aims to deeply understand and creatively represent the complexities of social and political realities. Grounded in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, research within the programme group delves into everyday life, challenging dominant narratives and fostering new theoretical perspectives.
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Traveling Sex Education
Dutch sex education programs have been widely adopted in the Global South, becoming a successful export. In 2019, the Netherlands invested 439 million euros to provide sexual health information to 7.5 million youths globally.
However, cultural factors affect how these programs are received. This ethnographic project examines how Dutch sex education is adapted in Uganda and Bangladesh, interacting with local knowledge and practices. Using gender and sexuality studies and actor-network theory, it bridges decoloniality with sexual health research, exploring how sexual knowledge is produced, politicized, and globally disseminated, shaping contemporary understandings of sexuality.
Project period
Sept 2022 - Aug 2026
Funding
This project is funded by the NWO Talent Programme Veni SSH.
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HEALTH-AI
The Future of Healthcare: Human–Algorithm Collaborations in Global Public Health
When people think of algorithmic decision‑making, they often picture software and datasets. In practice, every algorithmic decision in healthcare is the result of collaboration between humans and machines: programmers who design systems, clinicians who interpret outputs, managers who set targets, and patients who live with the consequences. This long‑term anthropological project, conducted in seven countries, investigates how doctors, data specialists, and algorithms jointly shape decisions in areas such as genetic research and preventive care.
The research looks at what is gained and lost when healthcare becomes increasingly datafied and automated: how workloads shift, which skills are devalued or “deskilled,” which ethical issues remain hidden, and who benefits from these transformations in global public health.
Project period
June 2023 - May 2028
Funding
ERC Starting Grant
Team
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Rhythms of Love: Enduring Romantic Relationships at Midlife in Contemporary Western Europe
This project explores how people in midlife (ages 35-60) sustain long-term romantic relationships during life transitions, focusing on challenges like work stress, parenting, and societal pressures. It introduces the concept of "rhythms of love" to examine love's temporal aspects across partnership, parenthood, and other relationships.
The research considers diversity factors such as gender, race, socioeconomic status, and religion, and will be conducted in the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden using ethnographic methods. Outcomes include academic publications, public engagement through media, and undergraduate research, advancing theories of intimacy in contemporary society. A social science advisory board will provide guidance.
Project period
Feb 2024 - Jan 2029
Funding
NWO-Talentprogramme | Vidi - Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)
Team
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Re/Presenting Europe: Popular Representations of Diversity and Belonging
The interdisciplinary consortium "Re/Presenting Europe," funded by a €4.9 million Dutch Research Agenda grant, seeks to reshape the image of Europe by addressing its colonial past and fostering true diversity.
The project explores how ‘othered’ populations have shaped Europe, focusing on popular culture, such as football and hip-hop, to highlight new heroes who help younger generations feel a sense of belonging.
The consortium involves universities and organizations from the Netherlands, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, working across five groups that study representation in education, healing, sports, and urban arts.
Project period
September 2022 - August 2027
Funding
Funded by NWO (Dutch Research Council) within the Dutch Research Agenda (Nationale Wetenschapsagenda NWA).
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Healthy Futures: The Effects of Invisible Support in Refugee Care for Intergenerational Health
This project explores how “invisible” forms of support in European refugee reception centres shape the health and futures of pregnant women, their unborn children, and their broader communities.
The team studies not only the everyday practices of care by staff and volunteers – the small gestures, words, and relational work that can reduce stress and interrupt intergenerational cycles of vulnerability – but also how these practices are (mis)represented in formal Monitoring & Evaluation systems.
While M&E reports circulate in digital spaces as evidence of what refugee care looks like, they often fail to capture the lived realities of support on the ground. By comparing digital accountability infrastructures with embodied practices of care, we ask whose efforts are recognised, whose are not, and how a more attentive understanding of care can contribute to healthier futures.
Period: 2025-2027
Team
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Public debates, everyday injustice, and AI in the global South
Roanne van Voorst, Nafis Hasan, Dr Sagnik Dutta (Tilburg University), and Siddhart D’Souza (University of Warwick) examine how artificial intelligence is discussed, regulated, and resisted in different parts of the Global South.
Through roundtables and co‑authored work with practitioners and scholars, we explore the gaps between public debate, legal frameworks, and the everyday injustices experienced by those who live and work with AI systems.
They are particularly interested in whose voices and forms of expertise are taken seriously in these discussions, and how insights from the Global South can help reimagine fairer and more inclusive futures for AI governance.
Period: 2025-2026
Researchers