Dr G.M.M. Kuipers (1971) has been named Professor of Cultural Sociology at the University of Amsterdam’s (UvA) Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Giselinde Kuipers conducts research into the sociology of cultural standards and taste, especially in the area of humour and beauty. Her research is based on the views of both professionals and ‘normal’ people, in various European countries. Kuipers’ current research project focuses on the relationship between transnational cultural industries – American television producers, the international modelling and fashion world – and the shaping of cultural standards in daily life.

Kuipers works as Senior University Lecturer at the UvA’s Anthropology and Sociology department. She also holds the Norbert Elias chair at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In 2009, Kuipers was awarded an ERC Starting Grant of over €1.2 million for her research project on beauty. She has also received various grants from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2001, Boom publishing house published her book Goede humor, slechte smaak. Nederlanders over moppen. The English edition, entitled Good Humor, Bad Taste. A Sociology of the Joke was published in 2006. Kuipers has published articles in numerous journals such as American Sociological Review, European Journal of Cultural Studies, European Journal of Social Theory en Poetics. She was one of the founders of the Dutch magazine Sociology and is currently editor-in-chief of the international professional journal HUMOR International Journal of Humor Research.