Interview with Femke Kaulingfreks

Femke Kaulingfreks works at InHolland University of Applied Sciences and does research at the University of Amsterdam. Her work focuses particularly on the empowerment of young people and the social development of Amsterdam. Her five-year occupancy of Amsterdam’s Wibaut chair, set up by the city for the study of metropolitan issues, began in April 2023. She is setting up an institute for joint work between scientists, professionals and residents. As well as being a commentator in national newspapers, she has written academic and popular books on street politics and riots in the Netherlands and France.

Where and when were you born and how has this shaped who you are?
Amsterdam in 1981. Sometimes I feel like the city has raised me more than my parents. I started living on my own when I was 16. The city has shaped me by giving me a strong belief in the solidarity of people who are often seen as “vulnerable” or “poor” because they come from underserved neighbourhoods, have little money and work in low-status jobs, or have migrant backgrounds, but who are in fact very rich because they have strong social ties, are inventive or creative, have humour and know how to sometimes show tough love to each other.

How have your life experiences shaped your academic work?
When I was a teenager I could have easily got the label “young person at risk”. However, I found support in unexpected places and was smart and persistent enough to get my high-school diploma. My own experiences have shown me how people can create meaningful lives in contexts of inequality, scarcity or precarity, and without the help of institutions, so this has shaped my interest in concepts such as grassroots activism, community organising and mutual aid.

How has Amsterdam changed as a city?
Over the past decades the municipality of Amsterdam has focused a lot on external PR. Big high-rise office buildings were built in the south. Many hotels were built. Social housing was sold and working-class neighbourhoods were renovated to make them more attractive to residents with higher incomes. Now we see the backlash. Housing prices have skyrocketed, residents in the city centre are complaining about nuisances caused by the large number of tourists and the underground drug market has expanded and is dragging youth in from underserved neighbourhoods. While the city looks brightly polished, shiny and attractive to outside visitors and businesses, residents in underserved neighbourhoods suffer from the rising inequality in various areas of their lives: employment, housing, education, healthcare, food and the energy transition.

What is the biggest difference between your student experience and what your students experience?
The pressure to perform is much higher nowadays. I could get a student loan and take my time finishing my studies. I engaged in student politics and activism in the Amsterdam squatter movement and travelled a lot. From this I learned how to appreciate collaborating and engaging with people with completely different experiences, perspectives and worldviews, how to effectively work with collective decision-making and how to negotiate your position in complex power relations.

What advice do you give to your students?
I have many first-generation students. To them I say: you belong here, and please don’t tell yourself that you don’t. You have every right to claim space in this institution and make it your own, because the university needs your brains, skills and knowledge of life as much as you might need its knowledge from the books.

What is the biggest misconception about your field?
That qualitative research in the social field is anecdotal and does not give enough “hard evidence” to base structural policy or societal changes on it. If we do not study in depth how broader societal developments are experienced in the everyday lives of people and how they assign meaning to the world they live in in their own words, we will not come up with changes or solutions that make sense to the people experiencing the issues we wish to solve.

If you weren’t an academic, what do you think you’d be doing?
I would be a wedding planner because I love good parties and bringing people together, and I am very good at organising stuff under stressful circumstances.

Tell us about someone you admire.
Terra Dakota Stein is one of the founding members of Verdedig Noord, a residents’ movement in the north of Amsterdam fighting gentrification through awareness-raising, community support and cultural campaigns. Terra is an amazingly powerful woman. She is a very gifted public speaker, a charismatic leader and a great moderator of debates who can make everyone feel welcome and heard, also in very tense situations in which power imbalances are palpable between residents and institutional representatives. She is always busy, but she is also always incredibly attentive, caring and energetic. She is a fantastic organiser, remembers everyone’s birthday, and supports and celebrates the people around her. I wish I had half her energy and capacity to make people feel seen and loved. She shows me how social justice work can be done in the most sincere and stylish way. She should become the next mayor of Amsterdam.

What do you do for fun?
I have a book club with some girlfriends. We read novels and, while we discuss the book, we drink a cocktail that fits the book.

What’s your biggest regret?
Not slapping one of my former managers in the face after he told me I would not stand a chance getting a job as an assistant professor because I had had a baby the year before and had not published enough in that year as a postdoc.

Do you live by any motto or philosophy?
Emma Goldman, one of my favourite anarchist writers, said: “If I can’t dance it’s not my revolution.” I agree with her. It is important to find the courage to put lots of hard work into changing society for the better and to strive for social justice, but if we can’t have fun while doing that I am not sure we will ever make it happen.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com

CV

2006 MA political philosophy, University of Amsterdam
2013 PhD in philosophy, anthropology, University of Humanistic Studies
2013-14 Researcher, the Hague University of Applied Sciences
2015 Visiting researcher, University of California, Berkeley
2015-17 Postdoctoral researcher, Radboud University
2017-18 Assistant professor of pedagogy, Utrecht University
2018-present Professor, InHolland University of Applied Sciences
2023-present Wibaut chair, University of Amsterdam

Appointments

Ted Carter has been named president of Ohio State University, replacing Kristina Johnson, who stepped down last November. He will join in January from the University of Nebraska system, where he has been president for the last three years. Mr Carter previously led the United States Naval Academy and Naval War College. He said he was “immensely grateful” for the opportunity to lead an institution “founded upon and well-known across the globe for research, teaching and an enduring commitment to service”.

Eric Perreault has been selected as Northwestern University’s next vice-president for research, replacing Milan Mrksich. A faculty member at Northwestern since 2002, Professor Perreault has been a professor of biomedical engineering and of physical medicine and rehabilitation, as well as associate dean for research administration and oversight in the McCormick School of Engineering. Provost Kathleen Hagerty said he “will bring his tremendous vision and ambition to Northwestern’s thriving research enterprise”.

Matthew Hotopf has been promoted to become executive dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. He has been the institute’s vice-dean since 2017.

Anna Meredith has been appointed executive dean of Keele University’s Faculty of Natural Sciences. She joins from the University of Edinburgh, where she is presently professor of zoological and conservation medicine.

Nadya Mason is joining the University of Chicago as dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. She is currently a professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Emily Murray has been appointed director of the University of Essex’s Clacton-based Centre for Coastal Communities. She is currently a senior research fellow in UCL’s department of epidemiology and public health.

Melissa de Zwart is joining the University of Adelaide as a professor in the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources. She moves from Flinders University, where she was a professor of digital technology, security and governance.