Through critical research and as a teacher, I hope to contribute to a world where everyone, regardless of their identity, characteristics, expression, preferences and background can live a beautiful life. 
 

Researcher & Editor at the Institute of Network Cultures

 

The Institute of Network Cultures (INC) is an applied science research unit inside the Digital Media and Creative Industries faculty of the Amsterdam University of Applied Science, focussed on critical internet research - giving equal attention to the artistic, political, and technical aspects of the web. As Researcher & Editor I work on the strategy, content and execution of our research projects. This includes (financial) project management, production, curation, moderation, & promotion of (hybrid) events and publications, maintaining a relevant network of makers, thinkers & activists, editorial work and coaching interns and affiliated researchers.

 

My personal research revolves around social movements and the technologies and tactics they use - from navigating the digital public sphere to political memes. I also co-edited the three INC Readers about critical meme research that were published in  2021, 2022 and 2024.

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CMD Teacher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Next to my role as a researcher at INC, I work as a teacher at the Communication and Multimedia Design program at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, where I help students to critically reflect on their digital designs, in the context of the society they live in and the future they would like to see. In addition, I am a study coach/mentor and supervise students their internships and graduation projects.

 

From 2021 until 2024 I was also an advisor in the university's Research Ethics Committee, where I mainly focussed on issues around social safety and diversity & inclusion. 
 

Academic Background  & Volunteer Work

I have a background in both Media Studies and Philosophy, through a BA, pre-MA and MA at the University of Amsterdam. 

 

I am currently volunteering as an animal caretaker at a neighborhood farm in the city that I live in. In the past, I have also volunteered for organizations such as Amsterdam BIJ1, Amnesty International NL, Voedselbank Amsterdam, and Rode Kruis Amsterdam. 

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Culture & Society Copywriter 

Before this, I worked as a freelance Copywriter, Communications Consultant and Journalist for multiple years. 

I worked with clients in the cultural and social sector such as 113 Zelfmoordpreventie, Amsterdam Art Weekend, Amsterdam Dance Event, Amsterdam Light Festival, COC Nederland, Volkshotel, Friendly Fire, Gemeente Amsterdam, Museumnacht Amsterdam, CJP, Solidaridad, VICE, TEDxAmsterdamWomen and various electronic music events, urban developers and creative entrepreneurs.

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Publications & Appearances 

Topics I write and speak about include:

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(political) meme studies (from the point of view of the (radical) left) / social movements and the technologies they use / the digital public sphere, social media comment wars, call out culture / witnessing images in the age of the platform, algorithmic censorship in social media platforms and shadowbanning / speculative & social design 

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Here are some highlights 
 

• Reflections on Trigger Warnings: A Practice of Care, a Refusal of Witnessing, 2024.

• Theory Fragments of the Shadowban: Navigating Censorship of Palestinian Content, 2024.

• Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the Meme, edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Idil Galip, 2024.

• Memes as a Portal to the Past and Future: How Extinction Rebellion is using Memes to Change the Narrative Around the Climate Crisis, 2023. 

• Challenging Oppressive Discourses in the Digital Public Sphere: Reflections on Anger and Empathy in Comment Wars, 2022.  

• Critical Meme Reader #2: Memetic Tacticality, edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz, 2022. 

• Political Meme Toolkit: Leftist Meme Makers Share Their Trade Secrets in Critical Meme Reader #2: Memetic Tacticality, 2022. 

• The Potential and Limits for Call-Out Culture as an Activist Practice: How the Internet Tried to Hold J. K. Rowling Accountable for her TERF'ism, 2022. 

• Global Mutations of the Viral Image: Critical Meme Reader, edited by Chloë Arkenbout, Jack Wilson and Daniel de Zeeuw, 2021. 

• Values and Limits of the Instagram Infographic: On Marginalized Groups Reclaiming Their Power to Define, 2021.

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And here is the complete overview

 

2024

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• Memes as Speculative Tools for a Future We Would Want @ HIVI Final Conference Online Virality: Past Present Future @  Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) / University of Luxembourg (keynote speaker and panel discussion member), 2024.

• Brat / demure @ @ Linkse Mannen Lossen het op (podcast), 2024.

• Cartoon vs. Memes II: waar lachen we straks het meest om @ Noorderzon Festval of Performing Arts & Society (panelgesprek), 2024.

• Reflections on Trigger Warnings: A Practice of Care, a Refusal of Witnessing, 2024.

• The Detective Wall by Clusterduck at Poetics of Encryption Exhibition @ KW Berlin and Kunsthal Charlottenborg Contemporary Art Museum of Copenhagen (humble contribution of memes), 2024.

• De gevaren van de meme-cultuur, Smaakmakers, NPO Radio 1 (radio guest), 2024.

• Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the Meme, edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Idil Galip, 2024.

• Breaking the Meme: Critical Meme Reader III launch @ Spui25 (program, moderation and production), 2024.

• Screentime, Airtime, Facetime, Practicing Hybridity in Cultural Institutions (contributor of Chapter 2 and 3), 2024. 

• Memes lossen het op @ Linkse Mannen Lossen het op (podcast), 2024.

• Theory Fragments of the Shadowban: Navigating Censorship of Palestinian Content, 2024.

• The Void TV Tactical Video Streaming #2 Girl Stream (moderator of the Girl Theory panel and interviewer of Morgane Billuart her book Cycles, the Sacret and the Doomed + program host), 2024.

• Activist Memes; Having/choosing (?) to use them in colonial platforms @ Digital Colonialism at IMPAKT Utrecht, 2024.

• INC Publishing Fest #1 @ OT301 Amsterdam (panel discussion member), 2024.
   

2023​​​​

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• Confessions of a Political Meme Maker in SWIPE by Mieke Gerritzen (Next Nature Network, BIS Publishers), 2023.

• Memes Beyond Images, SWIPE launch @ Next Nature Network, NXT Museum (speaker), 2023.

• Screentime, Airtime, Facetime: Practicing Hybridity in Cultural Institutions (host of Chapter 2 and 3), 2023.

• Society 5.0 Festival,  organized by the Digital Media & Creative Industries Faculty of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Digital Society School, the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation,the Rietveld Academy and InHolland University, 2023 (co-curator of the Inclusive Participation track).

• Recast#19: Memes voor creativiteit, protest en hoop, Recast (Digital Society School), 2023.

• Memes as a Portal to the Past and Future: How Extinction Rebellion is using Memes to Change the Narrative Around the Climate Crisis, 2023. 

• Breaking the Meme, guest lecture @ Geert Lovink's Art and Network Cultures course at the University of Amsterdam, 2023.

• Memes als dialectische beelden voor maatschappelijke verandering @ Filosofie in de Postdigitale Wereld (minor van de Faculteit Digitale Media & Creatieve Industrie van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam), 2023 (gastles).

• Cartoon vs. Memes: hoe humor ons door oorlogen en epidemieën helpt @ Noorderzon Festval of Performing Arts & Society (panelgesprek), 2023.

• Your memes could be artistic interventions, Culturala Journal, 2023.

• Memes as Political Tools for Radical Change: Reflections on Viral Image Culture @ Master Photography and Society, Royal Academy of Art The Hague (guest lecture), 2023.

• In-Between Media: Hybrid Tactics in the Crisis Era INC Conference @ Spui25, Framer Framed & OT301 Amsterdam (moderator, curator, producer), 2023.

• Memes as an Artistic Research Practice @ Research-Creation: Merging the Critical and Creative, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (guest lecture with Laurence Scherz), 2023.

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2022

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• Challenging Oppressive Discourses in the Digital Public Sphere: Reflections on Anger and Empathy in Comment Wars, 2022.  

• Memes voorbij online beelden: grappige kattenplaatjes of tools voor maatschappelijke betrokkenheid? @Mediamakers in Platformsamenleving, CO+CB, Hogeschool van Amsterdam (gastles), 2022.

• Politiek geëngageerd memetisch filmmaken @ On the Movie, Nederlandse Filmacademie, Breitner Academie, Netwerk Filmeducatie (gastlest), 2022.

• Memes hebben macht en kunnen bijdragen aan een rechtvaardige wereld door Lisette Wegener, Hogeschool van Amsterdam (persbericht), 2022.  

• Memes Beyond Images: Memetic Tacticality INC Conference / Critical Meme Reader #2 launch @ Spui25 (program, moderation and production), 2022.

• Critical Meme Reader #2: Memetic Tacticality, edited by Chloë Arkenbout and Laurence Scherz, 2022. 

• Political Meme Toolkit: Leftist Meme Makers Share Their Trade Secrets in Critical Meme Reader #2: Memetic Tacticality, 2022. 

• Memetic Tacticality: Introduction in Critical Meme Reader #2: Memetic Tacticality, 2022. 

• Memes hebben macht @ Emerce.nl, door redactie, 2022.

• The Workings of Populism: From Far Right to Centre Parties @ Humans of Film Festival at Het Ketelhuis (panel member Eine Deutsche Partei viewing), 2022. 

• Memes Beyond Images, guest lecture @ Geert Lovink's Art and Network Cultures course at the University of Amsterdam, 2022.

• Waarom ik twee keer nadenk voordat ik been gifje van een persoon van kleur verstuur, door Lars Delleman, Brandpunt+ (KRO NCRV/NPO 3), 2022.

• Stuck on the platform, interview with Geert Lovink (THE VOID podcast host), 2022.

• Politieke plaatjes, wat doen memes met ons? @ Happy Chaos Amsterdam (panelgesprek), 2022. 

• The Potential and Limits for Call-Out Culture as an Activist Practice: How the Internet Tried to Hold J. K. Rowling Accountable for her TERF'ism, 2022. 

• Impact van politieke memes (van politieke partijen) @ Mediastorm (talkshow NPO2/Omroep Human), 2022.

• Has the Tweet Become a Meme? in PrtScn: The Lazy Art of Screenshot edited by Dunja Nesovic, 2022.

• Kan je in Nederland grappen maken over de oorlog in Oekraïne? @ Alicante (podcast NPO Radio1 & BNNVARA), 2022.

• Meme-accounts hebben meer invloed op de verkiezingen dan je zou denken, door Jan van Tienen, VICE NL, 2022.

• Zijn memes de nieuwe cartoons? door Carolien Ronde, De VARA Gids, 2022.

• Deze jongeren gaan stemmen, jij ook? door Noene Kazarjan, BNNVARA, 2022.

• Interview met Jazie Veldhyzen, Amsterdam BIJ, 2022.

• Stop Being Reasonable: On Nonviolence in Social Media Comment Wars, 2022. 

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2021

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• Global Mutations of the Viral Image: Critical Meme Reader, edited by Chloë Arkenbout, Jack Wilson and Daniel de Zeeuw, 2021. 

• Global Mutations of the Viral Image: Critical Meme Reader launch @ Spui25 ((program, moderation and production), 2021.

• Values and Limits of the Instagram Infographic: On Marginalized Groups Reclaiming Their Power to Define, 2021.

• De Macht van Memes met Chloë Arkenbout @ Het Redelijke Midden (podcast), 2021.

• The Left Can Meme: Strategies to Challenge Dutch Oppressive Political Discourses, 2021. 

• Diary of a Meme Reader Co-Editor: Navigating the Ethics of Meme Copyright, Meme Studies Research Network, 2021.

• How memes are evolving beyond the image, Next Nature Network, 2021.

• The Digital Gutmensch: The Ethics of Challenging Oppressive Discourse in Online Public Debate, 2021.   

• The Digitarian Society @ Tetem (panel member), 2021.

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