Besides being an Assistant Professor at the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, VU University, I am also a Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR).
I teach and do research at the intersection of victimology, anthropology and transitional justice. My research explores whether and, if so, how judicial and non-judicial transitional justice procedures in various countries in the world affect the daily lives of those who experienced political violence, gross human rights violations and mass victimisation.
Previously, I hold positions at various institutions in the Netherlands, including CEDLA (Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation, University of Amsterdam), the department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and INTERVICT (International Victimology Institute, Tilburg University).
I conducted research on victim labelling and the participation of victim-survivor organizations in Peru during the implementation of Peru’s national reparations programme; on survivors’ political participation as a result of Colombia’s Victims and Land Restitution Law; and more recently, on the changes in the lives of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence as a result of the interim reparative measures provided by the Global Surviors Fund in Guinea-Conakry, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the DRC), and Yazidis in Northern-Iraq. I was also co-coordinating a research project in which the experiences of survivors in the DRC, Cambodia, Guatemala and Cyprus are studied with reparative measures as a result of the Katanga case, ICC; cases at the ECCC, Case of the Rio Negro Massacres v Guatemala, IACtHR; and Cyprus v Turkey (just satisfaction), ECtHR.
I am also involved in research projects on measures for victims in the Netherlands, such as the expansion of the right to speak for victims (Victim Impact Statement), and compensation for assistance costs for victims of sexual violence ("eigen bijdrage zorgverzekering").
I use ethnography, participatory research, visual methods, and mixed-methods approaches for conducting research.
I am also a member of the Ethics Committee for Legal and Criminological Research (CERCO), Law Faculty, VU University.