Could you please introduce yourself?
“My name is Shadi Nikshomar, I am 22 years old, and I graduated in 2025. I took the Philosophy and Politics tracks.”
What did you do in your fifth semester?
“I did an internship as a policy officer for GroenLinks-PvdA, the political party I am active in. I prepped Members of Parliament (MPs) for debates and prepared motions and parliamentary questions. I also advised on taxes and income politics. It was a reality check that some lobby groups basically can just buy motions, as I saw with a sugar tax where a party put forward a motion to exclude yoghurt drinks from the tax right after that party had received a big donation from a yoghurt company. I also contributed to a strategy on how taxes and income politics can be made more ‘sexy’. After my internship, I continued to work for the party part-time as a student employee.
During PPE, I was also a city council member, but I have decided not to run again as it got too much, and I believe in letting new talent in.”
What did you write your thesis about?
“I wrote it on the right to anger, asking the question whether you can have a right to an emotion, concluding that you can have a right to anger, but the question is who can deny you that right and which responsibilities come with it. I wanted to write this thesis because I think we live in a society where everything is rational, and emotion is something that we try to push out of the public sphere. But emotion is what fuels everything that happens in the public sphere! Moreover, I was also interested in this topic because people who are marginalised are more likely to be denied the right to anger.”
What are you currently doing (studying/working), and where?
“Next to my job, I am doing a master’s in philosophy. Because I decided to run for the national elections last autumn, I will probably not be able to finish it this year. In the master’s, I am focusing mostly on logic. That was my favourite part of PPE, and for once, I wanted to do something not because it is the most rational thing, but just because I really like it.”
You work a lot; do you think people should work a lot? Is it normally prescribed to do so?
“First of all, I want to recognise that work is not only paid work, and that a lot of really important work, like caring for a family member or volunteering for your community, but also doing the emotional labour of going to a therapist, is not valued enough. That being said, it was mainstream in the bubble I grew up in that you are valuable to society in the way you contribute to it. My parents immigrated from Iran, and their degrees (my mum was an applied physicist) were not recognised in the Netherlands, so they went through a lot of struggles and experienced a lot of racism. They taught me that I have to work much harder than a Dutch person to even be considered for the same jobs, and they were not wrong! Discrimination is very real and institutionalised. I also saw this in my work as a city councillor, when women of colour ask critical questions, they are perceived as angry and mistrusting, while white men are perceived as passionate and smart.
Nevertheless, I do believe in the sentence ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. The way I perceive myself is through the things I can do to make that change. I do work a lot, which is not always good for my stress levels and my ability to sleep, and I think it is important to take care of yourself.”
What did you do between PPE and now?
“I ran for the national elections. While I had my doubts about whether I should run, I believe that we need young people in politics. I always tell other people that they should run, and in the end, you should live by the things you tell other people.
I mainly campaigned on social security and immigration. I want to make the Netherlands the first country that is child-translator-free. Because my parents did not speak Dutch when I was young, I always translated for them. This is bad for the children who are translating because they are confronted with things they are way too young for, and it is telling for a society when its children are not allowed to be children. The second thing I ran on is our social security system failing us, as we never look at what people need, but only give them what they are entitled to based on the rules. I want to change that. My usual day during campaigning varied between debates, handing out flyers, being on panels, and doing random campaign things like partying to reach young people.”
How did PPE affect your choice of what you are studying/working in now?
“PPE put things into perspective. For example, learning about catch-all parties helped me understand that that is what is happening in the Netherlands right now. Policy analysis tools like cost-benefit analysis are also helpful when discussing policy.”
What are your plans for the future?
“I want to make a change and do something useful for society. For now, I think politics is the best place, but activism might also be an option in the future.”