Jan Willem Duyvendak New NIAS Director

‘I’m delighted to be given the chance to lead an academic sanctuary for independent spirits and original researchers’, Duyvendak commented.

Jan Willem Duyvendak studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Groningen and in Paris. His research interests include new social movements, the changing welfare state, and such themes as belonging and nativism. He has published numerous articles and books, including The Politics of Home. Belonging and Nostalgia in Western Europe and the United States (2011), Crafting Citizenship. Negotiating Tensions in Modern Society (2012, co-authored with Menno Hurenkamp and Evelien Tonkens), and The Culturalization of Citizenship. Belonging and Polarization in a Globalizing World (2016, edited with Peter Geschiere and Evelien Tonkens).

Duyvendak was the director of the Verwey-Jonker Institute for Social Issues and Professor of Community Development at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has been Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam since 2014.

The appointment advisory committee praised Duyvendak’s academic leadership, citing his ability to build bridges between disciplines and to formulate challenging interdisciplinary themes. Given his sense of engagement, he will undoubtedly give knowledge valorisation an appropriate place within that context. The appointment advisory committee also commended Duyvendak as a respected scholar with a large national and international network and a proven track record in leadership and management. This makes him the right person to take NIAS forward as an institute of advanced study. Under his leadership, NIAS will continue to boost its position in the Netherlands and worldwide and offer fellows a welcoming and inspiring environment that fosters reflection, exchange and debate.

NIAS is a national institute for advanced study. A fellowship at NIAS offers renowned and talented researchers and artists time and space for in-depth study, innovation and interdisciplinarity by allowing them to devote themselves to reflection, new insights or new alliances, or to search for solutions to societal issues.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) is the forum, voice, and conscience of science and scholarship in the Netherlands. As an independent organisation, the Academy safeguards the quality and interests of science and scholarship and advises the Dutch government. It is responsible for fifteen internationally renowned institutes whose research and collections put them in the vanguard of Dutch science and scholarship.

• Jan Willem Duyvendak discussing migration, the politics of home and his new job (BNR Radio, Dutch only)
• Jan Willem Duyvendak on tolerance, feeling at home, and becoming NIAS new director (Folia, Dutch only)