The end of January and the beginning of February is a period of change at NIAS: we say good-bye to the first-semester fellows and welcome those arriving at NIAS for the second semester. At the opening of the academic year on Wednesday 3 February, nine new research fellows were introduced to the institute and the NIAS academic community.
Presenting the Fellows
After introductory talks by the Rector and Head of Academic Affairs, one of the new Fellows, Kène Henkens, talked about the project he will be working on at NIAS. Professor Henkens, who leads the Work and Retirement group at the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), will coordinate an international and interdisciplinary theme group at NIAS titled “From Multidisciplinary Perspectives to Interdisciplinary Pathways: An Agenda for Future Retirement Research and Policy”. This theme group aims to gain more understanding about a highly relevant societal issue, namely how do older adults deal with the last years of their working careers and how do they approach retirement.
Henkens discussed the changing retirement landscape in the Netherlands, which currently entails a later retirement, uncertain pension benefits and more complex and varied transitions to retirement. How do people prepare for retirement and how do different contexts such as institutions, household and organizations influence the decisions that workers make at the end of their career? At NIAS, Henkens hopes to answer some of these questions and compare this with other international contexts. He and his theme-group members hope to build on earlier collaborations as well as forge new bonds.
Henkens’ talk was followed by 1-minute presentations in which each of the new fellows as well as the fellows who are here for the full year, introduced themselves and their projects to each other. It was a good start for the community of scholars who will be working at NIAS over the next few months.
More
NIAS Research Year Group 2015/16
A very warm welcome to new fellows Héctor Abad, Harry van Dalen, Arne Hendriks, Kène Henkens, Doug Hershey, Martin Hyde, Elmer Kolfin, Rianne Letschert, and Hanna van Solinge.