As you read, I obtained both my master and bachelor degree at the University of Amsterdam (both cum laude / with distinction). During my bachelor I focused on questions of belonging, diversity, religion, power and identity. Outside the normal curriculum I joined the honours programme in which I participated in courses in cross cultural psychology, international education and emotions. More and more I was drawn towards a philosophical approach in anthropology which let me to follow courses at the philosophy department.

For my bachelor thesis I decided to do an experiment in order to research the relation between the anthropology of morality and the morality of anthropologists. For this research I kept an ‘houry’ (a diary that was updated every hour) in which I reflected on issues related to Morality. This resulted in my bachelor thesis: ‘Double Morality’ which was graded a 9-.

At this time I also discovered the importance of sound and singing and the title of my final bachelor presentation was: Are we allowed to sing our own song. This partly sung presentation explored the possibilities, pitfalls and contribution of a more sound oriented anthropology and questioned whether we (as everyday individuals and as academics) are able to sing our own, often contradictory, songs.

The philosophical approach of my bachelor thesis and the soundwork of my final presentation led shaped the focus of my master. In the one year, international research master of the UvA I explored the sounds of street-soccer. This research was both an exploration of new research methods that challenge a visual bias often encountered in academics and a search for the particular sounds of street-soccer that echo the philosophies of the street. These sounded philosophies challenge many commonsense worldviews.

My master thesis: ‘Sounds of Street-soccer’ explored a radical phenomenological approache of being-alive-together and contained one sound chapter (graded a 9). As my research was executed in collaboration with Imagine IC I also produced a soundscape that became part of Imagine IC’s Pannas and Akkas exhibition.

As learning never stops, I am now a PhD-student, continuing my research at the University of Amsterdam.