CGD Knowledge Valorisation

I work in the field of critical adoption studies, unearthing the continuities between the circulation of colonial children during the last phase of colonial expansion (1890-1940) and current practices of transferring children from the global South to the global North. I have recently embarked on a collaboration with Will van Sebille, founder of the Stichting De Nederlandse Afstandsmother/The Dutch Birth Mother, an advocacy organization for first parents whose children were brought up by others. This foundation addresses the societal pressures exerted on (mostly single) mothers to relinquish their children for adoption, to change the negative imago of these mothers, who have been written off as frivolous and irresponsible mothers who were unable or unwilling to take care of their own offspring. The truth of the matter is that these mothers were often coerced into relinquishment, an often traumatic event that shaped the rest of their lives.

Living Like an Artist was a collaboration between Prof. Aagje Swinnen and ReMa Cultures of Arts, Science, and Technology, Rebekka Straetmans from Jan Van Eyck Mirror, and – in the second phase – Tim Prins and his Ma students in Architecture from RWTH Aachen. The project revolved around the connection between the figure of the professional artist and good aging and was financially supported by BankGiro Loterij and Edmond Hustinx Stichting. In the first phase of the project (2018), we studied what the underlying rationale is of the age limit of 35-40 years in policies for artists residencies in the Netherlands and what its consequences are, not in the least for older artists themselves and how they are perceived by younger artists. In the context of this first phase, Jan Van Eyck Academie opened artist residencies for three artists over 40 for the first time. The second phase of the project (2019) focused on how professional artists between 62 and 92 – mainly alumni from Jan Van Eyck Academie – who age in place experience creativity. Special attention was paid to their interaction with place, specifically their art studios. Both phases of the Living Like an Artist project aimed to deconstruct stereotypes surrounding success in aging and in being a professional artist. In times of the so-called gerontologization of creativity in which artists are often positioned as examples of successful aging, we argued that artists find meaning in their art practice rather than strive for autonomy, health, and productivity as a means in itself.

Our project builds on the UM Citation Guide, A Guide by FEM that illuminates gender citation biases in academia, as well as the recently published LSE blog that we have contributed to! There is a systematic under-citation of works by women and other marginalized groups in research. Paying attention to who we cite and how we do so can help to rectify the long-standing biases and invisibility of the work and ideas of women and other marginalized groups. 
Our project starts an important conversation and thus, creates more awareness by bringing together educators and students to reflect on their citation practices using various toolkits: Our Moving Conversation Toolkit - adapted from UM's Diversity and Inclusivity Office - is a conversation starter toolkit where students are introduced to the topic on citation bias. We provide educators with different options on how do this i.e. Draw a Scientist Experiment, riddles, games to first help students learn about their perceptions and dispel misconceptions. Once the exercises have been done, the educators can then develop this discussion further. The basic purpose of this conversation starter is to first create awareness before moving on to the next part which is to incorporate a short bio of the authors (with images) in class so these gender variations are visible. Besides that, students will become aware of who they are reading. The role of the course coordinators is then to include gender varied articles in courses. Once this is done, students can be asked to justify any citation gap in their assignments since course materials are normally their starting point for referencing. This justification could be a D&I reflection section on why a paper has more male citations than female. This way, the students are self-conscious while citing and also motivated to bring in gender varied texts in their work. 
We will have a pre-survey and post-survey toolkit to use so we know whether this pilot has had an impact. The authors' bio was already piloted last academic year and we saw its success because students were able to demand for more variation, and more articles from women and indigenous authors were included.

I am involved in the creation of this edited volume as a co-editor with Hester Dibbits, my co-researcher within The Critical Visitor consortium's Field Lab meetings. Together we conceptualized the volume with Wayne Modest from the WereldMuseum, a key partner in our consortium.

We are proud to announce the release of The Critical Visitor: Heritage Practices in Transition // De Kritische Bezoeker: Erfgoedpraktijken, available in both Dutch and English in a free downloadable pdf [INSERT LINKS TO PDFs). This publication is the third installment in the Work in Progress series (Wereldmuseum, 2018-). It functions as an "incomplete guide" for those involved in the heritage sector, offering a starting point for critical analysis and reflection.

This publication discusses current museological and archival practices that integrate intersectional approaches to redress the critical matter of uneven cultural participation and to address the demands made by critical visitors who have been historically marginalized within a cultural context. The book aims to develop more self-critical approaches to practices conducted by those in and adjacent to museums and archives, especially for how they might fall short, perpetuate, or be frustrated by systems of inequality. By sharing these reflections from cultural heritage professionals working in the Netherlands, we hope to foster a more open atmosphere, further an agenda of social justice, and provide critical vocabulary and examples to other readers who may face similar struggles. We focus on the approaches offered by intersectionality, and the practices of accessibility and inclusivity, which might also go by other names (diversity, equity, belonging, anti-racism, queering, cripping).

The small edition is meant for students and professionals in the heritage field, scholars keen to understand the state of the art of the Dutch cultural sector, and other interested and involved readers. It brings together shared experiences and reflections from professionals collaborating with and working within cultural institutions in the Netherlands. It draws heavily from the fifteen scientific, public and private partners who joined in the Critical Visitor project’s Field Labs, a research format that was described as “Testing Intersectional Approaches to Inclusive Actions at Museum and Archive Sites.” In shaping the volume, the editors have been inspired by the generative provocations and learnings from the five Field Labs. The essays herein will contain reflections from practitioners on how their inclusivity and accessibility practices work, what and who they produce, what emotions are active and inactive, what ethical horizon they are oriented towards, what logics organize their practice, what concepts give it form. The contributors also investigate the nitty-gritty of process to examine the emotions that color and shape intersectional experiences of practicing diversity and inclusion: the impatience, the effort of channeling cooperation, the sharpness of guilt and shame, and the exhaustion of dirty feminist work.

Book in the English version 

Book in de Nederlandse versie

My PhD project researches practices of remembrance and resignification of key moments of 20th century feminism in comics, and how these help frame feminist thinking, action, and belonging in the present.

As part of my outreach, I am curating an exhibition on lesbian feminist comics in collaboration with IHLIA LGBTQI+ Heritage. The exhibition focuses on British and Dutch comics from the 1970s to the 1990s. It aims to introduce a corpus of comics that is not well known today to a diverse audience, and to show how comics have been used by lesbians and feminists to resist oppression and discrimination, negotiate identities, and build communities. Next to the exhibition, I am also helping IHLIA expand their comics collection, and I am organising a number of events with them, such as a comics workshop and a roundtable conversation with comics artists whose work is part of the exhibition.

I have, moreover, given public lectures on comics and graphic novels as cultural remembrances of feminism at events organized by Tijdschrift Vooys and Studio Europa Maastricht. Visual artist Pippilotta Yerna and I have discussed the mother-daughter relationship as a common metaphor for the relationship between different feminist movements at the Lighthouse Podcast,  produced by Fotodok.

Hadewych Honné, Ilya Malafei, Mara Stieber, and Aagje Swinnen

At its first Diversity Day, UM became an official partner in the Age-friendly University (AFU) Global Network. The aim of this project (2019-2020), supported with an UM Diversity and Inclusivity grant, was to help fleshing out what AFU’s 9th principle, “To engage actively with the university’s own retired community,” could/should entail. We examined how academic staff at Maastricht University experiences the transition from work into retirement through qualitative interviewing; this transition is commonly understood as a major event in the life course that prompts older people to reinvent roles and identities. Insights in the core issues that characterize these experiences will help UM further develop policies that support academic staff that is approaching retirement age as well as build and capitalize on more sustainable relations with this particular community beyond employment. Questions that we addressed in this respect and that tie in with UM D&I policy include: What are factors that have positively or negatively influenced people’s experiences both in the preparation of the retirement and the immediate period thereafter? What is the role of UM in retirement planning and what are suggestions for improvement in terms of support from the employer? What about the talent, competence, and experience of academic staff who has/had to leave because of retirement?

Report Transitioning into Retirement

My research on transnational adoption provides relevant input for current societal debates and policy-making.  In 2020-2021, I have been a member of the expert panel on transnational adoption in Flanders, established by the Flemish government in order to investigate the occurrence and impact of illicit practices in adoption, and to formulate recommendations for future policy development accordingly. In this function I have co-authored the final report and am the sole author of another on ethical dilemmas in adoption (both can be found here). I have also written op-ed pieces and made a podcast (in Dutch) for the Universiteit van Vlaanderen to enable dissemination of my research to a broader audience. I’m also a member of the expert consultation group of the Flemish ‘Afstammingscentrum’ (Centre for Genetic Descent) which supports anyone trying to find genetically related relatives. Furthermore, I regularly engage in talks and collaborations with adoptees’ associations and with scholars developing critical research on the issue.