About FASoS
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) is one of the six faculties at Maastricht University. It was founded in 1994. The faculty offers a place where scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds - historians, political scientists, literary and arts scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers and others - are brought together in joint research. This interdisciplinary approach is predominant in our teaching as well; all of our programmes acquaint students with different disciplines and perspectives.
International outlook
At FASoS, we are also focused on creating an international environment, a place where our differences become our strengths. Every day, our students and staff are challenged with differing viewpoints and experiences as they interact peers from all over the world. All of the faculty’s programmes are taught entirely in English and with 77% of our students and 42% of our staff coming from abroad, FASoS is Maastricht University’s most international faculty. Such diversity creates an atmosphere that strengthens the international orientation of our research and education.
Our faculty
5 departments
4 research programmes
4 bachelor's programmes
8 master's programmes
2 research master's programmes
1 graduate school
founded in 1994
Historic location
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is housed in several historic buildings in the city centre of Maastricht. These structures and the artwork in and around them add to both the city’s and the university’s special atmosphere. The buildings, as well as the arts and cultural heritage, are definitely worth a closer look.
More information:
25th Anniversary FASoS
In 2019, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences celebrated its 25th anniversary (1994-2019). Professor Tannelie Blom and senior lecturer Jo Wachelder founded the sixth faculty at Maastricht University, and together they look back on an especially dynamic quarter of a century. “The common thread? Innovation and interdisciplinarity.”
Humans of FASoS
The ghost(s) of FASoS
The historic Hof van Tilly (main FASoS building on Grote Gracht 90) dates from the early 1700s and has served multiple functions. This makes for a rich but also obscure history.
By Eva Durlinger
Shopaholic Luana Russo
Assistant professor in Quantitative Methods, Luana Russo, loves food, books and hiking. But shopping is her weak spot.
By Eva Durlinger
Bart Kerckhoffs: your go-to hospitality expert
Bart Kerckhoffs, HR adviser at FASoS, lives and breathes the hospitality sector. “Hospitality is in your DNA,” he is often told. Studying at the hotel school, among others, was therefore a logical choice at the time.
By Eva Durlinger
Female football coach Sanne Winkens
Sanne Winkens, Financial Controller at FASoS, loves sports and especially football has a special place in her heart. It therefore does not come as a surprise that she was the first in line to volunteer when her son’s football club was looking for extra coaches.
By Eva Durlinger
Imogen Liu, PhD Candidate at FASoS, is very close to finishing her PhD. Her move to the Netherlands was meant to be temporary but it has turned into something much more permanent.
By Eva Durlinger
Esther Versluis: “the only academic staff member with too few holiday hours”
Esther Versluis, professor of European Regulatory Governance has a favourite destination, which is definitely Asia. "The nature, the food, the culture – I love it all.” Esther especially likes the Buddhist places she visits in Asia, which to her resemble the ultimate slow way of life.
By Eva Durlinger
Kevin Fuchs's coincidental life choices
Kevin Fuchs, Field Work Coordinator for Global Studies, has always been an impulsive person. He has taken most life choices with his heart.
By Eva Durlinger
Claartje Rasterhoff, Assistant Professor Cultural Policy & Management, was born and raised in de ‘Randstad’. While working in our nation’s capital, Claartje increasingly started feeling the need for peace and quiet, away from busy Amsterdam. Two years ago, she decided to apply for a job in Maastricht.
By Eva Durlinger
Toñita Perea y Monsuwé’s First Dates experience
Toñita Perea y Monsuwé, student recruiter at FASoS, is a natural on camera. She made her debut on Dutch television in the early ‘90s on the game show ‘Denktank’. After that, Toñita appeared in several other Dutch game shows.
But Toñita is best known for her appearance on the dating show First Dates – an appearance that went viral on social media.
By Eva Durlinger
Lutz Krebs and the World Food Programme
Lutz Krebs, Programme Director of the BSc Global Studies, has lived all over the world. From Germany to New Zealand and from Switzerland to Ireland. The place that made the biggest impact on him? “Definitely Zambia.”
By Eva Durlinger
Eric Bleize, planner at FASoS, loves to photograph. He got his first camera when he went into military service in his early 20s. “Back then, cameras weren’t digital yet, but contained films."
After military service, Eric left his camera aside for years. It was during a faculty outing to Kumulus where he did a photography workshop that he decided to pick up photography again.
By Eva Durlinger
Motor enthusiast Simon Vogel
For Simon Vogel, Team leader of the Exams Office, riding a motorcycle is his biggest hobby. He was 9 when he got his first moped. His family’s vacation home in the Ardennes had a large private territory with paved roads, ideal to cross around.
By Eva Durlinger
Aline Sierp's nomad life
Aline Sierp, Assistant Professor in European Studies, seems very grounded in Maastricht. She has been living here with her partner for 9 years and has welcomed two sons in the meantime. But living in one place for so long is something out of the ordinary for Aline: “I am a bit of a nomad and it is almost a miracle that I am still in Maastricht.”
By Eva Durlinger
Lorena Ortiz Cabrero's switch from medicine to social sciences
Lorena Ortiz Cabrero, junior lecturer at FASoS, is originally from Madrid. While she is now teaching in the field of politics and history, before coming to Maastricht, Lorena studied medicine.
By Eva Durlinger
Jacob Ward: from child actor to assistant professor
Jacob Ward, assistant professor in the history of technology and politics, is your average English lad: he grew up in London, his parents are both teachers, and as a teen, he tried to convince his mum that science fiction books are just as interesting as Shakespeare’s King Lear.
By Eva Durlinger
Aristea Paraskewopoulos’s Greek roots
Despite her Greek roots and exotic last name, junior lecturer Aristea Paraskewopoulos feels more German than Greek, given she grew up in Germany and her family always spoke German. In the 1960's, her grandfather moved to Germany to study and met her grandmother. Once a year, she visits her family, who live near Olympia, on the Peloponnese Peninsula.
By Eva Durlinger
Adam Dixon: from fisherman to professor
Adam Dixon, associate professor of Globalisation and Development, had a busy life when he was studying at university. He was a first-generation academic and did not receive funding for either his master’s or his PhD. To help cover his costs and tuition, he had to work alongside his studies. His main source of income? Commercial fishing in Alaska.
By Eva Durlinger
Camilo Erlichman's mate intake
Camilo Erlichman, Assistant Professor in History, has his roots in Argentina. When he was three years old, he moved to Germany with his parents, who had done their post-graduate studies there. What does he miss most about Argentina besides his family?
By Eva Durlinger
Elissaveta Radulova's 1001 nights
Elissaveta Radulova, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, has been at FASoS for 19 years already. “I came here in 2002 for the master’s in European Public Affairs, back then the only master’s programme in European Studies that FASoS offered.
In the interview Elissaveta talks about her stay in Syria when she was a student.
By Eva Durlinger
Josje Weusten's dystopian novel
In 2019, lecturer Josje Weusten started writing a dystopian novel. "I’ve always liked to write,” Josje tells me. “In middle school I participated in writing contests". The novel takes place in a post-COVID world in which Germany and the EU fall apart. The Netherlands becomes a totalitarian state and the internet and fiction have been restricted. I focus on the entangled lives and struggles of five different characters through the twenty years in which these changes take place.
By Eva Durlinger
Maha Naami
Maha Naami, PhD candidate in the LIMES project, is looking forward to October. Not because she loves those dreary rainy days, but because she will finally be reunited with her husband and cat for good. Feeling alone during the pandemic and wanting to take her mind off work more easily, she started a new hobby: sewing.
By Eva Durlinger
Saskia van Bergen
Saskia van Bergen, Student care officer for Global Studies, has been a volunteer for Care4Neo, an Association for Parents of Premature Children, since 2011 and is currently finishing her training as haptotherapist.
By Eva Durlinger
Sven Assink
Those of you who know Sven Assink, IT manager at FASoS, may have once or twice compared him to a Viking. But not to worry: this is entirely justified because Sven told me he is of Swedish decent.
By Eva Durlinger
Aneta Spendzharova's love for mountains and her twins
I met Aneta Spendzharova, associate professor in Political Science, via Zoom on her tenth wedding anniversary. She met her husband while she was in graduate school in the United States. They got married in Maastricht in 2011 and welcomed their twins, Boryana and Matteo, 20 months ago.
By Eva Durlinger
Akudo McGee's voyage to Maastricht
Akudo McGee, PhD candidate at FASoS, describes her life as at times ‘very random’, especially the story of how she ended up in Maastricht. On top of that, she is turning into a ‘crazy cat lady’ and has given her cats special names.
By Eva Durlinger
Darryl Cressman
About 9 years ago, Darryl Cressman, assistant professor in philosophy, moved from Canada to the Netherlands with his wife. They got married in Maastricht and are currently expecting their first child.
He seems all settled in now, but I wondered about his life before he came to Maastricht, and I was not disappointed by his story.
By Eva Durlinger
Inge Coenen
Like most of us, Inge Coenen, Cluster Coordinator of the Finance department at FASoS, saw a lot of fun activities disappear due to the corona crisis and new interests emerge. Inge got more time for biking when the corona crisis hit and she had finished building her house.
By Eva Durlinger
Melissa Wijnen
Melissa Wijnen, HR assistant at FASoS, saw most of her hobbies disappear due to the corona virus: travelling, going to festivals, going out to dinner, seeing friends, going to the gym. But it is also thanks to the corona pandemic that she gained a new hobby. With more time on her hands due to the corona crisis, she discovered her love for cooking.
By Eva Durlinger
Pablo del Hierro, assistant professor in history, arrived in Maastricht in January 2013 on a 6-months contract. “I worked as a teacher in Madrid back then and had a lousy contract. The worst case scenario for me was that I would indeed only be able to stay on for 6 months at FASoS, enjoy living in the Netherlands, and then go back to a lousy contract in Spain; there are plenty of those around there.”
By Eva Durlinger
Kain van Leeuwen
Karin van Leeuwen is assistant professor in the History department. “That’s a very complicated question you are asking… what I do in my time off… it’s been a while since I had time off,” she writes to me in an email when I invite her for a chat for the Humans of FASoS.
By Eva Durlinger
Raf Widdershoven
Raf Widdershoven is one of the student advisers at FASoS. Raf was an active member of the student theatre association Alles is Drama. Why did he not pursue a life on stage, and how can his background in acting explain his current career choice?
By Eva Durlinger
Diede Diederiks
A little before the Christmas break, I interviewed Diede Diederiks, Educationalist at the Educational Development and Policy cluster. Diede’s supervisor had told me she participates in triathlons, which I assumed she did as her hobby. Little did I know Diede is a semi-professional triathlete.
By Eva Durlinger
Christmas fanatic Eva Durlinger
In the spirit of Christmas I decided to interview me, yours truly, interviewer and writer for the Humans of FASoS series. Because who better to interview around Christmas than the one person who is possibly the biggest Christmas fanatic at FASoS?
By Eva Durlinger
Cerien Streefland
FASoS director or construction worker?
I was very honoured to interview FASoS’ very own director Cerien Streefland and I was intrigued to know what her free time looked like. Cerien is quite a handy woman. But how handy is quite handy?
By Eva Durlinger
Shoki Hayir
From Somalia to The Netherlands. Interview with Shoki Hayir (Teacher and PhD Candidate), who had quite a life journey coming to The Netherlands as a refugee.
By Eva Durlinger
Joost Dijkstra
Joost Dijkstra, head of the Educational Development and Policy cluster talks about his ultimate hobby: being a soccer coach to his son's soccer team.
By Eva Durlinger
Patrick Bijsmans
The "warm weather diver"
Patrick Bijsmans, associate professor at FASoS, had just returned from a two-week holiday when I spoke to him via Zoom. His destination? Dutch Caribbean island Curaçao.
By Eva Durlinger
Elsje Fourie
Elsje Fourie is originally from South Africa and (after a few countries along the way) she moved to Italy in 2008 for her PhD. Afterwards, she moved to Brussels and then landed in Maastricht. She has two kids and “when you have kids, you need to switch off sometimes" Elsje says. How she does that? Elsje is very much into the arts. She loves films and fiction literature. But she is not just a passive arts lover: she is writing a novel. Every Sunday morning, she devotes a few hours to it.
By Eva Durlinger
Maud Oostindie is engaged
She grew up in Walem, Limburg, studied in Utrecht, Maastricht and Coimbra, Portugal. Her brother is shepherd and I share my birthday with her. To top it off, Maud Oostindie, teaching assistant at FASoS, got engaged!
By Eva Durlinger
John Parkinson's quarantine story
It’s 8.00 in the morning when I turn on my laptop and open Zoom. “Good morning”, John Parkinson, Professor of Social & Political Philosophy, says to me, “I just started cooking dinner for my kids”. While it’s 8.00 (in the morning) in Maastricht, it’s 16.00 (in the afternoon) in Brisbane. The story of how John eventually got to Australia is not your typical (Dutch) quarantine story.
By Eva Durlinger
Lana Sirri's Academic Activism
Lana Sirri is an assistant professor in gender and religion at FASoS. After completing her BA at Tel Aviv University, she worked as women’s project coordinator at the Arab-Jewish community centre in Yaffa. After a few years of experience in women empowerment, she decided to pursue a master’s degree in gender studies in Berlin, followed by a PhD.
By Eva Durlinger
Ike Kamphof
One of the advantages of having to work from home due to the coronacrisis? Not necessarily the cut in commuting time, Ike Kamphof, assistant professor in philosophy, thinks. Rather, “there is more space for animals. Now that there is less traffic because most people are working from home, you see animals emerge from their safe places located far from humans and start settling near busy roads that are now mostly empty.”
By Eva Durlinger
Veerle Spronck
Veerle Spronck, PhD candidate at the Philosophy Department, Zooms in at 16.00 on a Wednesday afternoon. Luckily, she only teaches on Tuesdays and Fridays this period, so this was only her second Zoom meeting of the day.
From my quick Google search on Veerle before digitally connecting with her, I learn that Veerle moved away from Maastricht after her high school years, only to return after completing her bachelor’s degree.
By Eva Durlinger
Humans of FASoS is a series of interviews by our editor Eva Durlinger in which FASoS staff members share stories about their hobbies, leisure activities or other things that fascinate them in addition to their professional work.