Biography

During my bachelor’s in religion at Utrecht University, I have learned to appreciate the unwavering relevance of religion. This included an awareness of the manifold, evocative and sometimes surprising expressions of religious identity in a post-secular Europe. The role of religion in European, specifically Dutch, street culture and its expression in hip-hop is a prime example hereof. Helped by the democratization of digital culture, ethno-religious minorities use such music as a voice to reflect on their marginalised experiences on the ‘streets’, which includes but can by no means be reduced to petty crime. Yet, despite becoming a dominant force within European popular culture, this voice has often been distorted, misheard, or ignored, especially its religious dimensions. Instead, politicians and media outlets portray street culture as superficial and as a mere breeding ground for the growing European drug trade. Building on my MPhil research, I seek to challenge this one-dimensional view by focusing on the complex moral lives of street cultural agents as informed by their religious sensibilities. With my experience in journalism, policy, and political analysis, I am deeply committed to translating this to wider society.

Previous Education

London School of Economics & Political Science (Un Culture and Conflict
University of Cambridge Theology