
Esther Versluis: “the only academic staff member with too few holiday hours”
Esther Versluis, professor of European Regulatory Governance, has been at FASoS even longer than Elissaveta Radulova has. Esther studied Cultuurwetenschappen, and wrote her thesis with Tannelie Blom. After graduation, she went to Utrecht to do a PhD.
She got in touch again with Tannelie when she was finishing up her dissertation. He told her about the plans to start a new BA at FASoS. And so Esther returned 20 years ago, and helped Tannelie set up the BA European Studies.

Claartje Rasterhoff’s farmhouse
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.

Kevin Fuchs’s coincidental life choices (that turned out great)
Kevin Fuchs, Field Work Coordinator for Global Studies, has always been an impulsive person. He has taken most life choices with his heart. To start off with his study choice, he did not spent too much time thinking about which programme to choose. “I knew that studying European Studies at Hogeschool Zuyd felt good, so I went with that one.”
His consequent course of life has been one that has been coincidental, and sometimes even random, as well, but that does not make it any less special.

Jordy Friedrich: looking ahead
I meet Jordy Friedrich, HR adviser at FASoS, in the Bandito garden. He just returned from a stay in Marrakech.
The reason for the short trip was relaxation, because Jordy has had a turbulent 2 years, to say the least.

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.”

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, such as ‘Rad van Fortuin’, ‘de goed geld show’, ‘Miljoenenjacht’ and ‘1 tegen 100’.
But Toñita is best known for her appearance on the dating show First Dates – an appearance that went viral on social media.

Photographer Eric Bleize
You may have seen his pictures around the faculty. In the poetry booklet and the Strategic Plan, but also in a book created by FASoS staff, titled Unboxed.
Eric Bleize, planner at FASoS, loves to photograph.

Pets of FASoS: Merle Achten’s cat Louis
Cat Louis, or as I understand from Merle Achten – Funding Adviser at FASoS – King Louis, has been part of the Achten household for 8 years now. Or better yet, Merle, her husband and two kids have been part of King Louis’s household for 8 years now.
“This is Louis’s world, we’re just allowed to live in it.”

Motor enthusiast Simon Vogel
The perfect day according to Simon Vogel, Team Leader of the Exams Office?
Sunlit, on one of his motors, off to the Ardennes. Just him, the two wheels underneath him, and his thoughts.

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.”