Award-winning triathlete Diede Diederiks
A little before the Christmas break, I met with 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.
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?
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. My supervisor already told me that Cerien was quite a handy woman. But how handy is quite handy?
Shoki Hayir: from Somalia to The Netherlands
I always do a little bit of online research before I interview colleagues for the Humans of FASoS. This time, I was especially intrigued by what I read online.
I was about to interview Shoki Hayir, teacher at FASoS and PhD candidate at Radboud University, who had quite a life journey coming to The Netherlands as a refugee.
Soccer coach Joost Dijkstra
On Friday morning, I enter Zoom to meet with Joost Dijkstra, head of the Educational Development and Policy cluster. With the weekend ahead, I ask him what he likes to do in his free time.
“I started playing badminton 2 years ago but I’m so bad at it that after 2 hours I’m completely exhausted,” Joost says. He started salsa dancing about one and a half years ago and he is “good at it in a Dutch way. I know the dance steps but look a bit stiff.”
His ultimate hobby then? Being a soccer coach to his son’s soccer team.
Patrick Bijsmans; the ‘warm weather diver’
Patrick had just returned from a two-week holiday when I spoke to him via Zoom. His destination? Dutch Caribbean island Curaçao.
“With the pandemic ongoing, the possibilities to travel were somewhat limited. We did not want to go anywhere where the situation was more critical than it was in the Netherlands. The plan was to go to Bonaire, but when the Dutch government marked Bonaire as an ‘orange area’, we went to Curaçao instead,” Patrick says.
Elsje Fourie or Elsje Foodie?
When we were still able to visit the office several days a week, the Humans of FASoS interview could still be held at our beloved Banditos.
Last week, I met Elsje Fourie, assistant professor in Globalisation and Development Studies. We drank coffee and Elsje enjoyed a croissant for breakfast. Should that have given away what our conversation would be about?
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!
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.
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.
