Yolande Jansen

Yolande Jansen is Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and a board member of the Amsterdam Centre for Globalization Studies. She also is a Special Professor for the Socrates-foundation at VU University, where she holds the chair for 'humanism in relation to religion and secularity'. Jansen studied Philosophy and French Studies at the University of Amsterdam and at the University of Paris VII. See as well Jansen's website at academia.edu:  https://uva.academia.edu/YolandeJansen. Jansen is a member of the board of the Amsterdam Center for Globalisation Studies, and of the Programme Commission for Religion at NWO, The Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research.

She published, together with Joost de Bloois and Robin Celikates, The Irregularization of Migration in Contemporary Europe; Detention, Deportation, Drowning, with Rowman & Littlefield.

Working from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on the social sciences, legal studies, and the humanities, this book investigates the causes and effects of the extremities experienced by migrants. Firstly, the volume analyses the development and political-cultural conditions of current practices and discourses of “bordering,” “illegality,” and “irregularization.” Secondly, it focuses on the varieties of irregularization and on the diversity of the fields, techniques and effects involved in this variegation. Thirdly, the book examines examples of resistance that migrants and migratory cultures have developed in order to deal with the predicaments they face. The book uses the European Union as its case study, exploring practices and discourses of bordering, border control, and migration regulation. But the significance of this field extends well beyond the European context as the monitoring of Europe’s borders increasingly takes place on a global scale and reflects an internationally increasing trend.

In 2013 the book  Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism: French Modernist Legacies appeared at Amsterdam University Press/IMISCOE (freely downloadable from OAPEN: http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=462290 ).

Jansen's book critically traces the intertwined cultural and conceptual histories of the notions of secularism and assimilationin the humanities and social sciences, and in French discourses in particular. In this context, Jansen provides an in-depth reading of the way in which Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time narrates the ambivalences and oblique practical and discursive effects of 'assimilation' for the French Jews in nineteenth-century France, and reflects on how studying these paradoxes can contribute to understanding the contemporary position of European religious minorities, and Muslims in particular, in the context of debates about secularism, assimilation, integration and multiculturalism.

Jansen has taught courses on Recent political and social theory, on secularism and post-secularism, multiculturalism, human rights, the 'refugee-crisis', and 'Political Philosophy and the Decolonial Humanities'.

She is the principal investigator of the NWO-project 'Critique of Religion; Framing Jews and Muslims, Islam and Judaism in Political theory and public debate today.' Thijl Sunier, Professor of Islam in European Societies was the co-applicant for this project.

Areas of research include: Social and political philosophy, in particular critical theory, pluralism, multiculturalism and democracy; genealogies of secularism, humanism and religion; irregular migration; Judaism in Europe; Islam in Europe; French culture and literature, in particular the work of Marcel Proust.

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Recent interviews

• 2020.  Double interview with Nasar Meer on our Special Issue of Patterns of Prajudice
• 2018. "AMSTERDAM VRAAGT #6 | Hoe kun je deelnemen aan het NL debat als je studie internationaler wordt?", interview with Yolande Jansen, published by the University of Amsterdam. (NL)
• 2016. "Fighting the Unholy Alliance: How Religion Can Contribute to Integration", interview with Yolande Jansen and Tomasz Kitlinski, published in the Green European Journal. (ENG)
• 2016. "Religie en seculariteit: een overschat begrippenpaar", interview with Yolande Jansen, published by the Humanistisch Verbond. (NL)

Recent op-ed contributions and publications

• 2018. "Een dure deken; waarom #woinactie?", written by Yolande Jansen, Paola Gori Giorgi and Paul Benneworth, published on Science Guide. (NL)
• 2018. "Secularisering: 19e eeuw - heden. Het verdwijnen van religie en haar 'terugkeer' in de globaliserende wereld", written by Yolande Jansen, published by the Humanistische Canon. (NL)

PhD Theses Supervision

Ongoing

• Daan M. G. Roovers. (started August 2018). Public Opinion in the Age of the Digital Public Sphere: A public philosophical approach to the expression and forming of opinions. (working title). 
• Inez B. van der Scheer. (started August 2018)
• Shahin Nasari (started August 2017). Rethinking the notion of ‘freedom’ from the perspective of refugees. (working title).
• Anna E.E. Blijdenstein (started 2015).
• Matthea Westerduin (started 2015). Supersessionist geographies. Race and religion in the (re)making of 'Europe' and 'Islam'.  (working title).

2017

• Meijer, Eva R. (2017). Political animal voices.

PhD Theses Committees

• Basu, Natasha. (2019). Is this civil? Transnationalism, migration and feminism in civil disobedience.
• Caycedo Casallas, Carlos B. (2019). Updating civil disobedience. Whistleblowing, anonymous hacktivism, and academic piracy.
• Roberts, Andrew J. (2019). Privacy in the Republic.
• Witty, Thijs. (2019). Essays and Measure. Apprenticeships in Genre.
• Arentshorst, Hans. (2018). Perspectives on freedom. Normative and political views on the preconditions of a free democratic society
• Tamimi Arab, Pooyan. (2017). Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape: Religious Pluralism and Secularism in the Netherlands.
• De Waal, Tamar M. (2017). Conditional belonging: A legal-philosophical inquiry into integration requirements for immigrants in Europe.
• Kuryel, Aylin. (2015). Image Acts and Visual Communities: Everyday Nationalism in Contemporary Turkey.
• Mazurski, L. E. (2015). Besieged by burqas: Analyzing representations of the burqa.
• Ivanescu, Carolina (2013). Regimes of secularity: Citizenship, Religion and Muslimness in Rotterdam, Leicester and Marseille.

Master Theses Supervision

• Berkhout, Jarmo. (2019). Experience, Paranoia, and Speculation in Theodor W. Adorno: Beyond the Dissolution of the Subject. Co-supervisor: J. Früchtl.
• Leeuwenkamp, Jasmijn. (2019). Who has the right to be human? Towards a critique of universal human rights. Co-supervisor: M. M. Leezenberg.
• Van Loenen, Lennart. (2019). Earth matters: Political thought in the Anthropocene. Co-supervisor: M.D. Davidson
• Michiel van der Padt. (2019). Disentangling the Judeo in Judeo-Christian: The Significance of Jews and Judaism in Historica land Contemporary Pursuits of Self-identification. Co-supervisors: I. Zwiep  & D. Wertheim.
• Donkers, Jasper. (2018). ‘The Tragedy of Civic Citizenship: A Preliminary Sketch for the Dramatic Aesthetic Education of Agonistic Citizens. Co-supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Huijser, Matthieu. (2018). Multiculturalisme en het Belang van Minderheidstalen.
• Hutten, Willem. (2018). Beschaafde Exclusie. Europees nationalisme en de wisselwerking tussen migratierecht en –politiek. Co-supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Jonkhout, Rosanne. (2018). Coloniality within contemporary fine art. Co-supervisor: J. Boomgaard.
• Van der Meer, Jannes. (2018). European logics in dealing with asylum & refugees. Co-supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Spigt, Peter. (2018). Gamified Governing: A Foucauldian Perspective on Gamification as a form of Governing.
• Brouwer, Jetske. (2017). The voice in between. Conceptualizing the public intellectual after postmodernism. Co-supervisor: J. Bos.
• Van den Berg, Tamara. L. (2016). Citizenship Rights and Exclusion: on the varieties of citizenship rights, being excluded, and the possibility of claiming rights while excluded. Co-supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Laseur, Colette. (2016). Seculiere betovering: Charles Taylor en Akeel Bilgrami over subjectiviteit en transcendentie in een seculiere tijd. Co-supervisor: T. R. V. Nys.
• Lise, Johan. (2016). Grenzeloze kritiek? Over de mogelijkheid van een kritische sociologie voor de vluchtelingencrisis. Co-supervisor: H. O. Dijstelbloem.
• Van der Meet, Michelle. (2016). Multicultureel onderwijs: Michel Foucault en Michael Merry. Co-supervisor: A. van Rooden.
• Achterbosch, Hannah. (2015). The Culture Machine. Thinking about culture, society and politics beyond the theoretical and physical borders of the nation-state. Co-supervisor: F. Russo.
• Pronk, Joost. (2015). Denkend oordelen. Hannah Arendt over Adolf Eichmann in relatie tot haar theorie van het (morele) oordeel, en de relevantie van haar visie voor hedendaags genocide-onderzoek. Co-supervisor: T. R. V. Nys.
• Dubbelaar, Lisa. (2013). Volheid, perspectieven op de hedendaagse seculiere samenleving. Co-supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Groot, Eveline. (2013). A Classical Approach to A Secular Age. Co-supervisor: J. F. Hartle.
• Van Drooge, Tjeerd. (2012). Een ironische kijk op religie in de liberale democratie. Co-supervisor: T. M. T. Coolen.
• Spooren, Marlies. (2011). De grenzen van (in)tolerantie: een verhandeling vanuit de perspectieven van Jonathan Raz, Michael Rosenthal en Rainer Forst.

Master Theses Co-supervision

• Hooijer, Catherine. (2019). It Is Time To Toss The Dice. Supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Omar, Jinwen. (2018). Rethinking processes of integration - Towards a revised form of social membership. Supervisor: R. Celikates.
• Van Werven, Boudewijn. (2018). The Replacement of Statues to Democratic Museums: Revisiting Identity Politics and the Modern Antagonism. Supervisor: S. Niklas.
• Blom, Daan. (2017). The Perfect Moral Storm: A Theoretical Solution to Stephen Gardiner's Tragedy of the Commons. Supervisor: G. van Donselaar.
• Van Waalwijk van Doorn, Elke. (2017). Spontane Orde, Nancy en Witteveen over het democratisch ideaal van zelfbestuur. Supervisor: A. van Rooden.
• Cromer, Mariama (2015). De relevantie van ideologiekritiek in neoliberale tijden: het hoe en waarom van een kritische theorie van de neoliberale ideologie. Supervisor: R. Celikates.
• De Waal, Stijn. (2015). Conatus: Esthetiek op basis van zelfbehoud en machtsaffirmatie, via Nietzsche en Deleuze naar een Spinozistische esthetica. Supervisor: A. van Rooden.
• Broekhuizen, Jan Ph. (2012). De spraak van het recht : Honneth over het misverstaan van het recht. Supervisor: T. M. T. (Maarten) Coolen.
• Van der Horst, Melanie D. (2011). Vluchten in fotografie: Een Heideggeriaanse interpretatie van de reisfotografie. Supervisor: V. Kal.
• Willems, Dave. (2011). A Whole Way of Life : een analyse van het Nederlandse cultuurbeleid aan de hand van Raymond Williams. Supervisor: J. F. Hartle.