Mooi stuk in NRC over het sociologendebat over de diplomakloof. Interessant te lezen naast het nieuwe regeerakkoord. Met al die kadootjes voor de hogeropgeleiden en harde bezuinigingen op de verzorgingsstaat lijkt dat een bevestiging voor de gelovers in "de kloof" >> www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

Hellow fellow academics: in these troubled times, let's cherish academia as a parallel global sphere and community. I felt this strongly during a conference last week, when I introduced my Iranian grad student Narges to Motti, an Isreali sociologist. They met, shook hands and started laughing >>

Jinxed it.. Currently standing still outside of Aschaffenburg with 30 minutes delay..

Now on my way back from Rome to Utrecht, with the night train to Munich, day train to Utrecht. A bit surprised to report all is going swimmingly. Currently crossing snow covered Bavaria

Arrived at the ESA conference and happy to see Bourdieu stiil going going strong

Arrived in Rome! 1328 , after a rather adventurous 30 hour trip (But with an excellent overnight stay in Torino.

11:21. Still on my way from Utrecht to Rome by train. Arriving in Florence now. Light has turned distinctly Mediterranean and I just spotted the first first palm tree. The Italian Frecciarossa high speed trains are great, very comfortable and of course the coffee is excellent.

944. Continuing my report of the train trip from Utrecht to Rome. Just passed Milan, but some pics from our departure from Turin this morning courtesy of PhD student Narges Pirhayati

720. Leaving the Turin hotel to continue our trip to Rome after train troubles yesterday. Will continue to report ..

The day ended rather unexpectedly in a hotel room in Turin. Receptionist seemed a bit surprised by thr diversity of the passports of the travel company: Dutch, Polish, Belgian, Ghanaian, and Iranian.

Well this was a bit more adventurous than expected. Still in Modane

1802. Currently in Modane, last station in France, rather high up in the Alps. Hopes of reaching Rome today fading soon. Looking for hotels in Turin (never been, have heard good things)

More than an hour delay. looking for hotels in Turin.. gorgeous views of snow capped mountains..

We have reached the Alps. Mountains and snow and fog. And chalets.

1327. Train from Paris to Turin.

Still on my way from Utrecht to Rome. hasty transfer by metro to Gare de Lyon. Found Leuven colleagues. Train to Turin delayed.

10 am. Passing Brussels and the headquarters of our most generous funder the European Research Council. thank you @erc.europa.eu . The ERC team and other colleagues are ahead of me, I will catch up with them in Paris.

Today I will travel from Utrecht (NL) to Rome in one day, by train. I guess everyone here can use some distraction and sense of global connectedness so I'll update you on the trip: 8:03 departure Utrecht Central Station

For everyone in need of some comfort and joy these days: Yesterday the inimitable Reinier Sijpkens gave his annual pre-holiday concert in the canals of Utrecht, on his boat the nutshell, which has a built-in mini church organ:>>

🔥Great event!🔥 Please join us for the second and third Decolonizing Bodies seminar, organized by the formidable @carorabasarucki.bsky.social. With guest of honor Walter Mignolo, discussing decoloniality, bodies and emotions with Ashley Mears, @psimonetto.bsky.social and @ladanrahbari.bsky.social

Invitation! Interested in in beauty, bodies, decoloniality and inequality? Please join us for an online seminar series on "decolonizing bodies". With our very special guest Walter Mignolo; and @tommytse.bsky.social, Patricio Simonetto, Ashley Mears, Ladan Rahbari & @carorabasarucki.bsky.social >>

Important myth-debunking by evolutionary psychologists Linda Lidborg and @drboothroyd.bsky.social. The authors also contributed an outstanding chapter to the forthcoming Handbook on Beauty and Inequality edited by @outisarpila.bsky.social and me.

Nog vergeten: met veel dank aan Titia Hoogendoorn en @dickzijp.bsky.social voor imago-advies.

Dit was een heel bijzonder gesprek met @mennosedee.bsky.social van @nrc.nl, over mijn onderzoek naar schoonheid en hoe dat ineens wel heel persoonlijk werd. Met geweldige foto's van Wendelien Daan. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Bericht uit de knalroze wachtkamer van het ziekenhuis waar ik het laatste jaar te veel tijd doorbracht: ik voerde de afgelopen weken campagne voor #GL-PvdA omdat ik graag wil dat zorg zoals ik hier kreeg voor iedereen toegankelijk blijft.

Canada is the hotspot for climate sociology, so much is clear from this final episode of the Culture and Inequality Podcast in which @luuc.bsky.social (aka Luuc Brans) talks with Josée Johnston, Shyon Baumann (both U of Toronto) and Emily Huddart (U of British Columbia) >> pod.link/1533967764/e...

Penultimate episode of this season's Culture & Inequality Podcast, in which @bryanboyle.bsky.social (Free U Brussels) talks with Kristina Kolbe and @aaronreeves.bsky.social about the Sound of Elites: How Elites Navigate a Meritocratic and Anti-Elite World >> pod.link/1533967764/e...

Havel in is the air. Recently, I found my thoughts turning to Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident and later president who in the 1970s wrote about his attempts to "live in truth". I reread his books, which I read in the 1980s as a somewhat over-serious teenager, and his biography. >>

Next episode of the Culture & Inequality Podcast: "Gender as Battlefield: Far-Right Movements, Femonationalism and Replacement Ideology", with host Norah Schulten (U of Amsterdam), @antigonesdream.bsky.social (aka Sarah Bracke) and @calderarocha.bsky.social >> pod.link/1533967764/e...

This week, I read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ("We should all be feminists"). This beautiful 2006 novel deals with the civil war in 1960s Nigeria, and more particularly the man-made famine in Biafra. Chillingly relevant as we see hunger used once again as a tool of war.

Vanochtend bij het opkomen van de zon deed ik mee aan Getuigen van Gaza: 5 dagen lang, 24 uur per dag lezen Utrechtse burgers de namen voor van mensen die zijn omgekomen in Gaza. getuigenvangaza-utrecht.nl

More Culture and Inequality Podcast! In this episode, @tvdooremalen.bsky.social , @catherinewong.bsky.social and @rfelliott.bsky.social discuss how sociologists offer insights on the climate crisis that natural scientists or economist tend to miss: pod.link/1533967764/e...

De ZAP TV-recensies van NRC: vroeger een van de meer gezellige hoekjes van de krant, nu de meest consistent kritische berichtgeving over de Nederlandse politieke cultuur. Dat zegt iets over die cultuur, maar toch ook veel over de journalistiek. www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

The windmill gave us feudalism, the steam mill gave us industrial capitalism, but what does the content mill bring us? Riffing on Marx, Kobe De Keere discuss this question with Rachel O'Dwyer and Ashley Mears in this new episode of the Culture and inequality Podcast: pod.link/1533967764/e... >>

The Culture and Inequality Podcast is back! In five new episodes, a briliant cast of sociologists discuss the newest insights about elites, climate risk, our digital economic lives, women and the far right, and the cultural politics of meat. All found here: pod.link/1533967764 >>

En nog iets vermeldenswaardigs: Essed kreeg dus de prijs van de president van de Akademie, Marileen Dogterom, en de voorzitter van de jury voor de penning, Eveline Crone. Drie vrouwen, of zelfs vier met de dagvoorzitter meegerekend. De KNAW gaat in een keer van de 19e naar de 21e eeuw.

Philomena Essed, bekend van haar baanbrekende onderzoek naar alledaags racisme, kreeg gisteren de Akademiepenning, van de Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen. Welverdiende erkenning voor een inspirerend onderzoeker: open en stellig, nadenkend en gepassioneerd, wijs en waardig.

Film

How can sociology help to understand and possibly tackle the climate crisis? Are there signs of climate politics optimism in the current political moment? I hosted a podcast episode with ‪@catherinewong.bsky.social‬ and @rfelliott.bsky.social discussing this! pod.link/1533967764/e...

Ik was na het laatste liedje maar naar bed gegaan, maar heeft iemand hier gisteren nog een passend woord bedacht voor het gevoel als je tegelijkertijd posts over #Eurovision en noodkreten uit gebombardeerd Gaza leest?

Ik hoorde dat er nog plaatsen beschikbaar zijn voor de uitreiking van de Akademiepenning aan Philomena Essed. Voor meer informatie zie de link hieronder.

We're back! The Culture & Inequality Podcast returns with a brand-new season with new hosts. From digital economies, to gender politics, elite cultures, cosmetics, the climate crisis, and sustainable consumption — we’re covering it all in the coming episodes! First episode online now! >>>

Philomena Essed -- die met haar baanbrekende werk over alledaagse racisme haar tijd ver vooruit was -- krijgt overigens binnenkort, en zeer terecht, de Akademiepenning van de KNAW: www.knaw.nl/fondsen-en-p...

Trots op onze burgemeester Sharon Dijksma die bij de 4 mei herdenking op het Domplein de link legt met oorlogen van vandaag, in Gaza en Oekraine. "De geschiedenis kijkt mee over onze schouder."

Grim but apt

Beste 1-aprilgrap van dit jaar.

Academic Freedom 2014-24, an index by the Institute of Political Science, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. This matches my experience. There is a lesson in this for all of us: it's a sliding scale; we have to protect and further institutionalize academic freedom and equal participation in academic governance.

"What happens to the self when surgery is embraced for the purpose of political conformity, consciously or otherwise?" Insightful article on the "brutal" beauty standards of the MAGA right>> www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

This is a very good piece from Paul Musgrave on how academic conferences work, and why they will cease to work as the US becomes perceived as a pariah state. Yes, its a perk for people like me, but real knowledge generation occurs in such spaces. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Stationsplein Utrecht, zojuist: een ouder echtpaar loopt rondjes, de man roept, steeds opnieuw, met keurige dictie: 'Netanyahu moordenaar! Wie zwijgt stemt toe!'