About Marjolein de Boer

Current

Research: Everyday reproductive activism and genital self-experiences

Currently, I am a full professor in Culture Studies at the Open University in The Netherlands, with a chair called ‘Culture, Health and Gender’. I am also affiliated to Atria, Kennisinstituut Emancipatie en Gender as a scientific advisor.

In addition to working on my main research projects on everyday reproductive activism and genital self-experiences, I’m also involved in other projects, such as ‘Filtering reality: Social Media and Body Image of Adolescents’ (Digital Sciences for Society-project, Tilburg University), and about the intersection of epistemic injustice and gender in medicine.

Supervision, teaching, extracurricular activities

In addition to my research activities, I teach in the Bachelor’s programme in Cultural Studies at the Open University. I am also co-supervisor of Ingeborg van den Bold’s PhD project, ‘Mindfulness and the body in the experience of being ill’ (Tilburg University), of Evelyn Joy Coker’s PhD project, ‘Being (Mis)Seen: A Critical Phenomenological Study of Black Girls’ Experiences of Misrecognition in Early Youth Legal System Encounters’ (University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA), and of Pauline Dirven’s postdoc project ‘Bodily Autonomy and Embodied Experiences of Maternity Care in North Brabant and Suriname, 1916-1975’ (Tilburg University).

Previously, I co-supervised Hans-Georg Eilenberger’s PhD project, ‘Age and existence: An empirical-philosophical investigation into late life’ (Tilburg University, 2020–2025). I also worked as a researcher and lecturer in Cultural Studies at Tilburg University, where I taught in the BA and MA programmes in Cultural Studies, as well as in the programmes Management of Cultural Diversity and in Health Humanities.

Alongside my teaching and research, I was a member of the Tilburg Young Academy (TYA), where I focused on gender equity and social safety in academia. I also served on the Research Ethics Committee of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences at Tilburg University.

Finally, together with Lisa Guntram (Linköping University), I co-founded the Women’s Marginalized Health Network (WOMAHN). The network provides a platform for researchers to share, discuss, and disseminate research on marginalization in relation to women’s health. For more information about the WOMAHN research network, please click here.

Past

NWO - Veni Project (2021 - 2024)

Menopause is largely a silenced phenomenon. If discussed at all, it is primarily perceived as a health problem or as a positive role change for women. This project provides a comprehensive understanding of this bodily transition by analyzing women’s menopausal experiences and relevant philosophical theories about embodiment, womanhood, and aging.

Post-doc project (2019 - 2021)

At the Department of Culture Studies at Tilburg University, The Netherlands, I was a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer . During my time as a postdoc, I researched socio-cultural discourses surrounding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), more specifically in the most recent Dutch Health Council advisory process on ME/CFS and in Dutch national newspapers. I am currently also writing an article on literary representations of chronic fatigue.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie post-doc project (2017-2019)

Before my postdoc at Tilburg University, I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (FP7) / Scientia fellow at the Institute for Health and Society at the University of Oslo, Norway. During this time, I studied experiences and representations of infertility within a personal research-project entitled ‘Bearing a barren body’. Here, I interviewed women who have (had) infertility treatment and I analyzed representations of infertility in popular culture. This study resulted, among other things, in articles about women’s experiences of melancholy and mourning in infertility treatment, their self-care experiences in infertility, and about representations of infertile women and men in reality TV shows and fiction TV series.

PhD project (2011-2016)

As a PhD student at the department of Health, Ethics and Society of Maastricht University, the Netherlands, I researched women’s bodily experiences in breast cancer from an empirical-philosophical perspective. The field work I conducted during my PhD consisted out of in-depth interviews with women who have (had) breast cancer, as well as duo-interviews with these women and their partners. I also studied women’s personal breast cancer weblogs. In the spring of 2013, I was a visiting scholar at the Department of Thematic Studies at Linköping University, and at the Department of Practical Knowledge at Södertörn University (both in Sweden). I defended my PhD thesis successfully in 2016.

Under/graduate studies (2004-2011)

My background is in philosophy (BA in 2009; research MA in 2011, both with distinction) and sociology (BSc in 2008). I did most of my academic education at the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In addition, I spent a semester at Stellenbosch University in South-Africa and a semester at DePaul University, Chicago, USA.

Academic service (selection)

Co-founding Member WOMAHN - Women's Marginalized Health Network (European research network), 2023.

Member Research Ethics Committee, 2024 - 2026, Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University

Member Tilburg Young Academy (TYA), 2022 - 2025, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Member Klankbordgroep en werkgroep Sociale Veiligheid, 2022 - 2024, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Board member Graduate School WTMC (Science, Technology and Modern Culture), 2014 - 2016

grants (selection)

2026 | Seed grant Towards more gender-just democracies: exploring the multifaceted roles of women’s health activism, co-applicant (PI: Kari Nyheim Solbraekke), UiO:Democracies, Oslo University | appr. €8000

2025 | In-kind research/supervision funding Atria, Kennisinstituut Emancipatie & Gender for a project on ‘Everyday health activism’ | Working in this project are one archivist, a policy maker, two research interns | Atria, Kennisinstituut Emancipatie & Gender

2024 | research incentive grant to support ERC proposal writing | Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg University | €2500

2024 | grant for the organization of the Dutch conference ‘Vrouwenzorgen’ | Tranzo, Tilburg University, applied with Anne-Mette Hermans | €2500

2023 | Riksbankens Jubileumfonds, Sweden | Women's Marginalized Health and Embodiment Research Network | applied with co-founder Lisa Guntram | 449900 kr (ca. €38.000)

2023 | co-applicant of Growth project Digital Sciences for Society, Tilburg University (PI: Anne-Mette Hermans) | Filtering reality: (Re)constructing media literacy programs related to body image on social media in co-creation with pre- and early adolescents. | ca. €50.000

2022 | Research Policy Incentive fund, Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University | Women's Marginalized Health and Embodiment Research Network | € 10.000

2020 NWO-Veni (Talent programme - Dutch Research Council) | Research project ‘Bodies in Transition. Making Sense of Menopause’ | € 275.000

2019 TSHD Research-trainee grant (Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences - Research trainee programme) | Research project ‘Monitoring Menopause’ | ca. €10.000

2018 Society for Ricoeur Studies travel grant | Conference Ricoeur Association in Los Angeles, USA | €500

2016 Marie Skłodowska-Curie (FP7) / Scientia Fellows Cofund Programme Grant (European Commission / University of Oslo) | Research project ‘Bearing a Barren body’ | €220.000

2016 CAHPRI PhD Grant | University of Maastricht | €2000

2016 WTMC PhD Grant | Graduate School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture | €500

2013 Association for Scientific Research Limburg (SWOL) grant | Research stay in Sweden | €1500

2013 Jo Kolk Studiefonds study grant | Research stay in Sweden | €1000

2011 Huygens Scientific Grant | Erasmus Mundus Master ‘International Humanitarian Action’ | declined the grant because it conflicted with accepting a PhD-position

2011Erasmus Mundus Scholarship | Erasmus Mundus Master ‘International Humanitarian Action’ | declined the grant because it conflicted with accepting a PhD-position

2010 RU/Philosophy Faculty Travel Grant | Research stay at DePaul University, Chicago | €600

2010 NOISE Travel grant | NOISE Summerschool 2010, School for Genderstudies, Radboud University Nijmegen | €500

2008 SNUF Study grant | Research stay at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa | €1200