About Marjolein de Boer

Current

Research: Everyday reproductive activism and genital self-experiences

Currently, I am researcher and lecturer in Health Humanities at Tilburg University. I am also affiliated to a Atria, Kennisinstituut Emancipatie en Gender as a scientific advisor and supervisor.

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 the project ‘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

Besides from my research activities, I teach in the Bachelor program Cultural Studies, and the Master program Management of Cultural Diversity at Tilburg University. Additionally, I'm the co-supervisor in Hans-Georg Eilenberger’s PhD-project ‘Age and existence. An empirical-philosophical investigation to late life’, and in Ingeborg van den Bold's PhD project ‘Mindfulness and the body in the experience of being ill’. Since 2022, I'm a member of the Tilburg Young Academy (TYA), specifically working on the topic gender equity in academia. As a TYA-member, I was part of a working- and steering group on (improving) social safety at the university. I’m also a member of the research ethics committee at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (Tilburg University). Finally, together with Lisa Guntram (Linköping University), I'm the co-founder of the ‘Women's Marginalized Health Network’ (WOMAHN), which aims to provide a platform for researchers to share, discuss, and disseminate their research about marginalization in relation to women's health. For more info on the WOMAHN research network, 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)

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

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

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

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

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

grants (selection)

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