Dr. F. Wekker [Fenneke] is a writer, social science researcher and policy & organizational consultant.
Theater, research and consultancy
After completing the Drama School at the Amsterdam School of the Arts in 1996, I worked first as an actress and later mainly as a playwright and director with several Dutch theater companies. From 2004 I became artistic coordinator at production house Frascati and from 2006 I did the same at artist collective Public Amusement, with which we made community arts projects in Amsterdam neighborhoods.
In 2010, I began my sociology studies at the University of Amsterdam. Captivated by the profound insight this study gave me into human interactions and social dynamics, I decided to focus entirely on this for the time being. In 2015, I received my Research Master's degree in Social Sciences (cum laude) at the University of Amsterdam. In 2017, my first scholarly book Top-down Community Building and the Politics of Inclusion was published by Palgrave-MacMillan, New York. In October 2020, I completed my PhD on the ethnographic study Building Belonging; Affecting Feelings of Home through Community Building Interventions.
During my PhD program, I also began working at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS-KNAW) as Head of Academic Affairs. There, right through two lockdowns, I enjoyed working with almost 200 international scholars, artists and authors for 3.5 years.
Since October 1, 2022, I let my creative blood flow again and focus on my various writing projects, social science research and consulting duties.
Offer
In addition to my writing and research, I advise municipalities, social organizations, art institutions, and knowledge institutes on topics such as community building, (the pitfalls of) inclusivity, feeling at home, social dynamics, strategic policy, and concept formation.
I also offer creative writing workshops to advanced academics and PhD students, enabling them to further deepen their research from new perspectives and tap into new layers of knowledge in their work.
Look here for my full offerings.
Some of my publications:
“We have to teach them diversity”: on demographic transformations and lived reality in an Amsterdam working-class neighbourhood. 2019. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(1), 89-104.
Download the PDF-version of the paper here.
Top-down Community Building and The Politics of Inclusion. 2017. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Buy your hard copy here.
