transforming collaboration

My background is in cognitive neuroscience, I recently joined Wageningen University as a postdoctoral researcher, and I work freelance as a trainer (mostly with hfp-consulting). My work focuses on inner and interpersonal development in interdisciplinary settings: which challenges do we experience when our roles, relationships and approach are not clearly defined? Which skills and what kind of structures are needed so that we can realise the potential for learning and development inherent to such situations? Over the next two years, I am working on an integrated research and training approach that at once supports and investigates these processes of orienting together.

My work and curiosity for social learning is nurtured by a wonderful web of people – I highlight among them the enactive research group, with whom I meet on a weekly basis to reflect and exchange, as well as a forming consortium of researchers invested into co-creativity as a way of working together, as well as our research subject. Thank you!

I care about movement – I cycle, play squash, dance contact and climb; I am also an outdoors person and builder – I visit the Rhine in the morning, have spent weeks cycling through Europe sleeping out in my hammock, and over the past few years I have built many beds in different cities, as well as a garden house in my home town Hamburg.

I love to lie down on the floor, enter into cold water, and get in touch with people.

I am in the middle of transitioning to the Netherlands, into new roles, networks and response-abilities. I am very grateful for this opportunity.

This website gives an overview of recent ideas and activities, outlines basic principles I explore in my work, shares some of the colourful notes I take (during meetings or to sort my thoughts), offers supplements to my published work, and points to (some of) the other people involved.

Enjoy!

As a PhD student of relational (participatory) and embodied approaches to social cognition, I used interactive games to investigate social behaviour at multiple levels: can we predict participants’ experience from their personality differences, performance levels and interpersonal movement coordination? During my PhD, I realised I care a lot about application: how can I use what I learn to curate spaces for meaningful social encounter? I thus embarked on several collaborative initiatives to bring relational and embodied cognition into our everyday life as researchers: the playful academic presents possibilities to bring embodied exploration and playfulness into academic collaboration, and the enactive research group offers a weekly online meeting space to people interested in a more generous and collaborative research culture. I was also centrally involved in organising 2022’s ESRI, a yearly conference hosted by Mind and Life Europe that brings together western science and buddhist practitioners.

Now in the Netherlands, I want to conduct research that strengthens relationships. Specifically, between the diverse professionals involved in making urban development more sustainable. How does a collaboration between diverse professionals look like that works ‘at eye level’? What do we need to express, listen to, and act on what matters? ..to all parties involved and affected by our work? My ambition is that this focus on interpersonal development not only empowers individuals but also helps us rethink organisations – what kind of culture and social structures do we need to support us in our work?

The TBL infra project is a wonderful opportunity to integrate my research and training backgrounds. I will use it to ask: how can a research attitude (the commitment to keep on relaxing / questioning the certainty of one’s assumptions) lead to better training outcomes? How can a training attitude (enhancing our ability to face challenges – introduce useful tools, create a learning environment, authentically share from our experience, facilitate practice, learn from and with each other) lead to more insightful research?