Yolande Jansen; H.Y.M. Jansen

Yolande Jansen

Yolande Jansen is an Assistant Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Since March 2012, she has a research-position at the Amsterdam Centre for Globalization Studies of the UvA. She is a member of the editorial board of the bilingual philosophical revue Krisis; tijdschrift voor actuele filosofie/Journal for Contemporary Philosophy. She studied Philosophy and French Studies at the University of Amsterdam and at the University of Paris VII. 

In 2012 the book Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism in Europe ; Marcel Proust and the Actuality of the Paradoxes of Assimilation will appear at Amsterdam University Press/IMISCOE.  This book critically traces the intertwined cultural and conceptual historiesof the notions of secularism and assimilation in the humanities and social sciences, and in French discourses in particular. In this context, Jansen provides an in-depth reading of the way in which Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time narrates the ambivalences and oblique practical and discursive effects of ‘assimilation’ for the French Jews in nineteenth-century France, to then reflect on how studying these paradoxes could contribute to understanding the contemporary position of European muslims in the context of debates about secularism, assimilation, integration and multiculturalism.

In 2010, Jansen completed a post-doctoral research for NWO, the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research, about secularism and postsecularism, where she paid particular attention to the securitization of religion. She did so within the larger research project 'The Sacred and the Secular; Genealogies of Self, State and Society in the Islamic World', which forms part of the program ‘The Future of the Religious Past’ funded by NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research).

Jansen has recently taught courses on 'Recent Political and Social Theory', on 'Post-Secularism' and on 'Human Rights'.

Areas of research: Political philosophy, in particular critical theory, pluralism and democracy; genealogies of secularism; irregular migration; Judaism in Europe; Islam in Europe; French culture and literature, in particular the work of Marcel Proust.  

NB: Please note that the list of publications is not complete. Will be updated soon.