About Karin

What drives me is an inexhaustable hunger for knowledge and an ambition to apply this knowledge to work towards a sustainable and just world. I have an MSc in biology from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands (1999) and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US (2012). My dissertation research focused on moral negotiations in conservation and development around a national park in Uganda, a site with an intense history of violent and manipulative neocolonial governance. I returned to the Netherlands in 2013, made a switch to entrepreneurship, and created a business called Kusala, producing sustainable artisinal soaps using natural and circular ingredients. For the last five years, Kusala was based in the circular economy hub BlueCity Rotterdam, where various beautiful collaborations emerged. However, after I came to the conclusion that small social entrepreneurship is next to impossible in our harsh capitalist landscape, I decided to end soap production in the fall of 2023, started dismantling Kusala, and commited myself to working to research and activism for system change. Although I applied for a few jobs with various research institutes, I became increasingly skeptical of the possibility to combine a professional career with a pure pursuit of radical social change, without getting misguided by personal ambitions and/or by the capitalist expectations of employers and funders. This motivated me to apply for and accept a parttime job in financial administration with BlueCity Rotterdam in late spring 2024. Being able to support myself by working three days a week for a relatively neutral job that is fascinating, but doesn't drain my ideological, intellectual, and activist energy, buys me the freedom to study, write, and organize in whichever way I choose to for the rest of the week. I am a member of the Extinction Rebellion Netherlands: Justice Now! community, and regularly participate in actions by various activist groups for climate and/or social justice, and for a free Palestine.