Meet our team

Indira van der Zande, is an Associate Professor of Transformative Education and Applied Ethics at Campus Fryslân. Her research focuses on cultivating diversity, developing innovative and interactive teaching methods, and critically reflecting on academic curricula. As co-director of the Center, she values the opportunity to collaborate closely with practitioners and emerging scholars, and is dedicated to foster a vibrant and world class research community.

Mighiel van Diggelen, lecturer at the college-wide Design Based Education Lectureship NHL Stenden.

Prof. Robert Coelen, Professor of Internationalisation of Higher Education at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and former Director of the Centre for Internationalisation at Campus Fryslâ

Professor of Intergroup Relations and Social Integration; Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Faculty BSS

Dr. Jos Beelen is Professor of Global Learning at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. He is a Visiting Professor at Coventry University, at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and at the University of the Free State. Jos leads a research group that explores internationalisation at home, particularly the skills of lecturers to develop and teach internationalised curricula. Action research is a key method for this research theme. Another research theme is the continuum of internationalisation, from primary to tertiary education. Jos has published a range of articles on the implementation of internationalisation at home, both from educational and organisational and systemic perspectives.

Jos is a member of the Thematic Committee on research into internationalisation and a senior trainer for the European Association for International Education (EAIE). From that Association he was the recipient of the 2018 President’s Award for his contribution to internationalisation at home.

Sepideh Yousefzadeh is a global South academic. She was trained as a midwife in Iran, and later on, in Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy School. Her PhD and post-doctoral research focused on multidimensional wellbeing of children. Before joining academia, she worked in international "development" for several years, on women's reproductive rights, wellbeing of migrants and displaced people and informal education. Her research interests are: children's multidimensional wellbeing, the capabilities approach, women and children’s rights, and decolonization (in "development", research and in higher education).

Assistant professor Health & Food T. van Zutphen regularly finds deficiencies of important nutrients in his research on patients. Especially when it comes to protein and vitamins, we see this deficiency in patient measurements, and this could play a role in the recovery or development of disease. Both healthcare and agriculture are facing a transition. Healthy nutrition would be a great starting point for both transitions and an integral perspective on the food chain, starting from sustainable production on healthy soil to the healthy and less healthy consumer in care, offers opportunities to keep both care sustainable and the realisation of a fair and sustainable agricultural system.

Researcher at Internationalisation of Higher Education.

As professor in educational innovation at FEB, Comenius Leadership fellow and Academic Lead of the Teaching Academy Groningen, Jan Riezebos is actively engaged in research on higher education and academic teacher professionalization. He is leading several educational innovation projects, e.g. on the Inclusive Teacher and logistical innovations, EQUNI: Discrimination at universities, and SheTechTalks (Business and ICT competences).

Leanne is a researcher in the field of Internationalisation of Higher Education at NHL Stenden UAS. She holds a PhD in Spanish Linguistics with a focus on its application to Hospitality. Her current postdoctoral research explores the intended, realised, and experienced perspectives on internationalisation practices at NHL Stenden. Her broader research interests encompass Pragmatics, Philosophy of Language, Intercultural Communication, Hospitality, and Spanish and Latin American languages and cultures. In addition to her research role, Leanne is also involved as a Senior Policy Advisor on Internationalisation at NHL Stenden.

Meghan is an assistant professor in Sustainable Tourism & Society at Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen. Her areas of research include poverty and tourism, decolonization, feminisms, and identity and representation. She is also deeply interested in qualitative approaches to research, in particular arts-based methodologies.

Associate Professor Social and Environmental Psychology.

Assistant professor dr. Emma Folmer conducts research on social and sustainable entrepreneurship. Her research focuses on entrepreneurial processes and outcomes and how these are affected by their institutional context. Recently, she has completed a research project on community energy projects, where she investigated the process of co-creation in energy innovation. She is active in several projects on sustainable entrepreneurship education, outlining the competencies that are required to make sustainable business decisions across a variety of industries, including agriculture. 

The lack of resources and programs to stimulate mobility flows as well as the absence of environments enriched by significant numbers of international students and scholars challenge Latin American HEI to innovate and re-create environments that offer global learning opportunities to students at home. Recent developments in teaching and learning seem to have that potentiality. By studying a broad sample of teaching and learning practices in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, this research is addressing the question: How emerging teaching practices enhance student’s global learning in Latin America.

Pouneh Eftekhari’s doctoral research examines the relationship between disciplinary affiliation and engagement with process of curriculum internationalization. By understanding how disciplinary culture shapes the rationales, conceptualizations, and strategies for curriculum internationalization, we can better equip university leaders and support staff to assist academics in this process.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Pouneh has 15+ years of experience in internationalization policy, strategy, and research across the USA and Europe, including her current role as an International Coordinator and researcher at Lund University (Sweden).

“We need diversity if we are to change, grow, and innovate”

Weiwei’s research is about what happens when international students are introduced into a small learning group in higher education. Specifically, whether all students are satisfied or become smarter (e.g., social identity development, critical thinking, cross-national collaboration skills) in nationally diverse groups? If not, understanding the factors that influence teamwork processes and quality has implications for theorizing diverse group behaviours as well as for institutions seeking to improve international collaboration and associated learning outcomes.

What do lecturers need to support and leverage their students’ cultural diversity in inclusive, purposeful international classrooms? What does this mean in the context of urban universities of applied sciences, accommodating a culturally diverse domestic student population - and in the light of the rapid transitions in higher education, spurred on by the COVID pandemic? In her PhD project, Marloes explores the competences lecturers need to capitalize on their students’ cultural diversity in international classrooms within Dutch, urban universities of applied sciences. In a consecutive exploratory qualitative study, mixed method case study and comparative action research, she will identify a lecturer competence profile and revisit and adjust it, incorporating lecturers’ and students’ perspectives.

Elok’s project aims to understand the role of cultural distance and cultural intelligence on international students' adjustment using several empirical studies. The project proposes and tests the moderation model of CQ in the relationship between perceived cultural distance (PCD) and international students' psychological, sociocultural, and academic adjustment.

Friso's area of expertise lies in the exploration of world philosophies and epistemic diversity, with a particular focus on their methodological and educational dimensions. His approach is rooted in continental European philosophy, Latin American liberation philosophy (particularly influenced by Enrique Dussel), and modern Japanese philosophy (particularly the Kyoto School). He is intrigued by the question of which various modes of thought exist and how their diverse logics can engage with one another creatively and ethically. Through his scholarly pursuits and experience in education, his goal is to foster a more diverse and decolonized philosophical landscape. To achieve this, he actively disseminate his findings through public engagements like talks and philosophical blog posts across various platforms, thus reaching out to a broader audience.

Grada, being an alumna of the center, is a practitioner-researcher at NHL Stenden passionate about international and intercultural aspects of (higher) education. Her main area of expertise concerns the impact of internationalisation abroad on teacher behaviour. Her current post-doc research focuses on the intended, realized, and implemented internationalisation practices of all disciplines of NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences.

Franka is a senior policy advisor and researcher in the central Department of Strategy, Education, and Students. Her expertise and main tasks concern internationalization, diversity, and inclusion in teaching and learning as a process of individual and organizational changes.