The doctor's doctor

Congratulations! Some time ago you received a grant or a “yes” from a supervisor to write a dissertation in the humanities or social sciences.

Now you need an editor, or a bit more. You may feel stuck, overwhelmed by everything you know about your topic, lost when it comes to presenting it. Don’t worry, some desperation is part of the normal procedure. You can ask for my help and advice on different levels:

1. I correct language on the level of words, sentences, paragraphs and I improve your academic style in Dutch or English.
2. I guide you to present your argumentation effectively. One “interview” with you may be enough to pull you through this episode. Or I can accompany you for a longer period to think about:

• your research questions and their implication for the structure of your book.
• the relation between your hypotheses and their substantiation.
• the articulation of the relevance of your topic.
• correspondence between your introduction and conclusion.

About me

I studied cultural anthropology in the 1980-ies and wrote a dissertation in the field of history and Arabic studies, which I defended in 2015. My academic articles are well published.

I get a kick out of disentangling information and organising thoughts by writing clearly. I learned that when I started as a freelance journalist for some quality newspapers and journals in 1997. The expertise was useful when I wrote my own dissertation (published by Brill) and a number of non-academic books. Gum Arabic, the Golden Tears of the Acacia Tree was published by Leiden University Press and Chicago University Press.

My work schedule is flexible. I free-lance as editor and as teacher for the department of Oriental Studies of Leiden University. I also spend a few months every year in Chad to support the efforts of friends there in various domains.