My name is Wouter Oomen and I am a lecturer in media studies, contact person and confidant for students experiencing inappropriate behaviour at the faculty of Humanities and a researcher.

As a lecturer, I teach at various levels - from starting courses on BA-level, to the supervision of PhD students in the Virtual Reality as Empathy Machine project. I strive for engaging education, that connects academic rigour and theory with socially relevant, concrete issues. Currently I am involved in the BA program Communication and Information Science and the MA program Film and Television Cultures.

As a contact person for students experiencing inappropriate behaviour, students can reach out to me at any time to discuss any negative experience that has caused them harm, that wories or bothers them or that they are unsure about. Any e-mail, call or meeting is strictly confidential, and any student who comes forward remains in full control over what they (might) want to pursue after notifying me of any inappropriate behaviour. Students can contact me at Contactpersoon-ongewenstgedragStudenten.gw@uu.nl or at +31 6 3989 2297 (also WhatsApp). More information can be found here.

As a researcher, I specialize in humanitarian communication: the representations of human vulnerability or suffering as a cause for public concern, with an emphasis on the public communication of NGOs working on humanitarianism and international cooperation. My PhD dissertation on the topic is titled “What Brings Us Together?: Platforms, common humanity and the challenges of post-humanitarian communication” and can be accessed here. As the (co-)director of the Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication I cooperate with a broad network of partners; both academically (Clingendael Institute, KIT, the Humanitarian Studies Center and the Institute for Social Studies) and professionally (War Child, Doctors Without Borders and Partos).