Maria van der Harst is a postdoctoral researcher at the University Medical Center Utrecht (Netherlands). She was trained in cultural anthropology, but broadened her focus through interdisciplinary collaborations to a well rounded social scientist. Her work bridges fields as diverse as global health, youth studies, children’s well-being & quality of life, social justice, and research ethics. 

She finished a PhD at UMC Utrecht, titled ‘Leaving No One Behind: normative and empirical explorations in knowledge production for societal change’. She is the postdoc researcher for the 2024-2026 cycle of the Prince Claus Chair for Equity and Development, led by prof. Shazly Savahl. The project is focused on the study of the well-being and quality of life of children and youth. It aims to foreground children’s voices on matters affacting their lives, and strives towards a child-conscious society. 

At Utrecht University she is part of the Utrecht Centre for Global Challenges. In recent years she convened several projects for which she actively engaged with international organizations as well as local NGO’s. She was part of the international community engaged learning (iCEL) team, providing support, inspiration and tools for iCEL courses. In 2024 she was a teacher and co-organizer of the course ‘Thematic Interdisciplinary Challenges’ (TIC).

She is passionate about building and strengthening meaningful connections, international initiatives and global engagement, in order to work towards social change on issues that can only be meaningfully addressed at global scale. Building bridges is what she finds exciting; she is active in (and an advocate for) inter- and transdisciplinary, as well as international collaborations.