Koen Hoogendoorn is a historian and PhD candidate at Utrecht University within the NWO Gravitation Programme Adapt!. His research focuses on local history in neighbourhoods such as Zuilen (Utrecht) and Borgerhout (Antwerp), exploring whether the sharing of local histories can contribute to resilience in times of crisis.

Alongside his doctoral research, he is affiliated with the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), where he is currently involved in an advisory project on Synthetic Drug Policy. He previously contributed to the report Aandacht voor Media (2024) and published a paper on media literacy (2024).

His most recent publication is a historical background study for the WRR: 'Een tegenstrijdig evenwicht. Tussen economie, tolerantie en diplomatie in de Nederlandse omgang met drugs (1875-2025)' (2026). In it, he traces how three logics — economic-pragmatic, cultural-normative, and international-diplomatic — have repeatedly clashed and been reconciled across one hundred and fifty years of Dutch drug history.