I studied theology in Brussels and Leiden and philosophy in Amsterdam (UvA). Between 2000 and 2007 I worked as a lecturer at the Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat dan Teologi in Jakarta. In 2006 I obtained my doctorate with a research project on the influence of the Shoah on the subject-object relationship in Theodor W. Adorno, Karl Barth, and Hannah Arendt. Since 2008 I have enjoyed working at Utrecht University, from 2016 as associate professor. From 2019-2023 I was director of education in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

My research focuses on the study of so-called 'religious violence'. I examine the wide context in which violence is committed and justified. Religious beliefs can have a significant impact on the course of a conflict. I use methods such as frame analysis, discourse analysis, and material analysis to study how violence erupts and is justified in broad socio-religious contexts. As many scholars focus on motives and causes of conflict, I ask specifically attention for conflict dynamics and conflict effects. In addition, I use relational models to understand how violence is related to communal ideas about equality, authority and justice. This creates an understanding of religious violence at the intersection of religious language and communication on the one hand and religious community building on the other.

Education is the right of the next generation to know about the successes and failures of the previous generations. This means that education is a mediating process in which new, sometimes difficult and disturbing, sometimes encouraging insights are obtained through trial and error. Facts are stored in order to function as an archive, interpretations and models are explained to stimulate critical reflection and narratives and biographies are interpreted to stimulate connection.