2 april 2024
My name is Jannet Vaessen, I am 54 years old and my husband and I live in Schoorl, our two kids study in Amsterdam. After 20 years of leading a dynamic NGO, I wanted to explore ‘change’ more on an academic level. So, when I was invited to join the LHCL research team as a senior research fellow of practice, I gladly accepted. I was trained as a historian in modern history and find it very inspiring to find connections and differences between periods, perspectives, and disciplines to expand knowledge and understanding of the time we live in.
My research will explore the paradigm shift (towards the concept of diversity) in health care in correlation with the right to health. In my previous job I closely observed how scientific ideas can change society and vice versa and how this impacts professionals, public and society. As a Senior Research Fellow I can ‘re-research’ this, building on academic theories in different disciplines; history, sociology, anthropology, law.
My former work triggered the question of how law describes human rights so well and nevertheless has different outcomes for different groups, even in the Netherlands. I hope to contribute to discussions on this discrepancy through my LHCL research and provide findings for stakeholders tasked. Overall, I think a red thread in all my work is to explore and show how times are changing and how each of us can play a unique role in that.