Eva Rovers

Background

About Eva Rovers

Eva Rovers is a non-fiction writer and the founding director of Bureau Burgerberaad. She is an expert on democratic renewal and regularly performs in the media, at conferences as well as at festivals such as Lowlands and Brainwash. In 2022 she published the best selling book ‘Nu is het aan ons’ (‘Now it's up to us’), in which she argues why citizens should not to leave politics exclusively to politicians. Through sortition based citizens assemblies, citizens themselves could - and should - play a vital role in decision making regarding the most complex issues of our time. After having published two biographies, Eva decided to dedicate her writing to ways citizens can empower themselves and bring about societal change. She has become a leading advocate for citizens' assemblies, and co-founded Bureau Burgerberaad, a non-profit organisation championing assemblies in The Netherlands. She has coordinated an international collective learning project on European climate assemblies at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, called "Climate Citizens’ Assemblies: Learning with, from and for Europe". The project brought together academics, activists, policymakers and everyday citizens from all over Europe, to share their experience and knowledge of how to organise inclusive and effective climate assemblies. The conclusions can be found at: Eva is also the author of the critically acclaimed biographies of writer Boudewijn Büch and art collector Helene Kröller-Müller, and winner of the National Biography Award in The Netherlands. She is a cultural historian with a PhD from the University of Groningen. She taught at the University of Utrecht and Groningen, and was a member of the Supervisory Board of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam between 2014 and 2022. Over the years Eva has given over 500 lectures on cultural history, societal change, civil movements, climate action and deliberative democracy. She lives both in Amsterdam and Brussels.