Nanke Verloo

Background

About Nanke Verloo

As Associate Professor of Urban Politics and Planning at the University of Amsterdam, I bring together my academic backgrounds in Anthropology and Political Science to shape a transdisciplinary approach to Planning and Governance. My mission is to build meaningful bridges between scholars, students, citizens, civil servants, and politicians—to deepen the democratic quality of our cities and expand the ways we learn, plan, and act together. I am deeply committed to bridging science and society through transdisciplinary research, engaged teaching, and intensive PhD supervision. I currently lead a collaborative research with the Municipality of Amsterdam and the HvA, where researchers, civil servants, and citizens collaborate in studying the effects of participation policies. As part of the NWA-funded project Crafting Resilience, I lead the Community of Practice and supervise PhD candidates exploring how communities build resilience in the face of institutional challenges. My teaching philosophy is rooted in methodological pluralism and societal relevance. At the UvA, I design and lead interdisciplinary method and planning courses, while also serving as Dean of Metropool at the Netherlands School of Public Administration (NSOB). In this program, mid-career urban professionals enhance their capacity to address complex urban challenges through transdisciplinary learning. I also mentor civil servants pursuing doctoral research, strengthening the knowledge interface between academia and public service. After earning my PhD in Political Science cum laude in 2015, I joined the Department of Geography and Planning. My dissertation, praised for its ethnographic depth, won the Van Poelje Prize for best thesis in Public Administration. I received the prestigious NWO VENI grant for my action research on participatory planning conflicts in Bogotá and Amsterdam. In 2023, I was Visiting Professor at CIDER, Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia. I was awarded the NWO Impact Explorer grant to actively translate research insights into practice—training professionals, publishing in accessible formats, and contributing to public debate. The real-world value of my work was also recognized during my Urban Citizen Fellowship at NIAS/KNAW, where my research directly informed Amsterdam’s current participation policy. Beyond academia, I contribute to shaping national discourse. I am Chief Editor of Beleid en Maatschappij and editorial board member of Sociale Vraagstukken. I also served on two advisory committees at the Dutch Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (RLi).