What the hell are you doing over there?

I get a lot of questions here at ExpatMike Centraal, but this is definitely the most popular. It probably says something that it is my least favorite one to answer, and this entry will definitely lack the amusing bon mots from Dutch society that I use to cover up anxiety about my research.

I have two primary projects here, neither of which is going particularly well. The project that I outlined for the Fulbright committee is an extension of my dissertation research, examining a concept I developed called metapolicy and how it can be used to understand broad trends in higher education governance and policymaking. Getting people to agree to interviews on this topic is nearly impossible, because I'd need to talk to high ranking officials and governance types, and they are either on vacation or too important to talk to someone with few connections and little status. So I'm talking mostly to experts in higher education. I still think I can produce a paper on this topic, but it will have to rely primarily upon document analysis.

My second project, and one that people find more comprehensible, is about how Dutch universities can promote social cohesion, particularly regarding the integration of Muslim students into society. You may have heard about two major assassinations that have taken place in Amsterdam since 2001. The first was the murder of Pim Fortuyn, a right-wing, gay, anti-immigration politician who had recently gained power. (Seriously). He led a political party devoted to eliminating Islamic fundamentalism and its ascendence in Dutch society, but he was actually killed by an animal rights activist, which most people treat as trivial -- he might as well been killed by the Ayatollah.

The second was a filmmaker named Theo Van Gogh, who was knocked off his bike on the way to work (not far from my flat, by the way), and stabbed to death as Van Gogh begged for mercy. The murderer was an Islamic fundamentalist infuriated by Van Gogh's film collaboration with a Dutch politician named Ayaan Hirsi Ali that accused Islam of violence against women. Hirsi Ali, in turn, is being expelled from the country for lying on her immigration application, and will soon arrive in the U.S. to make waves back home.

This has been the major political topic of conversation for years in the Netherlands. So you'd think that universities would have interesting things to say or do about this, because they're educators. There's a major social and political problem in the country, so maybe universities should, you know, educate people about it. Except they don't. Universities here simply do not see this as part of their mission, and faculty and students find the idea that the university could agree on anything as "preposterous." (That's a direct quote from an informant.) The curriculum has barely changed to reflect the changing landscape. Muslim students are not organized to advocate for themselves or for institutional change. (The University of Amsterdam does not even have a Muslim student organization.)

So my thinking needs to change substantially as I move forward. I need to take into account a university culture that values continuing dialogue rather than building consensus or cohesion, and sees its contribution to society coming solely through autonomous faculty members and research centers rather than through the institution as a whole. A lack of policy or university mission does not mean nothing is happening, but rather that it is happening through different means than would be expected in other national contexts.

So that's what I'm doing. Sorry you asked? Thought so. So enjoy this pretty picture of Dam Square, a 10-minute walk from here.