WHO WE ARE
We are a non-for-profit organisation that is powered by a strong volunteering-based network of students, academics and critical thinkers across the country.
On the international level, we are affiliated with Rethinking Economics and the International Student Initiative for Pluralism in Economics. We work together with different actors that share our aims of diversifying and reinvigorating economics such as the Young Scholars Initiative.
On the national level, our board oversees all activities and works closely with national project teams and local groups. Currently, we have local groups in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Maastricht and Tilburg.
OUR NATIONAL BOARD
Femke Schootstra
Board 2024 - 2025
I'm Femke, student Global Political Economy at Radboud University. With Rethinking Economics I want to empower students to speak up about their ideas and values about economics, and to be the critical young pioneers in new ways of thinking. My personal interests are the macroeconomic puzzles of degrowth and the (hidden) political and colonial nature of economics. I want to contribute to creating a place for these topics in university education.
Benjamin Heaton
Board 2024-2025
I’m Ben! I’m a philosophy student at Erasmus University Rotterdam, but I also have a degree in Economics, three semesters of Engineering, and years of varied experience working in the actual economy. I believe economics has a lot that it can teach us, but it has abandoned its roots and lost its humility. With Rethinking Economics, I hope to help revitalize the discipline such that it is capable of tackling the pressing issues for which it is depended upon.
Ilse Meijer
Secretary 2022-2023
Ilse is studying Philosophy, Politics and Society, and Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies at Radboud University. She wrote her thesis on the human nature behind Homo Economicus and is particularly interested in the (hidden) assumptions behind economic ideas and models.
SENIOR BOARD
Prof.dr. Irene van Staveren
Vice-chair
Irene is professor of Pluralist Development Economics at the Institute for Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Check out her pluralist textbook: Economics after the Crisis!
Rens van Tilburg
Boardmember
Rens is the director of the Sustainable Finance Lab of Utrecht university. Previously, he was an economic advisor in the European Parliament and the Dutch Lower House.
Dr. Robert Went
Boardmember
Robert is senior economist at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). He's a Twitter Jedi master, check it out!
OUR LOCAL TEAM LEADERS
Vera Veltman
RE : Rotterdam
Vera finished her bachelor of Economics & Business Economics with the specialisation of Behavioural & Health economics, and currently studies the master of Financial Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.
She values different perspectives and enjoys exploring them, keeping the conversation and discussion open.
Charlotte Hullmann
RE : Nijmegen
Charlotte is doing her master in Environment and Society studies with a big affinity for sustainability transformations.
She joined Rethinking Economics to contribute her sustainability-oriented perspective on economics.
Lars Niehaus
RE: Maastricht
Lars is studying International Development and Political Economy in the Liberal Arts and Sciences programme at University College Maastricht.
He joined Rethinking Economics to contribute to making economics education more heterodox and reflective of reality.
