Two new PhD candidates at the ASCL: Loes Oudenhuijsen and Tycho van der Hoog

The ASCL welcomes two new PhD candidates: Loes Oudenhuijsen and Tycho van der Hoog. Loes started on 1 May, and Tycho will begin on 1 June. Loes Oudenhuijsen’s research will centre around ‘wicked’ women in Senegal from 1950 to the present. She will be exploring how women who transgress the gender norm become stigmatized, and how these so-called ‘wicked’ women subsequently negotiate their stigmatization. Such processes of stigmatization and negotiation reveal tensions between gender norms, social transformations, and women’s agency in relation to these transformations. The aim of this research is to uncover changes in gender norms, to better understand how present-day ideas about gender and its transgressions have come about. By studying how various types of ‘wicked’ women – sex workers, unmarried women, and single mothers – dealt with the label ‘wicked’ over the course of the last 70 years, this research will combine historical feminist analysis with more recent debates about sexual and gender diversity to provide a diversified historical narrative of gender and sexuality in Senegal. Loes' promoter will be Rijk van Dijk, co-promoter Rachel Spronk (UvA).

The PhD project of Tycho van der Hoog is titled ‘Blood, Bullets and Bronze: North Korea in southern Africa, 1960-2010’. The aim of his research is to investigate the ties between African liberation movements and North Korea that were forged during the African liberation struggles of the twentieth century. North Korea supported various liberation movements in their armed struggle for freedom. When independence was secured, many of such organizations were turned into political parties. Today, most of southern Africa is ruled by former liberation movements and those governments continue to offer support to North Korea. Tycho’s research focuses on the diplomatic ties that have been fostered during the 1960s, various forms of military cooperation and the mutual construction projects in Africa involving North Korean labourers. Tycho's promoter will be Jan-Bart Gewald, co-promoter Remco Breuker (Leiden University).