Naomi de Ruiter new member of the Young Academy Groningen

The Young Academy Groningen welcomes seven new members. The Young Academy Groningen (YAG) is a group of talented, enthusiastic and ambitious early-career researchers from various disciplines at the University of Groningen (UG) and the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). Members share a passion for science and scholarship and its broader impacts on academia and society.

Members of the Young Academy Groningen generate and elaborate on their ideas together with researchers spanning all disciplines, forge interdisciplinary ties and set up joint projects. They contribute to scientific policy and engage in activities with the broader public. Over the past year, due to COVID-19 regulations, these activities have mainly taken place online but have nonetheless been very successful in bringing early-career researchers together to discuss ideas regarding the Rewards & Recognition programme and to explore interdisciplinary collaborations.

As of September 2022, Naomi de Ruiter will be UCG's researcher at the YAG.

Let's read more on her research focuses. Also, she shares her hopes for academia and interdisciplinary research.

I am an assistant professor at the University College Groningen, and my background is in developmental psychology. My research focuses primarily on how psychological phenomena related to identity are enacted in real-life social interactions, and how they can be conceptualized and studied as processes that are situated in time and context. To study this, I use complex dynamic systems and discursive psychological methods and theories. I also aim to support a process approach in psychology more broadly, and I am interested in studying research practices as an object of study themselves. I seek to understand the ontological and epistemological assumptions, norms, and values that research practices construct and are contingent upon. Related to this, I am passionate about interdisciplinarity in research and the plurality that it can bring to research.

I am excited to join the Young Academy Groningen community, and I look forward to supporting a collaborative and supportive academia that nourishes innovation, inclusivity, and compassion. In particular, I will seek to contribute to the support of interdisciplinary collaborations in research, inclusive hiring and promotion procedures, flexible reward and recognition for early-career talent, and an academic culture that prioritizes individuals’ well-being and mental health.

Congratulations Naomi and good luck at the YAG!