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Appendix IV
Acknowledgements
As a small town girl with initially limited ambitions and not much knowledge about the world outside Brabant, thirteen years ago I would never have guessed I would end up writing a PhD thesis. Looking back, this career path in academia makes sense though: In primary school I wanted to be either a teacher or a writer and my secondary school career test told me I should be a scientist (the laboratory kind of scientist, but well, these tests are known for their margin of error).
My PhD journey has mostly been enjoyable, and de nitely enriching. Many people have contributed to making it an overall positive experience, and although I am neither particularly a fan of conventions nor good at expressing (positive) feelings, I will use this space to acknowledge those who deserve it.
The serious part: Academic acknowledgements
First of all, I have been extremely lucky to have had a great daily supervisor and copromotor. Ellen, you were always there when I needed you, you gave very useful and clear feedback on my written work, and your positive and practical attitude made it pleasant and e cient to collaborate with you. ank you for everything!
Wim, you challenged me and had faith in me, which in my opinion are two main qualities of a promotor. Whenever we had accomplished something, e.g., an analysis with nice results, a good-looking model, or another paper accepted, you would always mention you were proud of me, which greatly contributed to my self-e cacy as a social scientist. ank you!
roughout my four PhD years, I have moved o ces many times (almost as o en as I have moved house, which is a lot). I am very happy that I ended up with you, Marjon. I could not wish for a better o ce mate: You are cheerful, even when I am in one of my I-hate-the-world-fuck-you-all-moods; always available for a talk, work-related or not; always up for a co ee; and you never run out of chocolate. I hope we can keep sharing an o ce for many years to come and I am happy that you are collaborating with me on both of my postdoc projects. PS. Sorry for sometimes sneakily throwing le over co ee in your plants, but I read that it de nitely doesn’t kill them and may even make them stronger.
Janneke, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to take up the (probably very tiring) task of checking my Introduction and Discussion: You didn’t hesitate for a second when I asked you to do this – “comes for the baker!” – and consequently you made sure there is no Dunglish in my thesis anymore and that all (or at least
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