Niké Wentholt

Niké Wentholt is a historian with an interdisciplinary profile. She works as postdoc researcher at the University of Humanistic Studies. She completed her Master’s in Russian and East European Studies at Oxford University and has since combined her interests in transitional justice, politics of the past, and narrative research in her PhD project and teaching.

DIALOGICS OF JUSTICE

As a postdoc in the Dialogics of Justice project, she will conduct a socio-legal analysis to explore new ways of thinking about recognition of repair. Her priority will be to map the legal grounds for the four cases. Departing from insights of legal anthropology and other interdisciplinary fields, she will aim towards a more grounded understanding of translation and transformation in (legal) recognition procedures.  It is her aim to synthesize the empirical findings from all four research cases to design a toolbox. This toolbox will help stakeholders to grasp the complexities as well as opportunities of recognition and reparation procedures.

After her studies in History, Niké Wentholt has focussed on building an interdisciplinary research profile. After her Master, she found the same mix of political, sociological and historical approaches in her doctoral project at the University of Groningen. Funded by NWO, her PhD research studied politics of the past in Bulgaria and Serbia. She combined her academic work with more applied research projects into memory politics and transitional justice for the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. 

Contact: n.wentholt@uvh.nl

PUBLICATIONS

MEDIA

Opinion piece on learning how to demonstrate and how they do it in Serbia

20/03/2025 ‘Demonstreren kun je leren. Zo doen ze het in Servië’ – Trouw

Niké Wentholt wrote an opinion piece to connect the ongoing, inspiring student-led protests in Serbia to the urgency to protest in the Netherlands. Here, too, we can come together in our shared dissatisfaction with right-wing politics and increasing authoritarianism. The piece was…

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Call on Dutch institutions for higher education to speak out on (de)humanization in the face of the violence in Palestine and Israël

27/10/2023 ‘Hamas-Israël conflict moet studenten leren niemand te ontmenselijken’ – Trouw

‘Wees niet bang om ‘partij te kiezen’ gericht op humanisering’ – Nieuw Wij

In this opinion piece Siri Driessen, Nicole Immler, Obiozo Ukpabi and Niké Wentholt called on Dutch institutions for higher education to take a stand against dehumanization in the face of terrorist…

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Op-Ed on Court Ruling Birthmothers v The State

03/02/2022 ‘De rechter liet afstandsmoeders in de kou staan. En wat doet de overheid?’ – Trouw

Empathy from the Court is not enough when the State refuses to recognise institutional failures. This opinion piece by Niké Wentholt and Nicole Immler analyses missed opportunities in ruling on Birthmothers v The State.

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Opinion piece on the need for debate after legal procedures

15/06/2021 ‘Het gesprek over Srebrenica is nu aan ons’ – Trouw

Niké Wentholt and Marrit Woudwijk wrote an opinion piece on the need for debate after legal procedures. They argued that two recent legal developments with regard to the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica demonstrate the limitations of legal procedures and therefore this momentum should be…

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BLOG

Keti koti dialoogtafel is actief burgerschap

Nicole Immler & Niké Wentholt

Some say that talking about the past of slavery polarises. The opposite appears true. At the Keti koti dialogue tables happening all over the Netherlands currently, we talk together about the role of this history in our lives now, and in the society we are part of. This creates a…

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