Email A.Cain@ninsee.nl

Drs. Amy Abdou is a sociologist who studied Immigration and Ethnic Studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. She graduated in 2003 with a Master's thesis on “Race and Immigration in the Netherlands post September 11.”  At NiNsee, she is responsible for international programming and the organisation and planning of the Summer School on Black Europe.

Email A.Abdou@ninsee.nl

Dr. Aspha Bijnaar (Ph.D, in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam) is a researcher at the National Institute for the Study of Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee) in Amsterdam. Aspha Bijnaar also works on several exhibitions. One of these is the permanent exhibition Breaking the Silence in Amsterdam. It is an overview of the history of the Transatlantic Slavery, specifically of the role of The Netherlands.

Email A.Bijnaar@ninsee.nl

Drs. Ruth Dors is a sociologist and works as a researcher at NiNsee, conducting investigation into the missionary work of the Evangelical Brotherhood with the slave population of Suriname. Furthermore, with other researchers, she studies West-Indian immigrants. She is currently writing a thesis on the culture and identity of Afro-Surinamese in Paramaribo.

Email R.Dors@ninsee.nl

Dr. Frank Dragtenstein is a historian.  In 2002, he graduated from the Universiteit van Utrecht with a dissertation on ‘‘De ondraaglijke stoutheid der wegloopers. Marronage en koloniaal beleid in Suriname 1667-1768.' (Utrecht, Bronnen voor de studie van Suriname, deel 22).

He is the co-author fo the book, Manumissies in Suriname 1832-1863. (Utrecht, Bronnen voor de studie van Suriname, deel 19). He is the author of "Trouw aan de blanken. Quassie van Nieuw Timotibo, twist en strijd in de 18e eeuw in Suriname" (Amsterdam, Kit Publishers 2004). Frank Dragtenstein publishes colonial history, questions concerning the history of slavery, and over notions of African men in the past and present.

Email F.Dragtenstein@ninsee.nl

Drs. Maria Karg-Reinders is an anthropologist and graduated with a Master’s thesis on the material culture of the Saramakaner people of Suriname. She is responsible for presentation and education at NiNsee.
Under her guidance, the exhibition “Under the Care of the Lord: letters from converted Marrons” was realized. The exhibition travelled to Suriname to great success and will continue on to Aruba.

Email M.Karg@ninsee.nl

Dr. Martha Luz Machado Caicedo studied communications and journalism at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. She has a Master’s in Communication from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and is currently a Ph.D. candidate, at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in the program African Diaspora in Europe and Latin America. She has spent a decade in the Columbia Pacific researching traditional work crafts of African descendants. This has resulted in, amongst other things, the documentary film and chronicles The flowers of the mangroves (1996).

In her doctoral thesis, Martha Luz Machado compares the material culture, and profane and sacred art from the communities of West Africa (the origin of many of the slaves that were transported to Colombia) with the material culture of other cultural groups in Colombia.

She has organised international conferences on the African diaspora and has been a researcher, initiator and curator for several national exhibitions in Latin America.

Email M.Machado@ninsee.nl

Drs. Vanessa Vijzelman studied communications at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. She's specialized in new media technologies and social media. After her graduation she gained experience in journalism and media (e.g. at Radio Netherlands Worldwide and other Dutch broadcasting companies). As a freelancer she worked at the communication department of several non-profit organizations as well (e.g. Cordaid and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science). Right now she's the PR & Communication officer at NiNsee. 

Email V.Vijzelman@ninsee.nl