Interview Belle Derks
Professor at the Social, Health and Organisational Psychology department
What is your research about?
I research how people in organisations can make the best use of their potential. In doing so, I look specifically at the effects of prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination, for example among women, minorities or people at a distance from the labour market. I look at this from a social psychological perspective, i.e. the interaction between people and their working environment. How does it affect people when they are negatively stereotyped, and how do they deal with it? How are unequal opportunities subtly ingrained in organisational culture? And how can we change this?
Another focus of my research is the influence of gender norms on the time men and women devote to their work and family. Because all sorts of stereotypes play a role there too when it comes to gender equality. Consider the implicit communication within organisations that tells men that they are expected to choose work over family life, while women are rated as less ambitious once they have children.
And finally, I am interested in the working culture within academia. How is diversity in talent within academia limited by our emphasis on competition and excellence? Can we adjust that culture so that a more diverse group of people can feel at home at university?
How long have you been working at FSBS?
It will already be 10 years in February 2025.
What do you like about working at FSBS/UU? Why work here in particular?
What I find special about our faculty and our university is that it is very common not to stay within your own discipline. For example, I work with sociologists who look at issues at a different level. And that often provides me with entirely new and different insights. We do this, for example, in PhD projects. We work with multiple sections to give shape to research. The fact that this way of working is so normal is really extraordinary to me.
Another advantage is that, in Utrecht, we really think about social issues. This is reflected, for example, in how professors' positions are designed in terms of content. They are increasingly focused on collaboration with social partners and a focus on major social issues. I myself have also found collaboration with organisations outside the university. We get a lot of support with that. And because our faculty is already quite advanced in this, I don't have to keep reinventing the wheel.
Finally, compared to other universities, we in Utrecht are very advanced when it comes to recognising and rewarding different tasks and the different talents of academic staff. For me, that means I can decide to take time off to develop into a better manager, even if it means less time for other tasks for a while. I think this is unique to Utrecht. So what matters here is not only the impact of the research you do, but also what you contribute to a better working environment for your colleagues.
How does the faculty contribute to your research?
Collaboration with other disciplines is really encouraged by the faculty and university. For example, by making starter grants available for projects that focus on collaboration by different sections, departments and other faculties. So this goes beyond words spoken and words on paper. With grants like this, you make sure it is actually put into practice.
You can also see this in education. In the Psychology Bachelor's programme, for instance, courses have been developed in recent years in which sections within psychology collaborate thematically and link their expertise rather than teaching those courses separately. As a result, Psychology students not only learn the difference between clinical, developmental and social psychology but also see that bringing these insights together is what leads to a better understanding of social issues. This is very different from what I learnt as a psychology student.
What makes UU unique?
The university has four strategic themes, and I am involved in the Institutions for Open Societies theme [/onderzoek/institutions-for-open-societies]. Thanks in part to this structure, I have become more strongly embedded in the university as a whole. I have gained a much clearer picture of what other academics are doing across the full breadth of the university, how they analyse societal problems and how we can collaborate on solving them. For instance, in a project on gender segregation in medical science, I am working with colleagues from History. Such collaboration comes about because we know each other through the university-wide strategic themes.