dr. A.M. Sools (Anneke)

Anneke Sools is Associate Professor at the department of Psychology, Health and Technology at the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands). She is also Program Director of the Storylab (research group with expertise in narrative psychology, health, and technology connected to the University of Twente). Sools is the recipient of the 2018 Early Career Award from AERA (American Educational Research Association) Narrative SIG (Special Interest Group).

Her PhD dissertation at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht concerned narrative research of how Moroccan and Dutch low-SES older people give meaning to healthy living. She received a MSc Degree in Psychology of Culture and Religion from the University of Nijmegen. Her MSc thesis was awarded the Professor Halkes Thesis Award. For some years she has been a member of the advisory board of the Association for Narrative Research and Practice, and a member of the steering committee of the international conference Narrative Matters. She is also on the advisory board of EQUIP (Association of European Qualitative Researchers in Psychology). In 2010 she founded the Dutch Network for Narrative Research together with Floor Basten from Campus Orléon. 

Her research is about how people construct hopeful, possibility-rich futures in social and societal situations where possibilities are under pressure (e.g. ecological crisis, chronic illness, precarious employment, and at-risk youth). Using participatory action research methods, she studies how embodied anticipatory moral imagination (imagination that opens to possibilities and empathy) can be fostered via artistic practices and immersive experiences (e.g. VR). Questions like how can we live according to our values, especially when our values conflict with others, or when we are faced with new and emerging moral dilemmas in our everyday life? For example: How to honour the earth and all living beings without becoming immobilized and desperate in the awareness that our most ordinary actions may cause harm? How can we contribute to dialogue instead of polarization in a society where value clashes become more pronounced? To answer such questions, she collaborates with researchers, societal partners and artists in the Netherlands, Greece, UK, Finland and other countries. 

Organisations

• Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), Psychology, Health & Technology (PGT)