Health Organizations

This part of our website is developed for organizations interested in our research on Dutch sexual health organizations. We will share some of our insightful experiences in the field, and we hope to give readers a more precise idea of what this part of the project actually consists of.  

There are many Dutch organizations working on the topic of sexual health, all featuring their own approach, method, and specialization. We seek to look through the eyes of such organizations, gathering their perspectives, stories, and understandings.

Below, the reader can find some reports from the field: stories that we present in an attempt to present an impression of the field of Dutch sexual health. What motivates the people working for sexual health organisations? What are the specific themes related to sexuality that are deemed particularly relevant in the contemporary Netherlands? What kind of activities do sexual health organizations organize and embark on, and what do these look like? By presenting stories here, we set out to provide some tentative answers to such questions.

Free online course on Religion and Sexual Wellbeing

The project team of ‘Religion, Sexuality and Secularism’ has been working hard to develop a freely accessible 4-week internet course: ‘Religion and Sexual Wellbeing: Pleasure, Piety and Reproductive Rights’, starting on 2 May. Debates featuring sexuality, gender, and reproduction often showcase two clear voices: conservative voices often associated with religion, and liberal voices often associated […]

‘In pursuit of well-being’

b.e.bartelink@rug.nl / /

Cultural Encounters Team Member Amisah Bakuri will defend her PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam on December 22nd 2021. Her PhD thesis is an anthropological study focused on the pursuit of well-being among Somali-Dutch and Ghanaian-Dutch people residing in the Randstad area of the Netherlands In The Netherlands (and in global public health), religion is often […]

Sexual Enchantment: experiences of the ordinary and the extraordinary

What makes sex something extraordinary for people, and how do people experience the extraordinary amidst the familiair and the everyday? How is this connected to peoples experiences of the transcendent? These questions were taken up by members of our project team. Following the initiative of Jelle Wiering,  we presented our insights from the Cultural Encounters […]

‘Sex education in the Netherlands is too one-sided’

b.e.bartelink@rug.nl / /

Cultural Encounters Team Member Jelle Wiering will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 8 September. His PhD thesis analyses sexuality education in The Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the subjects of religion and sexuality are often considered to be incompatible. PhD student Jelle Wiering is contesting the tendency to automatically assign the […]

Pentecostalism and the Coronavirus: “Wash Your Hands and Be Washed in the Blood of the Lamb”

k.e.knibbe@rug.nl / / /

How do Pentecostal churches deal with the restrictions put in place to ‘flatten the curve’ of the coronavirus infection rates, what is their take on the pandemic and how does this relate to the public health and other concerns that the pandemic raises? An analysis of the sermon of the leader of the Redeemed Christian […]

Blog post: Sexual well-being in the context of religious and cultural diversity

   Which assumptions and stereotypes around religion and migration influence sexual health care for (African) migrants in the Netherlands? In this blogpost Brenda Bartelink and Kim Knibbe investigate health disparities in the Netherlands against the background of approaches to religious and cultural diversity. A girl comes home and asks her mother: “What is sex?” Her […]