Wander van Baalen is a PhD candidate at Codarts University for the Arts and a lecturer in the Humanities department at Erasmus University College. After completing his Bachelor’s degree, he looked for a program in which he could further pursue and develop his interest in the encounter between the arts and sciences. He was able to find that in the Media, Culture & Society program from which he graduated Cum Laude in the summer of 2015. His thesis Creating Space Together was awarded the Rotterdam Thesis Prize 2016.
Wander’s research is situated in the Rotterdam Arts & Sciences Lab (RASL). He studies the ways in which we can conceptualize and assess the quality of transdisciplinary education involving the arts. His research findings feed into larger RASL projects such as teacher development programs and RASL Compositions. Wander regards the RASL consortium as a more sustainable and socially robust approach towards education, knowledge production, and collaboration.