Josephien van Kessel

Josephien van Kessel finished her studies in Russian language and literature and in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam in 1991. She worked as a freelance interpreter and language teacher, and cooperated in the VOF Russia Experts until 1999. Then she started working as project coordinator for the IECS, first for ‘Prospekt 2002’ and later for its successor ‘Prospekt Plus’, which were both exchange programs for East-European theologians and philosophers from the former Soviet Union. After the end of Prospekt Plus in 2005, she became librarian of the Institute.

In 2005 she started her PhD studies in Russian religious philosophy at Radboud University, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies under the supervision of prof. emeritus dr. Machiel Karskens and professor dr. Evert van der Zweerde. She defended her dissertation with the title: Sophiology and Modern Society. Sergei Bulgakov’s conceptualization of an alternative modern society on 13 March 2020.

In 2011 she replaced the former office manager of IvOC, Marijke Smits, and included the financial management of IECS in the task of office management. Simultaneously, she was a teacher of Academic Skills and mentor for first year students at the Faculty of Management Studies. Since 2020 she cooperates with Alfons Bruening in the IECS course Russian Religious Philosophy in the Silver Age.

Josephien lives in Amsterdam with her husband and three children.

Discover more about Josephien's background and experience via her CV (pdf, 165 kB).