prof. dr. H.H.A. van den Brink (Bert)

Before coming to Radboud University as Decaan and full professor in July 2025, I worked at Utrecht University, first as a Ph.D. student (1993-1997), and then as assistant, associate, and full professor (2009), University College Roosevelt (as Dean, 2016-2022), and at Tilburg University (as a postdoc researcher, 1998-2002).

In the course of my career, I have published on liberalism, recognition theory, and democratic theory, including the monograph The Tragedy of Liberalism and the edited volume Recognition and Power (with David Owen), and a good number of articles and edited volumes. I have supervised Ph.D. candidates in social and political philosophy, regularly in interdisciplinary and international contexts. I have served on assessment committees across Europe and contributed to editorial boards of academic journals and publishers.

I have developed and taught a broad range of courses in political and social philosophy, ethics, and across the liberal arts at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In governance positions, I have been involved in processes of curriculum innovation at both bachelor and master's levels.

My teaching aims to foster critical engagement with contemporary political, social and environmental issues and the philosophical and social theoretical traditions that can help us understand them better.

My academic work has consistently intersected with public discourse, both in academic research on societal pluralism and political rhetoric and in op-eds. I have worked in inter- and transdisciplinary contexts in a European University Alliance (CHARM-EU, from UU) and the Delta Climate Center in Vlissingen.