I grew up in Zevenaar, the Netherlands, completed my bachelors in Nijmegen (2006), masters in Amsterdam (2008) and Phd at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2013). I also learned Arabic in Damascus (2004-5; 2006-7), Cairo (2007) and Tunis (2011) and was a visiting researcher at Princeton University in New Jersey, USA (spring 2013). From October 2013 until August 2014, I resided in Istanbul to learn Turkish. I subsequently held a three-year postdoc at the Department of Comparative Politics of the University of Bergen, Norway (2014-2017) and a three year lecturer position at the department of sociology at the University of Cambridge (2017-2020).
For all those wondering: “Teije” is pronounced as “tire” without the last “r” sound. And my first name is Teije Hidde, my surname is Donker. I am Dutch, the first name is Frysian.