Willemijn Rinnooy Kan has been working as a PhD candidate at the UvA since 2013. Previously she completed a BSc in Politics (UvA), an MA in Religious Studies (Leiden University) and an MSc in Sociology (VU Amsterdam). In both her master theses she reflected on interpretations of 'citizenship': the first one reflecting on the role of religion in citizenship education and the second one analyzing the different interpretations of 'active citizenship' by three political parties in the Netherlands.

Her current research project is part of a larger project 'Understanding the Effects of Schools on Citizenship'. The focus of her project is on the implications and limitations of schools as practice grounds for citizenship, using a mixed methods design. In her research she uses the notion of 'unintentional citizenship education' to shed light on the many ways in which adolescents are presented with opportunities for citizenship development within the school context, often outside of the realm of consciously developed practices for citizenship education.