Vici is one of the largest scientific grants for individuals in the Netherlands and targets advanced researchers. The funding enables laureates to develop innovative lines of research and set up their own research groups.

New voices in the political debate

In her research project Audible Democracy: How 'Being Heard' Became Political in Modern Europe, Hoegaerts will investigate the evolving ways people have voiced political opinions across Europe, from the early 1800s to today.

Most citizens vote in silence, but nevertheless care about being ‘heard’. The project will particularly focus on how newcomers to political debate – workers, women, radicals - managed to raise their voice, and how they sometimes managed to change the way we do politics in modern democracies.

About Josephine Hoegaerts

Josephine Hoegaerts previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and KU Leuven, among other places, and was (guest) lecturer at the University of Cambridge, University of the Aegean, Birkbeck College and the Leipzig Conservatory. From 2017 to 2022, she was affiliated with the University of Helsinki as Associate Professor of European Studies. 

Since 2023, Hoegaerts has been professor of Modern European Culture after 1800 at the University of Amsterdam. In 2025, she published the book Speaking, Stammering, Singing, Shouting, about how the voice took on new meaning from the 19th century onwards.