(Femke) F. Vandenberg

Femke Vandenberg is a PhD candidate and lecturer in the Department of Arts and Culture Studies at Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

Her PhD research into the aesthetic dispositions of cultural audiences is part of the Erasmus Initiative Vital Cities and Citizens. Investigating the consumption of popular music in Rotterdam, she focuses on the members of society who occupy the lower strata of the class structure.

Femke studied at the Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork, Ireland, obtaining a Bachelors Degree (cum laude) in Fine Art. In 2015, after being a practising artist for a year, she decided she wanted to further her education enrolling in a Pre-Masters in Arts, Culture and Society at the Erasmus University. During this year she discovered her love for sociology and successfully progressed on to the Masters program. She graduated in 2017 with her thesis titled: ‘”Any Irish MCs out there?” Negotiating class, masculinity, and ethnicity in the virtual Irish rap scene’. In her thesis, she examined the role of boundary work in the process of identity construction for Irish working-class youths.