Yvon van der Pijl

Dr. ir. Yvon van der Pijl is an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, affiliated with the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Their research bridges anthropology, cultural studies, and collaborative ethnography, focusing on cross-cultural meanings of death, dying, and disposal, with fieldwork in Suriname and the Netherlands. They explore how end-of-life issues and mortuary practices generate societal change and belonging, including ecological grief and multispecies mourning.

• Research Areas: Death studies, Ritual creativity, Aging care, Caribbean postcolonial theory, Collaborative ethnography
• Projects: Mors Neerlandica (Dutch death styles), Art-Ecology-Death collaboration with Gouden Haas theater
• Affiliations: Member of Funeraire Academie, DONE network, former board member of Dutch Anthropological Association

Their recent publications (2016-2022) analyze multicultural funeral homes, transnational care regimes, and postcolonial sovereignty in the Dutch Caribbean. They received recognition for the 2014 NWO-funded project Imagining the Nation in the Classroom, which examined identity politics in Caribbean education. Van der Pijl also teaches courses on death studies, climate grief, and ethnographic methods, while contributing to training programs for funeral professionals through FuneQlass.