Booklaunch
Chasing Events
- Thijs Dooremalen
- Date
- Thursday 25 June 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- Spanish stairs
On 25 June, Thijs van Dooremalen (Assistant Professor at ISGA) will launch his book Chasing Events. The program consists of a short presentation by Thijs, followed by a panel discussion with Professor Sarah de Lange (Institute of Political Science, Leiden University) and journalist of the newspaper De Volkskrant Peter Giesen. Afterwards, there will be room for Q&A.
About the book
This book introduces a novel research approach to capture event effects: ‘chasing’ the direct associations actors make with them. Thijs van Dooremalen applies this approach to the meaning-making of 9/11 and a variety of other cases — the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Madrid train and Charlie Hebdo attacks, the Arab Spring, the first Trump election, and COVID — across the American, French, and Dutch public spheres. Combining computational and qualitative text analyses, he ‘chases’ these events from 2001 to 2021. This results in key lessons on under which conditions events evoke social change, how foreign cases spark domestic debates, and their long-term, path-dependent ‘lives’.
Click here for more information about the book.
Speakers
Thijs van Dooremalen
Thijs van Dooremalen is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. He previously worked at the University of Amsterdam, KU Leuven, and Harvard University. Chasing Events is his first book.
Sarah de Lange
Sarah de Lange is a Professor of Dutch Politics at Leiden University and an affiliated researcher at Science Po in Paris. Her research focuses on new social and political divisions, the associated rise of the far right, and the impact of these parties on party systems, policymaking, and the functioning of democracy.
Peter Giesen
Peter Giesen works as a journalist for the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. He has had many different roles there, among others, being chief of the op eds section during the aftermath of 9/11 and French correspondent during the time of the Charlie Hebo, Bataclan, and Nice attacks. He is currently German correspondent.
Wouter Jong (moderator)
Wouter Jong (moderator) is a crisis management and crisis communication consultant. He has been a lecturer in Crisis Communication at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University since 2018.