Biography
Yosha Wijngaarden is Assistant Professor of Media and Creative Industries in the Media and Communication Department at ÃÀÅ®¸£ÀûµçÓ°ÔºÎçÒ¹. Her research examines work, innovation, and inequalities in the creative industries, focusing on how work practices, earnings, and technological developments shape creativity and livelihoods.
She currently leads the NWO-funded OC-XS project on musicians’ adaptation to AI, collaborating with Thunderboom Records. The project investigates how musicians engage with AI tools during real-time jam sessions and co-creative processes, exploring how they adapt, make sense of, and reshape their creative practices in response to new technologies.
Yosha led the NWO-KIEM project MATCH: Matching Art and TeCH for more inclusive cultural policy (with Carolina Dalla Chiesa and Ellen Loots), which examined how public and private matchfunding can best support freelancers and SMEs, and developed a practical for funding partners. She has collaborated on other projects funded by Instituut Gak, Platform Ellae, and the European Commission, investigating earnings, resilience, and funding practices in the creative industries.
Besides her work on the creative industries, Yosha co-authored the book A Sociology of Awkwardness (with Pauwke Berkers), the first comprehensive sociological analysis of awkwardness. The book shows how discomfort arises from social interactions rather than individual failings and explores how people navigate and manage awkward situations in daily life.
Yosha completed her PhD on innovation in the creative industries at ÃÀÅ®¸£ÀûµçÓ°ÔºÎçÒ¹, receiving the Boekman/NWO Dissertation Award and NeFCA Dissertation Award, and has held positions at Radboud University and ESHCC Arts and Culture Studies.
She supervises PhD students researching creative industries, media, and music, and teaches a range of courses on creative industries, sociology, media, and research methods. Yosha serves as academic coordinator of the MA Media and Creative Industries and is co-lead of the ERMeCHS research cluster Music, Industry, Culture, Society (MICS), and has collaborated with cultural organizations, funding bodies, and industry partners such as Voordekunst and BAM! Popauteurs to connect research, teaching, and practice.
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication
- wijngaarden@eshcc.eur.nl
More information
Work
- Yosha Wijngaarden, Pauwke Berkers, Frank Kimenai & Rick Everts (2025) - - Cultural Trends, 34 (5), 617-632 - doi: -
- Yosha Wijngaarden, Erik Hitters & Pawan Bhansing (2020) - - Geoforum, 109, 86-94 - doi: -
- Yosha Wijngaarden & Brian J. Hracs (2024) - - Geoforum, 148 - doi: -
- Thomas Calkins III, Yosha Wijngaarden, Pauwke Berkers & Dylan Thompson (2026) - What musicians do all day? Results from the artist monitor 2025. (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Ellen Loots, Yosha Wijngaarden & Carolina Dalla Chiesa (2024) - Between a rock and a hard place: how cultural and creative entrepreneurs negotiate distinctiveness in grant acquisition (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Ellen Loots, Yosha Wijngaarden & Carolina Dalla Chiesa (2024) - Between a Rock and a Hard Place. How artists negotiate distinctiveness in grant proposals (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Ellen Loots, Carolina Dalla Chiesa & Yosha Wijngaarden (2024) - Mixing a healthy blend? Trends in collaborative funding and financing (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Thomas Calkins III, Baiyi Liu, Nick Polak, Pauwke Berkers & Yosha Wijngaarden (2024) - What Music Managers Do All Day. (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Ellen Loots, Kaja Piecyk & Yosha Wijngaarden (2023) - At the juncture of funding, policy, and technology: match-funding of arts and culture through crowdfunding platforms (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Academic - Yosha Wijngaarden (2023) - Basic Income, a panacea for all ills? How creative workers perceive participating in an experiment with basic income (Speaker)
Activity: Invited talk › Professional - Yosha Wijngaarden, Ellen Loots & Wike Been (2022) - De arbeidsmarkt in culturele en creatieve sectoren in tijden van Covid-19: Trends en cijfers over de eerste periode (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Professional - Carolina Dalla Chiesa, Lisanne Brouwer, Yosha Wijngaarden & Ellen Loots (2022) - Crowdfunding for independent musicians (Organiser)
Activity: Organising and contributing to an event › Professional - Yosha Wijngaarden (2022) - Digital minds: on how to anticipate on the promises and speculations of Web3 (Speaker)
Activity: Oral presentation › Professional
- Yosha Wijngaarden (2022) - 5th Boekman Dissertation Award
- Yosha Wijngaarden (2021) - Netherlands Flanders Communication Association (NeFCA) Dissertation Award
Ministerie van OCW
- Start date approval
- March 2026
- End date approval
- December 2026
- Place
- DEN HAAG
- Description
- Science Fellow AI
- Year Level
- BA-1, Pre-master, Pre-master, Pre-master, Pre-master
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CM1013
- Year Level
- MA, MA, MA, MA, MA
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CM5050
- Level
- MA-1
- Year Level
- MA-1
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CS5002
- Level
- MA-1
- Year Level
- MA-1
- Year
- 2025
- Course Code
- CS5008
