DRIFT Philosophy Festival // Between Dream and Deed
DRIFT 2026 – Between Dream and Deed
Date & Time: May 16, 2026, 19:00 – 03:00
Location: De Ceuvel
Tickets: various options available
DRIFT 2026 explores the space between dream and deed. Philosophers and thinkers examine metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and ethics to understand how ideas relate to reality. What truly stands between what we dream and what we do? Are dreams and deeds separate, or is their difference the very core? Together, we also reflect on the role of philosophy itself: between theory and practice, dreaminess and action.
Join us for an evening full of questions, explorations, and liminal experiences—so that nothing stands between your curiosity and participation!
TICKETSStandard ticket: €16.50
Student / CJP ticket: €11.50
SUPPORT DRIFT ticket: €22.50
PROGRAM
Herman Westerink (1968) is affiliated as endowed professor and associate professor at the Center for Contemporary European Philosophy, Radboud University Nijmegen. He is also director of the Titus Brandsma Institute. He has published numerous books and articles in the fields of psychoanalysis, philosophical anthropology, and philosophy of religion. Most recently, he published monographs on Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality (2019), and (together with Philippe Van Haute) on Freud’s theory of sexuality (2021) and his metaphysics of trauma (2022). A monograph on Freud’s Jenseits des Lustprinzips is forthcoming.
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Anna-Sofia Maurin is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). She specializes in analytic metaphysics (especially the metaphysics of properties) and metametaphysics (in particular explanation and justification in the context of metaphysics).
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Ingmar Heytze (1970, Utrecht) writes poetry for people who do not like poetry, often writes on commission, and regularly performs on radio and television. In 2000 he was the first house philosopher of the Centraal Museum, and from 2009 to 2011 the first official Poet Laureate of Utrecht. Eight years later he received the C.C.S. Crone Prize for his oeuvre and in 2016 the Maartenspenning of the city of Utrecht. As a columnist and essayist he has written for Onze Taal, Kijk, de Volkskrant, NRC, Trouw, and AD Utrechts Nieuwsblad. He regularly appears as house poet on the radio program Met het Oog op Morgen on Radio 1. Together with John Jansen van Galen, he creates the (more or less) monthly poetry podcast Camping de Vrijheid. Solo or with his band Asfaltfeeën, he has performed everywhere from student living rooms to the pop festival Lowlands and many stages in between, including seven editions of the Nacht van de Poëzie.
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Evelyn Wan is an artist-scholar and dramaturg. She is Assistant Professor in Media, Arts, and Society at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. Her research reflects on historical and contemporary emerging technologies through the lens of decolonial media studies and performance studies.
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Nikita Dhawan holds the Chair of Political Theory and History of Ideas at the Technical University of Dresden. Her research and teaching focus on global justice, human rights, democracy, and decolonization. In 2017 she received the Käthe Leichter Prize for outstanding achievements in women’s and gender studies and for supporting the women’s movement and advancing gender equality. Selected publications include: Impossible Speech: On the Politics of Silence and Violence (2007); Reimagining the State: Theoretical Challenges and Transformative Possibilities (ed., 2019); Rescuing the Enlightenment from the Europeans: Critical Theories of Decolonization (forthcoming, Duke University Press). In 2023 she was awarded the Gerda Henkel Visiting Professorship at Stanford University and the Thomas Mann Fellowship in Los Angeles.
María do Mar Castro Varela is Professor of Education and Social Work at the Alice Salomon Hochschule in Berlin, with a focus on gender studies. She holds degrees in Psychology and Education and a PhD in Political Science. Her current research focuses on ethics, protest, emancipation, and knowledge production.
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Ype de Boer is a philosopher and lecturer at Radboud University Nijmegen and endowed professor at North-West University in South Africa. His work explores relationships between ontology, ethics, and imagination.
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Mari Mikkola is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Her areas of expertise include feminist philosophy and social ontology.
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About THIS EDITION of the DRIFT FESTIVAL
“Between dream and deed / stand laws in the way and practical objections,” wrote Elsschot in ‘Marriage’. With this, he names the impotence that has taken hold of a misogynistic, exhausted man who cannot bring himself to murder his wife in order to realize his manic escape plan. But let us leave that bleak figure behind. The distance between ideas and reality is fundamental to our experience and reveals itself in all branches of philosophy. What stands between dream and deed?
DRIFT 2026 grapples with the questions Elsschot raises. We invite our speakers to descend into all the small in-between spaces they can find.
Finally, we invite our speakers to reflect on the place of philosophy itself: how do we as philosophers mediate between dream and deed?
We warmly invite you to join us on this liminal journey—so mark May 16, 2026 in your calendar.
DRIFT at De Ceuvel
On the grounds of a former shipyard in Amsterdam North, a dream is realized. Cultural hub De Ceuvel is a living vision of the future.
Walking along the winding jetties, surrounded by stranded houseboats and lush nature, you will feel a certain anticipation in the air—a silence filled with expectation.
TICKETSStandard ticket: €16.50
Student / CJP ticket: €11.50
SUPPORT DRIFT ticket: €22.50
