Annick de Witt

Director Worldview Journeys Foundation | Initiator Generative Dialogue Lab, Utrecht University | Scholar-practitioner for transformative change

Utrecht Area

About

I'm a worldview researcher, author, and educator. I'm affiliated with Utrecht University, where I lead the Generative Dialogue Lab. I'm also the founding director of Worldview Journeys, a non-profit organization that builds tools and program to enhance our individual and collective 'worldview-awareness'. Some significant recent work includes an essay entitled 'Toxic Polarization is Killing Us' (2025). See: https://annickdewitt.substack.com/p/toxic-polarization-is-killing-us. The foundation for much of my work on worldviews can be found in a peer-reviewed publication in Environmental Science and Policy in 2016: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901116301794. This work also created the foundation for the Worldview Test that has now been taken by more than 80.000 people: https://wvtest.com/responses/5b9vx2/intro More than a decade ago I completed my doctoral dissertation on worldviews and sustainable transformation (VU University, Amsterdam). My research has resulted in over a dozen academic, peer-reviewed publications as well as a new worldview-model and test, which are being applied in different settings globally, from research to education to transformation.

Experience

  • Utrecht University (8 yrs 7 mos)
    • Researcher & Educator
      Sep 2020 - Present · 5 yrs 10 mos

    • Researcher and author
      Dec 2017 - Present · 8 yrs 7 mos

      Adjunct assistant professor at Utrecht University. Author, consultant, change-maker for the cultural transformation towards sustainability.

  • Worldview Journeys (6 yrs 10 mos)
    • Founding Director
      Jan 2020 - Present · 6 yrs 6 mos

    • Founder
      Sep 2019 - Present · 6 yrs 10 mos

      Worldview Journeys is an interactive platform offering transformative, science-based learning tools and programs that bring awareness to our worldviews ~ the ‘big stories’ through which humans make sense of their experience and world. Our programs can be used online and live, by individuals and with groups.

  • Board member at The NatureCollege
    Sep 2008 - Jan 2020 · 11 yrs 5 mos

    The NatureCollege is a Dutch organization founded by Princess Irene, based on the simple yet profound truth that addressing our sustainability-issues demands an interior transformation (a transformation in our values, culture, worldview, and consciousness) as much as it demands an exterior transformation (a transformation of our politics, economies, institutions, and behaviors).

  • Postdoctoral research fellow at TU Delft
    Feb 2012 - Nov 2015 · 3 yrs 10 mos

    Annick was a post-doctoral research fellow at the section Biotechnology and Society, at Delft University of Technology, for a number of years. In her research, she explored the complex, societal debate concerning the emerging ‘bio-economy,’ with the aim of generating insight in the underlying worldviews of both stakeholders and the larger public, and formulating policy-advice. She also developed and taught courses in 'Biotechnology and Society' in which life science students were stimulated to grapple with the complex societal and ethical implications of newly emerging biotechnologies.

  • Ph.D. Researcher 'worldviews and sustainable development' at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
    Jan 2008 - Jul 2012 · 4 yrs 7 mos

    Annick was a Ph.D. researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) from 2008 to 2012. In her work she explored the relationship between ‘worldviews’ (or: ‘philosophies of life’) and the ways these relate to goals and issues of sustainable development, including social-cultural change, individual environmental behaviour and policy attempts to influence these. Annick has an interdisciplinary background in the social and policy dimensions of the environmental sciences, with a focus on environmental philosophy, psychology and sociology.