dr. V. (Victor) Toom
- Role
- Research fellow
In September 2020, dr. Victor Toom joined the WRR’s scientific staff as a research fellow. He will be working on the WRR Climate Policy project. In 2019 and 2020, dr. Toom worked as scientific secretary to the Health Council of the Netherlands on an advisory report into the permissibility of new forms of funeral arrangements. He previously worked at universities in Germany (2016-2018) and the UK (2010-2015). In recent years, dr. Toom has carried out research funded by the European Parliament (2018), the European Union (Marie Curie, 2016-1018), the Leverhume Trust (Early Career Research Fellow, 2012-2015) and the Nuffield Foundation (Social Science Small Grant, 2011-2012). He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Amsterdam, New York University and the National University of Singapore.
Doctoral research and publication
In 2010, Victor Toom obtained his doctorate with a dissertation entitled Dragers van waarheid [Carriers of Truth] (Kluwer, 2011): a social-scientific analysis of the development of forensic DNA research in the Netherlands. His more recent work is partly ethnographic and deals with victim identification and the role played by family members in this process, most notably in connection with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and the 1995 Srebrenica genocide during the Yugoslav Wars.
Dr. Toom’s work has been published in social scientific, legal and forensic journals. His recent publications include:
- Toom, V., Ontologically dirty knots: the production of numbers after the Srebrenica genocide, 2020. Security Dialogue 51(4):358-376, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0967010620902008.
- M'charek, A., V. Toom and L. de Jong, The Trouble with Race in Forensic Identification. 2020. Science, Technology and Human Values 45(5): 804-828, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0162243919899467.
- Toom, V., R. Granja and A. Ludwig. “The Prüm Decisions and the cross-border exchange and comparison of forensic DNA data: reviewing its utility a decade on”. 2019. Forensic Science International: Genetics 41(July):50-57, https://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(19)30068-7/fulltext.
- Toom, V., G. Mirto, K. Horsti, S. Robins, P. Prickett, and D.R. Verduzco. 2019 “Mourning unidentified migrants.” In: T. Spijkerboer, P. Cuttitta and T. Last (eds.) in: Border deaths and migrant policies: state and non-state approaches. Amsterdam University Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvt1sgz6.
- Toom, V. 2018. “Finding Closure, Continuing Bonds, and Codentification After the 9/11 Attacks.” Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness 37(4):267–79, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2017.1337118.
- Toom, V. 2018. “Cross-border exchange and comparison of forensic DNA data in the context of the Prüm Decision.” LIBE Committee, Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs. Brussels: European Parliament, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/604971/IPOL_STU(2018)604971_EN.pdf.
- Toom, V. 2016 “Whose body is it? Technolegal materialization of victims’ bodies and remains after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.” Science, Technology and Human Values, 41: 686-708, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0162243915624145.