Joke J. Hermsen is a philosopher and a writer of novels and essays. She has read literature and philosophy in Amsterdam and Paris and has been associated with the Universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Tilburg as a lecturer and a researcher. She has published on the ideas of Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Levinas, Lou Andreas-Salomé, Ernst Bloch and Simone Weil, among others, and has also written novels and essays, including Stil de tijd and Kairos. In addition, she has contributed to various documentaries.