Bastiaan D. van der Velden, (b. 1970), studied law at Maastricht University and earned his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2004 with a dissertation on the history of the Frisian language as an official language. He served as an Associate Professor at the University of the Netherlands Antilles in Curaçao and, since 2007, has advised the Island of Bonaire and NGOs on language policy for the protection of Papiamentu. Bastiaan D. van der Velden is currently a researcher at the Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice, Italy.