Sophie Derkzen is an Amsterdam-based journalist and moderator who spent various phases of her life in Germany and has expertise in international politics.
She started her career in Amsterdam as a journalist focusing on domestic politics and socio-economic issues. From 2009 until 2014 she worked as a staff reporter for the Dutch opinion magazine Vrij Nederland.
In 2013, she was nominated to join the International Journalist Program. For several months, she worked as guest reporter and researcher for Die Zeit, the well-known weekly newspaper in Hamburg, and its younger online portal Zeit Online in Berlin. In 2014, she was nominated to join the leadership development program of the German Marshall Fund.
Due to an ongoing fascination for German politics and media, in 2015 she decided to exchange her position as reporter for a new role of Policy Officer at the Political Department at the Dutch Embassy in Berlin. She covered German internal politics and social affairs and gained profound knowledge of international relations and politics in the EU.
In 2018 she returned to Amsterdam for family reasons. She is currently developing new journalistic projects (incl. about Germany) and works as a moderator focusing on international politics and culture. That said, she is always on the lookout for opportunities to use her international expertise and keep Dutch-German relations at the core of her activities.
Sophie holds two Master’s degrees from the University of Leiden: ‘History of Political Debate’ (cum laude) and ‘Journalism and New Media’. From 2006 until 2008 she studied Acting at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. She followed an academic semester in French Language and Culture at the University of Paris IV Sorbonne.
As a writing editor with a background in history and theatre, she is fascinated by storytelling and the power of words. In addition to Dutch, her mother tongue, Sophie is fluent in English, German and French.
For more information, please send an email to info@sophiederkzen.nl