Six months to go until Leiden City of Science 2022: how are things?
In six months' time, Leiden City of Science 2022 will begin. Rob Zwijnenberg, chairman of the Faculty Steering Committee, talks about the plans.
Rob Zwijnenberg: 'Time flies and summer is just around the corner, but this also means that in six months' time, Leiden City of Science 2022 will officially begin. The Faculty of Humanities will contribute to this year with a significant number of interesting and strong projects.
At the moment, for example, a number of colleagues are organising walks in Leiden along places of historical, contemporary, political or cultural significance. Projects on bilingualism, photography and film in Leiden are being initiated. Attention is paid to journalism in Leiden and there are projects that bring art and science together. An important element of all of these projects is an interactive exchange with the citizens of Leiden. The projects show how knowledge related to the humanities is important for everyday life, but also for the great challenges of our time, and - no less important - for giving access to enriching and revealing art, culture and science. The projects seek a mutual exchange of knowledge and experience that have the ability to surprise and teach everyone. The humanities can only flourish and grow in close contact with society. This also makes the importance of our faculty clear: Leiden City of Science 2022 is a public platform for the humanities to showcase its social urgency and relevance.
Ongoing exchange with the city
Leiden City of Science 2022 is also an opportunity for our faculty to make the exchange with the city more sustainable: how can we achieve a lasting exchange with the city through education and research projects, even after 2022? We should use the momentum created in 2022 to consolidate our presence in the city for years to come. For Leiden 2022, we are collaborating with organisations that already have a strong connection with the city, such as Things that Talk, Leren met de Stad and the Leids Preventieakkoord. In the coming period, we want to deepen and expand these relations in the context of a sustainable presence in the city.
New student assistant
We are thus not only talking about a large number of our colleagues who are currently working with great enthusiasm to make Leiden City of Science 2022 a humanities success. As the faculty steering committee, we have certainly not been idle either. In fact, due to the increasing need for support we have recently expanded our team with a student assistant: Sanne van de Haar.
Sanne will help us, among other things, with the organisation and coordination of communication and all kinds of fun projects. She is also the contact person for all colleagues and students who come to us with proposals, for example for projects in which collaboration with other faculties is possible or in which a sustainable presence of the humanities in the city is promoted. We are open to all ideas and suggestions.
Do any good ideas come to mind this summer on how we can make this an even better year together as the Faculty of Humanities? Then contact us at: FGWleiden2022@hum.leidenuniv.nl. If you are curious about the general programme of Leiden2022, you can read more on www.leiden2022.nl.
The faculty steering committee Leiden City of Science 2022 consists of Kitty Zijlmans, Ariadne Schmidt, Marcel Belderbos, Christine Smittenaar and Rob Zwijnenberg.