The dean Mark Rutgers speaks at penultimate session of flash campaign
After the new government announced its plans to cut expenditure on academic education, the Faculty of Humanities launched the flash campaign ‘Stop the Catastrophic Cuts to Universities!’. Now academics across the university have been explaining why their discipline is needed.
Participating academics recorded a short video or gave a lunch talk, live in the BplusC public library. The dean, Mark Rutgers, was also there on the penultimate day of the campaign. ‘The university’s slogan is “Discover the world at Leiden University”,’ he said before one of the lunch talks. ‘This is especially true for the Faculty of Humanities. We are about language, culture, concepts and ethical questions relating to peace and security, for which we try to find answers. In essence, we are about what it means to be human, what “makes us tick”.’
‘And at the moment, this seems to be more valuable than ever, now that our society is facing greater challenges,’ continued Rutgers. ‘Environmental problems, healthcare and the rise of artificial intelligence are all themes where not only knowledge of technology is required, but also knowledge of how people use this technology is very important. We educate our students to think abstractly, to analyse problems and then to situate them in the appropriate context. This is essential not just for our society, but for the future of the Netherlands.’
Lunch talks
The dean was speaking before the start of one of the flash campaign lunch talks. On this occasion, Flora Smit and Christoph Pieper spoke about their research. Smit is a PhD candidate, researching K-Pop and celebrity status, and Pieper is conducting research on the influence of speeches from the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
You can read more about the flash campaign and also watch the videos here.
