This is where l write some gently reflective text about how lucky I am to do this work in an uncertain media landscape, and how it does my soul good to take more photos in addition to writing (assigning, proofreading and translating) oodles of words. All of that is true, and I am crazy grateful for getting to do what I love. But I'm just eager to let my favourite words and images from the past year speak for themselves right now.
Here are a couple of articles whose words I am very proud of:
Academic discrimination: Professorship at the RUG is much whiter and male-dominated than Dutch society at large. Can – and should – the university do better?
Children's Ombudsman: RUG professor Margrite Kalverboer was named Children’s Ombudsman of the Netherlands this spring. In her new role, she will continue to work on behalf of children in general and young asylum seekers in particular.
Below are photos and articles that I am equally proud of.
Academic discrimination: Professorship at the RUG is much whiter and male-dominated than Dutch society at large. Can – and should – the university do better?
Children's Ombudsman: RUG professor Margrite Kalverboer was named Children’s Ombudsman of the Netherlands this spring. In her new role, she will continue to work on behalf of children in general and young asylum seekers in particular.
Below are photos and articles that I am equally proud of.
One year with SSH: SSH has been responsible for providing housing for internationals for over a year. The company successfully opened two new properties in that time – Frascati and Hoendiep – but their plans to improve the heavily criticised housing situation for internationals have faced several challenges in the past 12 months, and many residents have yet to see any difference.
Friending Jessica: Jessica Winters, the outgoing head of the RUG’s marketing department, has been the brains and heart behind how the university presents itself to the outside world for eight years. ‘I love this university, all the good things and bad things.’
Academic Friesland: The RUG/Campus Fryslân is taking shape, and the ties with the Frisian knowledge institutes Dairy Campus, Wetsus, Tresoar, and the Fryske Akademy are being strengthened. But what those institutes actually do and what they can offer students is not clear to everyone. (text by Renee Moezelaar)
'So much science': David Reitze, executive director of LIGO, became famous as the ‘we did it’ guy from the press conference heard around the world announcing the detection of gravitational waves in February. The event has been deemed Noble prize-worthy. But Reitze says that with a team of a thousand researchers, ‘a Nobel prize for this would be great, but who do you give it to?’
RUG under construction: From Zernike to the Ebbinge quarter, university-related construction projects are becoming a reality. The Energy Academy Europe is joining the Linneausborg, Bernoulliborg and Zernikeborg at the Zernike campus, and the Proton Therapy Centre and The Student Hotel are changing the skyline at UMCG and the Ciboga terrain. The UK visited the construction sites over the past few months to get a sneak peek at the up-and-coming buildings.
Bells for Bowie: Following the iconic musician's death, Groningen's carillon player Auke de Boer used the bells in the Academy Tower to honour David Bowie’s music.
Groningen: gay friendly?: Ganymedes, the student association for gay, bi- and transsexual students, made its debut at the Amsterdam Gay Pride canal parade in 2015. But what is it like to be LGBT and a student in Groningen?
A transgender student's story: She has always known that she was female, even though she was born male. But it wasn’t until Meena*, a 28-year-old student at the RUG, arrived in the Netherlands in 2008 that she found the words to describe who she was. ‘I finally looked through the looking glass.’
Although the students interviewed for these stories, which were published last year, insisted that Groningen had always felt safe to them, the city was also the site of a shockingly violent attack against a lesbian couple outside one of the few gay bars in April. The city responded by organising a march for Love and Respect, which was attended by hundreds of citizens. Many of the same people walked a similar route in recent weeks to remember the LGBT men and women killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
A transgender student's story: She has always known that she was female, even though she was born male. But it wasn’t until Meena*, a 28-year-old student at the RUG, arrived in the Netherlands in 2008 that she found the words to describe who she was. ‘I finally looked through the looking glass.’
Although the students interviewed for these stories, which were published last year, insisted that Groningen had always felt safe to them, the city was also the site of a shockingly violent attack against a lesbian couple outside one of the few gay bars in April. The city responded by organising a march for Love and Respect, which was attended by hundreds of citizens. Many of the same people walked a similar route in recent weeks to remember the LGBT men and women killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
It has also been a year of violence that has shaken European cities awake - in a year of ongoing violence across the world - and Groningen honoured the victims of the attacks in Paris and Brussels by illuminating local landmarks.
This colourful gallery is from the Night of Art & Science 2016. There were concerts, a planetarium, mind melding with other species, and drag queens.
And here are some photos that were taken throughout the year at moments that were visual enough to stand on their own.
The picture above is of the king of the Netherlands, Willem Alexander, getting super pumped up about plugging in two cables that do nothing.
Bonus: my favourite shots from the @ukrant instagram feed (that were taken by me. What an exercise in ego all of this is, huh?)
