By Mieke Pressley Every once in a while, I have to stop and stand in awe of all the incredible talent you can find at our university. People here are often so multi-talented, and furthermore, also so humble about it, that you cannot help but be impressed. It was with this talent in mind, that…
Do You Want to Earn Money for Participating in Democracy?
by Margje Camps I am not going to lie to you, this slogan sounds very appealing and more than a bit deceiving at the same time. Yet I must ensure you, this job advertisement could very well exist. In the last few weeks, a central theme in newspapers, television programmes, and on the internet has…
Suffragettes in Zeeland
By Judith Brouwer Whether its shooting the man who refuses to pay alimony, dressing up as a soldier to fight the French, or running for city council despite your party not believing in the involvement of women in politics; my favorite part of history has always been discovering individuals’ stories, such as these, in different…
World Speech Day on the 13th of March – Come join us!*
*free pizza & t-shirts included! By Vanessa Bade The academic and public sphere regularly emphasizes world citizenship. We should “think globally” , we should be “world citizens” that look beyond our own horizons. UCR´s Professor Burke explains to me; “Young people who have been privileged enough to have enjoyed a tertiary level of education –and…
The Hanoi Summit
by Jedidja van Boven On the 27thand 28thof February, the DPRK–USA Hanoi Summit Vietnam took place in the Vietnamese capital. Commonly known as the Hanoi Summit, the thoroughly documented meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump marks the second meeting in which the denuclearization of North Korea was on the agenda. Whereas the 2018 meeting…
Drag Queen Fairytales: A Media Phenomenon
by Jedidja van Boven Promoting reading through story time hour and introducing more inclusive programming in American public schools- how to combine the two? The answer is the phenomenon known as Drag Queen Story Hour, an initiative launched in San Francisco in 2015. It invites drag performers to read children’s books in local libraries and…
Iran: between Tradition and Modernity
by Andrea Undecimo ‘Pink mosque in Shiraz’ When I first told my parents and my friends that I was going to spend two weeks, alone, in Iran, the reactions I received spanned from honest worry for my mental health, to attempts to persuade me not to go, because the place was crowded by religious fundamentalists…
A ‘Reviewflection’ of Stukafest
By Liam McClain, Aron van Os and Mieke Pressley Another edition of the student-oriented culture festival Stukafest has come and gone. Once again, we were treated to a variety of artistic performances on a small, intimate level. Give-or-take a week after the festival seems like a perfect time to reflect on some of the acts…
UCR Backstories : Tales from Zimbabwe – with Sam Whitcomb
by Sam Whitcomb Story 1 “There was this guy who was – oh my gosh – he was horrible. He brought a tazer to school! There was this thing called ‘dress inspection’ in which you were told by a senior to go change into a specific uniform. You only had a certain amount of time,…
Feminer – a Chance to Get Inspired, Motivated and Get Started
By Lamba Tamana The last few decades, women have come a long way. From the first girls to be allowed to enrol in schools, to the first female presidents. Most of us have been enjoying our fair share of freedom without realising how lucky we are. However, life has not always been like this. Coming…
Navigating the Brexit-fog: An Insider’s Experience
by Jedidja van Boven & Charlotte Daemen Now that British Prime Minister Theresa May is working on a revised deal while attempting to make last-minute changes, Brexit has faded slightly from the spotlight in current world news. A new deal on various Brexit options needs to be finished by the end of the month as…
Stukafest Middelburg 2019: Cultural Performances in Our Own Rooms
By Mieke Pressley Two weeks of the semester have already passed by, and I don’t know about you, but, boy, it sure felt like a month to me. It was a slow start to the semester, struggling to get back into the rhythm of classes, readings, extracurriculars and the UCR social life. I, for one,…
Is Conscious Consumption Useless?
By Vanessa Bade If you know anything about me, you know I love to call myself an environmentalist and I take pride in the eco-friendly decisions I make on a daily. I always opt for oat milk and avoid fast fashion like it is the devil (which, indeed, it is). And I constantly lecture my…
#Pelosiclap: White-clad Women and the Shutdown
By Jedidja van Boven A Polar Vortex bringing a cold so extreme that it has claimed 21 lives, the crumbling of the benchmark INF treaty on missiles with Russia, and new aspiring presidential candidates left and right… With all these dramatic headlines coming our way from the United States, it’s easy to brush over the…
Death of the Colossus
By Alon Nudler Almost eight months have passed since I wrote my first article on what I saw as a lack of community at our university. Since then we have seen some real changes occur. Orientation week and moderation were added as ways to enforce academic obedience, the everchanging growth and decline of RASA societies continues,…
(Re)Integration into Student Life at UCR
By Hana Shamaa Watching the fields pass in a blur and rain drops slide down the spotted train window, realization dawns upon me. No longer will I have the freedom to spend time with friends at a cafe in downtown Cairo at any time of day, no longer will I be able to ask my…
The Beauty of Difference – II
By Andrea Undecimo Life in Middelburg is very different from that in Ho Chi Minh. Quite a banality, one could say. But what does it really mean to move from the noise and cheerfulness of the Asian city to the quietness and tidiness of Middelburg? What impacts does such a change have on one’s personality;…
How Can I Be a Good White Person?
By Amée Zoutberg Triggered already? Good. Personally, I do believe that in the Netherlands you do not need to be white in order to be Dutch. This might very well be one of the keys to our respective social success and cohesion as a society. From what I can tell, this same principle goes not…
The Road Away from Middelburg: A Travel Guide to Ljubljana
By Natalie Burduli The winter break is in full swing, and most of the worn-out students have left Middelburg for a quick break from the reality of deadlines and morning classes. Every other morning, with a cup of tea in one hand and my phone in the other, I open my Instagram feed and discover…
I AM (not) A FRAUD
By Mieke Pressley This past semester I tackled a third year’s biggest obstacle in the road to graduation: writing my bachelor thesis. During this (very long) process of crafting the thesis, I found the same question, or some variation on the theme, lingering in the little corner of my mind. At first, a small…