Year 4 - Edition 1 | August 2013

Welcome, Class of 2016!

This fall we welcome 239 new degree students, 68%

female and 32% male. 52% are Dutch nationals, 9% have

both a Dutch and a non-Dutch passport, and 39% have

foreign nationalities. We also welcome 42 foreign exchange

students, 60% female and 40% male. The United States is

well represented, making up 38% of exchange students.

In the spotlight

This fall we welcome dr. Sandra Ponzanesi as new head of

the Humanities department to the UCU community. Sandra

has her roots in Italy, but in true UCU spirit, she has travelled

all over the world, for both study and work.

Can you tell us about your background?

‘I did my undergraduate studies in Bologna, during and after

which I spent time in the United Kingdom as well. Then I

did my PhD at Utrecht University, in comparative literature

and gender studies. I have worked at the universities of

Amsterdam and Groningen, and I have spent time at the

University of California as visiting professor. Gender studies is

a very interdisciplinary field, and my major track or expertise is

postcolonial critique, which I combine with other disciplines,

from literature and history to media and cinema.’

You will divide your time between UCU and the faculty

of Humanities. What kind of research are you involved

in?

‘I am involved in different research projects, conducted

individually or in international teams. One NWO project was

on literary prizes – how postcolonial writers from the nineties

onwards have been getting recognition on an exponential

scale. Why and how people like Salman Rushdie, for example,

have become so visible and awarded, as opposed to other

postcolonial writers. I am currently completing a book on

the postcolonial cultural industry which analyzes how the

postcolonial field interacts with commercial enterprises such

as the publishing, film or music industries.

My last book was on postcolonial cinema. Cinema

studies has its own tradition, whereas postcolonial theory

comes from literary studies. They don’t have the same

language, but they have very similar problems, so how do

you use the visual to discuss the theoretical and the other

way around?

I am also conducting an international project on

Postcolonial Europe in which the history, representations and

relations of Europe to the rest of the world are addressed.

Another project I’m involved in, the High Potential,

concerns the behavior of migrant youth - Turkish- and

Moroccan-Dutch - on the internet. Interestingly they use

internet more intensively than their Dutch counterparts, and

there’s also a difference in attachments to brands and other

preferences. They also use it to escape parental surveillance,

especially girls, and find support online. But they also teach

their parents to become more able online – they become the

educator.

Ultimately, is it helping integration, or creating

segregation in a different space?

‘This is the big question, of course. Both ways, I would say.

Internet magnifies things. Integration, but also segregation.

Radicalization online happens faster, for example, but also

socialization and the establishment of diasporic connections.’

Will you also be teaching here?

‘I taught a course on gothic literature at UCU, a long

time ago. Or, well, officially it was about literature, but I

integrated different art practices such as exhibitions, movies,

fashion and music, combining literary, gender, media and

postcolonial approaches. In the future I hope to develop a

new course which can connect to different tracks. It’s nice

to have this new position, coming from such a multi- and

interdisciplinary environment. At the faculty of Humanities,

in the gender program many teachers and students come

from different countries so we teach in English anyway. It’s a

very similar kind of microcosm.’

newsletter

Personnel

Floris van der Burg will replace Jan van Ophuijsen as

philosophy Fellow, and Matthijs de Blois will replace Fred

Tijana Zakula receives PhD in art history

On July 4th, 2013, tutor and instructor Tijana Zakula received

her PhD in art history. In her dissertation ‘Reforming Dutch art:

Gerard de Lairesse on beauty, morals and class’ she presents

the Dutch master who turned blind as a reformer of Dutch

painting. For more information about Tijana’s dissertation,

see www.uu.nl/ucu.

From the Management

UCU’s third lustrum

On September 6 UCU celebrates 15 years of existence. For

more information about the lustrum, see intranet.ucu.uu.nl /

College Hall / Newsletter, or www.uu.nl/ucu.

RiC: the new ASAP

This semester, all incoming students will be taking a brand-

new course called ‘Research in Context’. Since April this year,

Alexis Aronowitz, Jocelyn Ballantyne, Bas Defize, Guus de

Krom, Annemieke Meijer (coord.) and Alastair Reed, who

will each be taking responsibility for either one or two of

the eight groups of students, have been meeting regularly

to develop the content. While each individual teacher will, of

course, add his or her own accents, all students will follow

basically the same program, including a number of guest

lectures from experts who will address the whole cohort

together. The course provides students with an introduction

to research and writing in Humanities, Social Sciences and

Sciences. The course calendar consists of two interrelated

strands: one based on a variety of readings and visual

materials about the theory and practice of doing research in

the three cultures, the other offering a practical toolkit for

tackling research and writing assignments in UCU courses

(and beyond).

Soons as law Fellow. Jocelyn Ballantyne

has been appointed Teaching Fellow

for two academic years. Jocelyn will

investigate the quality of tutorial

systems, focusing mostly on UCU,

but in concordance with the Utrecht

University BaMa 3.0 policy which

stresses the importance of tutorial

support for effective studying.

Furthermore Anneke Kooijman has been appointed at UCU

as psychology instructor. And lastly, tutors Martin Zebracki

and Anthony England have left the college.

Teacher of the year

The teacher of the year award 2012 - 2013 has been won

by Patricia Post-Nievelstein, tutor and biology instructor.

Congratulations Patricia!

Campus life

Shakespeare play

As of Monday August 19, a group of 11 students have been

working full-time on this year’s Shakespeare production, The

Tempest. The Tempest is the last play Shakespeare wrote, and

it’s both mythological and contemporary at the same time. The

play is more open to interpretation than his previous work,

and UCU’s adaptation will have a strong musical emphasis,

for which Tjitze Vogel will be responsible. This year’s guest

director is Madeleine Blackwell, from Sydney, Australia. She

is a filmmaker, screenwriter and theater director who works

at the University of New South Wales. In 2004 and 2005

Madeleine directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and King

Lear at UCU. The performances will take place in the last

week of September, in the Beach Party Area.

Matthijs de Blois

Year 4 - Edition 1 | August 2013