Study Trip Funding & Call for Applications Mini Interviews

Interested in Study Abroad? Need to find extra funding? LUF might be able to help!

The Leiden University Funds (LUF) is designed to fund students at all levels in order to help them pursue their academic goals.
The LISF is a fund set up specifically for students who are planning a study trip abroad. They offer up to 2,000 euro for one trip.
Students who want to apply must fill out the application form (in the LUF link below), and have a clear idea of exactly what/where they want to study abroad, how this trip fits into their academic goals, and why they deserve to be funded in the first place.
There are two more deadlines in 2011:

Monday, October 10
Monday, November 14

There will be more deadlines starting again in February 2012. However, if you are a student who has a strong GPA and CV and already has a firm idea of where and what you would like to study abroad, you should not hesitate to apply this fall.

For more information please check:
http://www.luf.nl/default.asp?paginaID=199

For those of you interested in applying, please
1. go through the LUF website (listed above) and double check the application form/requirements
2. speak to your tutor about your application for the LISF--the application requires a recommendation from your 'study co-ordinator' --your tutor would be the best person to write such a recommendation.
3. contact the Research Centre--we would be only too happy to help you compile your application and make sure it gets off to the LUF committee in time.

Good luck!

II. ACADEMIC SOUNDBYTES: CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR MINI-INTERVIEWS

As announced earlier, the LUCRC would like to have students interview (for 5-10 mins) our guest speakers and put the interviews up on our blog. Students are urged to check the LUCRC website for mini-bios of our confirmed speakers for this semester. When you have chosen a speaker who you are interested in, please write to us, in 100 words or less, a question or the motivation behind why you would be the right student to choose. We will notify you a week before the interview--except in the case of Karlijn van der Voort, who is speaking on Wednesday (we apologize for the short notice). If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at the LUCRC.

Raymond Geuss opens Visiting Speaker Series 2011/2012

Dear students and staff,

The LUC Research Centre is delighted to start its new season of visiting speakers on 16 September with the eminent Raymond Geuss, Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, who is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy. This lecture is the second in our series, ‘Philosophy in the World,’ which was inaugurated by Simon Blackburn in March 2011.
Professor Geuss will talk about 'The Authority of Democracy and Human Rights'.
For more details please go to LUCRC's 'events' page and download the poster for this exciting lecture there.

Because of the special nature of this event, it will be held in our Stichthage building, on the first floor of the The Hague Central Station main hall from 19.00 hrs onwards.

Registration is recommended: events@lucresearch.nl

I hope to see many of you there!

Esther
(LUCRC research officer)

How a lie becomes the truth

Maybe some of you remember the piece Jules has written a couple of weeks ago on George Orwell’s dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. If you enjoyed it - which I certainly did – this is your lucky day. That same novel also drew my attention, yet for a different reason. I have not been fascinated by the writer’s possible intention to ensure that we remember the importance of personal freedom and privacy, but by the possible intention which I picked up by reading it: ensuring that we are aware of our own truth, and the freedom to express it, to a certain extent. I will elaborate on this intention further below, but first I want to fresh up your mind by giving a short summary of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Summary

The novel is set in an alternate reality 20th century London, which is now called Airstrip One. Together with the America’s, Australia, the rest of Great Britain and several other parts of the world, it is part of the greater nation Oceania. This continent is ruled by The Party, an ultra-authoritarian government led by the mysterious Big Brother. The Party regulates and monitors everything in the population’s daily life; work, marriage, upbringing, etc. Even the history and language of the nation are under control of that ‘omniscient’ government, to keep a thumb on the own will of the population. Or what is left of it, since no one really knows anymore what is truth and what is lie due to all the changes in ‘facts’ The Party has made over the years. “He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future.” Personal emotions are not tolerated, and enjoying the wonderful experiences of love is even forbidden. Instead The Party has embraced ultimate obedience, domination, hatred and fear.

In this frightening world a young Inner Party worker, named Winston Smith, has given his life for the ruling existence of The Party, working in the Ministry of Truth. His job is the burden of erasing and creating history, as to the will of Big Brother.

Although, that attitude is what he radiates to the outside world. Deep inside he becomes more and more aware of the cruelty and unfair methods The Party maintains. Because The Party can control, regulate and monitor the actions of its people, but it cannot fully control their thoughts. Winston starts to “inwardly rebel” and now only wants to escape the permanent monitoring and regulating of the government, and live an own life in which he can embrace his emotions (and especially love) - even though he knows that will lead to inevitable death. And so it happens; due to the constant monitoring and regulating, The Party can arrest Winston for his ‘unorthodox actions’, and knead him into a new slave of Big Brother. “Thoughtcrime does not entail death; thoughtcrime IS death”.

The Aspect of Truth

What drew my special attention in Orwell’s novel was the concept of truth. In his reality future society this value is altered in many aspects, which even makes the main character not confident about his own truth anymore; Winston does not even know in what year he is living, he only has a vague idea which no one else can confirm either. The Party regulates and monitors the society already for such a long period, that too many lies have become the real ‘truth’. As explained, The Party controls and monitors the actions of its population in various ways. Via constantly adjusting the past and present to the predictions and statements of Big Brother, so that He stays Godlike towards its people, they try to force ultimate obedience from their people driven by pure fear.

One of those altering manners is by adjusting the current language into one without ‘unnecessary words’; the so-called Newspeak. With such an adjustment meaningful grammar constructions, with which people can express their emotions and sorrows, fade away as well. Especially the disappearance of contradictions is highlighted in the novel, by the slogan “War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”. Without contradictions people cannot express themselves in a similar way as their emotions let them feel anymore. Therefore they can only use the censured amount of words and expressions The Party allows them to use, which does not give them the opportunity to express their real emotions. They only can and will hear themselves expressing the will of The Party, and if this action continues long enough they will even start to believe what they say, because they never hear something else anymore. Everyone will ‘agree’ with Big Brother, and thus his power will only increase.

Another way of altering the truth can be found in Winston’s job. He has to adjust the past to the predictions and statements of Big Brother. If Oceania is in war with Eurasia at this point of history, but it would be more convenient for whatever reason (for example, to keep control over the population driven by fear, or for certain resources) that Oceania is in war with Eastasia, Winston would have to change the news items into this new present, and erase the past war with Eurasia on paper to make the new war - which was of course already several years ongoing for the conscience of the population – the new ‘truth’. As if Big Brother has always been right and will always be right. Because “He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future.”

Yet the pinnacle of altering the truth to keep the own will of the people under control, is the fact that even the opposition is under the control of The Party itself. Opposition leader Emmanuel Goldstein, who has written the book - a compendium of all heresies, which circulates here and there – is held by The Party to be the Enemy of the People. However, when Winston is arrested by The Party and tortured by O’Brien to knead his own will back into ultimate obedience to The Party again, it appears that O’Brien is one of the writers of the book. Which means that both Emmanuel Goldstein and the book are created by The Party. That ultra-authoritarian government even controls their own opposition. But where does that leave the concept of truth, real TRUTH?

Conclusion

To be honest Orwell’s dystopia was quite shocking to me, since the story told in the novel could become our reality future if we are not aware of the actions of the powers that rule us. And although even such an ultra-authoritarian government as The Party could only control the actions of its people and not their thoughts, we still must be conscious of the fact that also that last bit of personal property does not come under control of one malevolent person, with crazy ideas on domination and ultimate obedience. People driven by such a powerful will, will always try to find a way to come to your thoughts as well, and brainwash you until you do not know which thoughts and emotions are you own and which ones are implemented.

And in the end I assume that this is also one of the intentions George Orwell wanted to reach with writing Nineteen Eighty-Four; ensuring that we are aware of our own truth, and the freedom to express it. If we would have not listened to survivors of the second World War for example - who experienced the horrible happening themselves and have formed their own truth about it- who knows what lies would have come into the world about what precisely happened in that period of time. Gladly, we have listened to the various experiences several people have had - although not every experience has been one to remember - to form a correct picture, to know the real truth.

One should always better derive his information from a first source, to make sure the stories told are not influenced by misleading untruths. Be aware of your own truth, before taking the truth of another for granted. Otherwise a lie becomes the truth.

Alexandra Danen, 1st year student, LUC

The LUC Dean's Masterclass is run each semester for the students who made the honour roll in the previous semester.

Party at the end of the world/year

Dear students,




There's so much to say about the last year (the first year) of LUC, but there was no time to say it at our Finishing-Line party a couple of nights ago. Actually, there was time, but there was too much alcohol and too much noise for anyone to make sense of anything any of us were saying ... so, instead, I thought I'd pen a little something here.
The first thing to say is this: wow!
And the second thing, which is a slight expansion of the first, is this: well done!

I mean these things in various and complicated ways. The most obvious (but certainly not the least important) is simply to observe how much you have all accomplished over the last year. LUC has risen from nothing into a thriving and exciting community of learning since last summer -- you have built it through your toil and tears and laughter, and you should be incredibly proud of what you have done. I am certainly proud of you ... well, of most of you ;) It has been wonderful to watch how you have taken on this challenge.
On another level, it's also just fantastic to see how many of you are still here! It has been a very intense ride; there has been a lot of work, a lot of arguing, scheming, debating and structuring, a lot of playing (maybe not enough playing), and not a lot of sleeping. But you are still here, and (most of you) still smiling. It's very inspiring for me to see how you have all drawn energy from your own activities and from the satisfaction of expending all your energy on building something worthwhile.
Some of you will recall something I said at the (unofficial) opening of the college last summer, when I told you to take your responsibilities at LUC seriously, because you were all specially selected to be here, and because your being here means that other people (who wanted to be here) were not. Well, you're still here, and I am unspeakably proud of the way you have honoured your responsibilities this year.
In other words, you have not only survived but thrived. In some intensive institutions, like Cambridge University, where I did my undergraduate work, the end of year events are sometimes called the 'Survivor's Ball.' This term usually refers to the fact that you've made it through the exam-hell at the end of term ... or sometimes to the fact that you're still conscious for the group photo at end of the ball. At LUC this year, though, the idea of survival has a more profound meaning: it reminds me of the ideas about challenge, violence, bloodshed, toil, change and tears that we discussed right at the start of the year, when we watched Apocalypse Now as the Dean's Choice movie. Oh, the horror, the horror …
While I don't want to claim that you have survived the apocalypse this year at LUC (!), I also don't want to diminish the sense of our having confronted some angels and daemons together. And, most importantly, I want to spare a little thought for the Greek origins of the term apocalypse, which refers to the idea of revelation or of lifting the veil of ignorance. The apocalypse reveals a process that discloses something hidden or profound in a time or context of ignorance, misperception, or falsehood. In other words, like the virtual, architectural tram-ride that was built by one of the teams for the Designing Academic Inquiry poster conference, the apocalypse is a trial and a process that leads to enlightenment (or a horrible death ... but we're all survivors!).



So, we began the year rather ominously with Apocalypse Now, and we end here, on the way to enlightenment, ready for something new to begin after the end of the world (of the first year of LUC). I can’t wait to see what the next year will bring, and I’m excited to know what a post-apocalyptic LUC might look like!
Meanwhile, there are a few people I’d like to thank for their help, industry and enthusiasm this year, without which we would not have made it through in such a spectacular way. In some ways, I could say this of all of you, but there are some particular people who should be recognised.
The first group is the board of our shiny new student association (which became a legal association on Monday of this week), Fortuna. The members of this board, under the sagely guidance of our first ever student president, Flip, have worked extremely hard and accomplished so much, not only organizing so many great events and processes, but also actually creating the association from scratch. My thanks to Flip and his team: Stefan, Sanne, Marc, Georgina, Marline, and Laurens (and also thanks for the sweat-shirt!).
Instead of listing names of other individuals (who will receive a letter from me in the summer), I’d also like to give special thanks to those students who organized reading groups, those on the Housing Committee, those who organized the Amnesty Benefit activities, the inter-UC sports tournament, the Act Aware events, the Current Affairs evening, the Pax Magazine, the Debating Union and the World Foresight conference. You have all brought something special and valuable to LUC, and you have my gratitude and admiration.

I wish you all a sunny and rejuvenating break, and look forward to welcoming you all back again, together with a whole new year of students, at the end of the summer.

Cheers and beers,

Chris (the dean)

LUC poster boys (and girls)

 A little piece of history forms in each moment, but today there was a genuine milestone at LUC. We were proud to host our first ever Student Poster Conference at the culmination of our core course, Designing Academic Inquiry. Our students have worked extremely hard on a wide range of original research projects, all of which involved primary research and sophisticated analysis on topics focussed in the city of The Hague itself.

Posters in the conference included:
+Public transportation
+Healthcare
+Recycling and waste management
+Sporting and leisure facilities
+Museums and cultural provisions
+Parks and open public spaces

Not having been directly involved in the progress of this important course, which was convened with great energy and discipline by Dr Cissie Fu, this was the first time that I had seen the results of this semester’s creative labour and dedication. I was struck by the vitality of the poster presentations as well as by the quality of the research that rooted them. Our students have taken serious the idea and meaning of academic inquiry and designed projects that demonstrate real social and political conscience, of the kind that many mature scholars often lack. Without exception, each of the projects probed into concrete and serious concerns for The Hague today, with implications for any urban space.

Questions such as how systems of public transportation also provide a surveillance matrix that challenges us to reconsider the appropriate balance between our public safety and individual privacy are provocative, powerful and important. Asking questions about the relationship between cultural productions, architecture, performance and national identity speak to the heart of LUC’s developing profile in ‘Political Arts.’ Interrogating public spaces, sporting facilities, and parks as sites of social, political and cultural interaction and productivity reflects a cultivated sensitivity about the ways in which people interact with, transform, and are transformed by their environment. Furthermore, tackling environmental issues in the form of recycling and food-waste management by supermarkets, public institutions and private individuals in The Hague demonstrates a sounds understanding of the kinds of everyday implications of grand sustainability problematics that inspire LUC’s majors in Sustainability and International Development. This powerful concern for environmental wellbeing was also echoed by an important level of social consciousness and awareness of public health issues, particularly in the form of a consideration of the impact of obesity in The Hague.

Recognizing the quality and scale of the accomplishment of the students of LUC at the end of their first year in The Hague, Ingrid van Engelshoven, Alderwoman for Education in the city of The Hague, gave us the honour of visiting the conference and speaking to the participants about their achievements. The told the students that they inspire her and the city of The Hague to take seriously their role as global citizens as well as residents of the city, explaining that she feels The Hague is lucky to have LUC in its heart as well as in its head. The city of international peace and justice is a vibrant and exciting intellectual and ethical environment in which LUC has a very special place. Ms Van Engelshoven spoke warmly about how the staff and students of LUC should no longer consider ourselves as visitors in this city, but instead should feel that this is our home, just as she considers that we are now ‘one of us.’ And finally, she asked me not to force everyone to work so hard, so that they can get outside and enjoy more of the city …

Congratulations to the students on this fantastic accomplishment – I’m impressed and proud of you all!

Posted by Chris (the dean)