Has your perspective on what a university is and what it should be for changed on your journey from student to lawyer to academic to administrator?

From a UvA perspective, not in essence. My sense of belonging at the UvA started in my student days. I was always immediately aware of how committed people were to teaching and research, because as a student you feel how much your teachers care about their work and about the science. Later, when you start teaching yourself, you feel how much goes into it: how it hurts when students don't like your approach, how difficult it is to manage the time between teaching and research, how to manage your ambitions, all of that.

The one big thing that has changed in my perspective over time is my awareness of how much work is being done by the 1,000s of colleagues behind the scenes who keep the UvA running. That awareness really only grew over time, and now, as an administrator, I truly realise that the UvA is a small town, with many corners and houses I have not yet visited.

For universities in general? Obviously, the politics are very different now than 20 years ago. We have come out this this era where the politics were that we need a ‘knowledge economy’. Now it’s more like we need a ‘technology economy’. These kinds of political frames always have an impact on how and where funding is made available, but our duty to teach well, to do responsible research and to make sure that what we do comes at the betterment of society remains unchanged.

What do you think has changed most about the UvA in the more than 20 years since you were first here?

There is a soul to the UvA that has remained the same throughout. It is that little spark of “Let's try something new and see where it takes us”, and the willingness of the organisation to make that happen. On the other hand, we have become a lot more professional in the way we organise our education and support our research. and in how engage with the enormous knowledge and experience out there in society. But things do get lost sometimes. Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I sometimes miss the piles of paper that went into grading students’ work, seeing their handwriting.

What do you hope will be different about the UvA four years from now and what do you hope will be exactly the same?

What should remain the same is the soul that I’ve already mentioned. But that hasn’t changed in the last 20 or so years that I’ve been here, so I’m not so worried about that. What should be different? Perhaps how we are able to find one another across disciplines and across faculties. This goes to research programmes and education, but it also runs deeper into our whole organisation. Talk of interdisciplinarity is not new, of course, but the depth to which we take it, and how we make it manifest, can be taken to new levels.

There is a great paperExternal link by Dieuwertje Luitse, a PhD candidate at our Humanities Faculty, about how at the we UvA worked together across the faculties of Medicine, Science, Law and Humanities around AI decision-making in health. She describes the friction and discomfort and disagreements that went into working across our faculties, but also how meaningful that work and social process really is and how it genuinely contributes to deeper learning and understanding.’

You have two children heading into their teens. Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the world they will inherit from us?

Well, both, you know. I am generally a very optimistic person, and I think that as humanity we have been able to do so much; not just in art, skills and knowledge, but also in changing our social structures. It was only about 150 years ago that Aletta Jacobs received permission to study in Groningen. And look at me now: a woman in a leading position at the university, and neither the first nor the only one. Which is not to suggest we don’t still have plenty of progress to make. But the distance we’ve come over that century and a half gives reason to be optimistic.

With my own children, I worry most about geopolitical changes, the climate, and the role technology plays in that respect. But also about the role technology plays in their social world, and what that does to their ability to shape that world in such a way that they can make a meaningful difference on things like climate, political divisions, inequality and poverty.

What is your favourite spot at the UvA?

It’s still the Oudemanhuispoort, for sure. That’s where my journey started. The other day I walked into lecture room D008 and it was a warm day, the room was intense, full of students, with an engaged professor at the board; a big wave of nostalgia.

‘But the more I get to know the UvA, the more new places I discover. I love the new library – sitting in one of those rooms writing, surrounded by books, is just such a great feeling. The upstairs of the IAS and the Allard Pierson are wonderful as well, good coffee too. CREA is still a great hangout, and Science Park has some great places where you can hide under a big plant and work. So yes, we are so blessed at the UvA when it comes to choices for favourite spots.

You are in a book club: what's the best book you've recently covered in it?

I don’t think I can pick just one, but our last three books on the list were 'Dream Count' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 'The Method' by Juli Zeh, and Lieke Marsman’s 'Op een andere planeet kunnen ze me redden'. To be honest, because of my book club I really do keep reading more than I otherwise would. I can’t recommend starting one enough.