Universiteit Leiden

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Sarah Giest Vice-Chair of the Young Acadamy Leiden

As every academic year, the leadership team of the Young Academy Leiden (YAL) is changing. Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, will be the new Vice-Chair. Annemarie Samuels, Asssociate Professor at Social Sciences, will be the new Chair. The Young Academy Leiden is a select group of young academics at Leiden University. Founded in early 2019, it serves as a platform to bring young, enthusiastic academics together.

Congratulations Sarah! What does it mean to you to be the new Vice-Chair of YAL?

‘I am excited to take on this position in collaboration with Annemarie and Cathelijn since I am a strong believer that uniting in the obstacles we face specifically as early-career scholars, there is a lot to be gained by doing that together - across faculties and institutes as well as across the cities of Leiden and The Hague. YAL is a platform that aims to provide the voice and tools to tackle some of these challenges while bringing ECRs together. For me personally, doing research and teaching across faculties, this is also an opportunity to highlight the opportunities and challenges in work that spans disciplines.’   

What will be your main goals and work as being the Vice-Chair? 

‘One of my goals is to engage even more with the academic early-career community at Leiden by asking what they are struggling with, which support they need and how we can help them in that. This might be raising specific issues at the table with the CvB, through our position papers or organising events for gaining insights into, for example interdisciplinary funding schemes by NWO and ERC [event being planned in the Fall]. Additionally, giving a better understanding of how employment, promotion, research and teaching is handled at different faculties and institutes and picking up best practices that can be communicated widely and adopted in other corners of the university.’  

Read more about YAL here.  

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