A quick call with Looi van Kessel on the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture: ‘International Women’s Day is important for everyone’
Every year, Leiden University hosts the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture to mark International Women’s Day. This year, historian Nadia Bouras will speak about academic freedom, class and being a woman in academia. And that is just as relevant to men, says lecturer and organiser Looi van Kessel.
Hi Looi, what motivated you to join the organising committee for the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture?
‘In my teaching, I mainly focus on gender studies, and as a researcher, I’m interested in how marginalised groups use literature to carve out a place for themselves. That ties in nicely with this International Women’s Day lecture, which centres on gender and the importance of standing up for women’s rights. But it also resonates with Annie Romein-Verschoor herself. She, too, was interested in how women use literature to assert their rights. So I feel a real connection with that.’
‘A day like International Women’s Day is a catalyst for conversations.’
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
‘As a lecturer and researcher, I work in a field that pays close attention to inequalities based on gender, sex, sexuality or race. This makes me acutely aware of how our society is structured to benefit people like me: educated white men. From that perspective, I think it’s essential to reflect on how we can build a fairer society in which everyone has equal rights and opportunities. A day like International Women’s Day is a catalyst for those conversations.’
This year’s lecture is being given by historian Nadia Bouras. Why did you choose her?
‘Nadia is a highly respected colleague, and we felt it was important to show a wider audience that we have this fantastic expertise here and that this is research we value. We also wanted to address academic freedom because it’s a topic of much debate at the moment. Nadia herself is regularly targeted on public platforms for the academic positions she takes. We thought it would be useful for her talk about her experiences as a first-generation student and woman of colour navigating academia, and to show how she is publicly judged precisely because of those identities. For her critics, her identity sometimes seems to matter more than her actual arguments.’
Nadia describes academic freedom as a collective responsibility. Do you agree?
‘Absolutely. Academic freedom is something we work together on. There’s still this idea of academia as the solitary genius who sits thinking and writing until deep into the night. But all the knowledge we produce builds on what others have done before us. And that collective process brings responsibilities. We’re all responsible for what we do at the university – ensuring our work meets academic standards is something we must continually safeguard together.’
‘We’re all responsible for what we do at the university.’
There’s sometimes an assumption that the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture is only relevant to women. What would you say to people who are unsure whether to come?
‘A lot of men think International Women’s Day isn’t for them, but it’s important for everyone. I see it as men’s responsibility to participate actively in the day and to explore what men can do to make society more just. There’s plenty of evidence that women do not have the same position in society as men. Just look at last year: the Dolle Mina’s [a 1970s women’s rights group] are back, we’ve had the “Reclaim the Night” campaign... As long as inequality persists, it’s our job to work towards ending it.
‘We learn most about the world and ourselves by talking to people who differ from us and come from different social categories. I think there’s great value in that. So my message to men is: come and learn about the world at the Annie Romein-Verschoor Lecture for International Women’s Day. You definitely won’t be the only man in the room, and feminists don’t bite.’
Text: Evelien Flink
Banner: Martijn Beekman