Opening Academic Year on 4 September
On Monday 4 September, the University for Humanistic Studies will hold its Opening Academic Year 2023-2024 with Marjan Slob, current Denker des Vaderlands ('Thinker of the Nation') as guest speaker. The theme of the opening is Ruimte voor betekenis ('Space for Meaning').
It is quite a quest how to hold your own as a thinking and feeling human being in the face of the major problems of our time. Two familiar responses - self-hatred and complacency - do not satisfy in any case. For they each, in their own way, miss reality. And reality is precisely what we urgently need to love. Marjan Slob will highlight what this call requires of us, and how a humanist university can help.
Philosopher and researcher at the University of Humanistic Studies Simon van der Weele, will speak in a column. This will be about the place of meaning in the research he and Femmianne Bredewold are doing into a meaningful life for people with severe intellectual disabilities, who are unable to explain how they experience the world.
Musical interludes will be provided by the choir of the Utrecht Student Choir and Orchestra (USKO).
The programme will last from 15:30 to 16:45. Afterwards, there will be a festive reception in the (garden of the) Pieterskerk in Utrecht.
Marjan Slob is a philosopher, essayist, and the current Denker des Vaderlands. She wrote several award-winning books and was a member of the Supervisory Board of the UvH.