More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Beijing will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Bratislava will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

The Literary Afterlives of Arwa Saleh

• By: professor Judith Naeff
  Language: English

This lecture reflects on the dynamics of cultural memories and their complex relation to past, present and future. It focuses on the various ways in which the life and writing of Arwa Saleh, a leader of the 1970s student movement, has been remembered in literary and cultural production. Across works by Ahdaf Soueif, Radwa Ashour, Mahmoud Al-Wardani and Youssef Rakha, her persona reappears, now as a passerby, then an aunt, or as a towering icon. The lecture argues that the continued, but transforming engagement with the legacies of Saleh by different generations of Egyptian writers and artists tells us as much about the extraordinary figure of Saleh, as it does about society today.

Judith Naeff is Assistant Professor Cultures of the Middle East at Leiden University with a main interest in contemporary Arabic visual culture and literature. She has worked mainly on cities & urban imaginaries and memory & temporality. She received her PhD in 2016 at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Her resulting monograph Precarious Imaginaries of Beirut: A City's Suspended Now (Palgrave MacMillan, 2018) explores a shared experience of time and space in contemporary Beirut (1990–2015) and the ways in which this experience has been given meaning in works of literature, arts and culture. Since 2020, she has been working on a project investigating cultural memories of the Arab political left. She is also the co-editor of the journal ZemZem.

If you've any questions please contact NVIC at info@nvic.leidenuniv.nl. 

Can Muslims be Europeans? Dutch and European Debates about Turkish Accession to the EU 1996-2004

• By: prof.dr. Erik-Jan Zurcher
  Language: English

The story of the European integration of Turkey goes back over sixty years, but until the mid-nineteen nineties the question whether Turkey was fundamentally non-European because it is a country of Muslims never featured in the debates. That changed from the nineties onwards under the influence of the idea of the "clash of civilisations" and after 2001 the attacks of 9/11, which caused great public anxiety about Islam. Yet, policy makers in the EU and the USA concluded that Turkey's accession to the EU would strengthen Europe and the West in general. The Dutch presidency therefore had to navigate between public anxiety and political interests when the decision on Turkish accession was taken in The Hague in 2004.  

If you've any questions please contact IST-EVENT@minbuza.nl.

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Jakarta will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

Who will protect us from the next pandemic?

• By: prof.dr. Meta Roestenberg
  Language: English

Avian flu, Mpox and Ebola outbreaks are a continuous reminder of our vulnerability to infectious diseases. Rapid vaccine development is the cornerstone for control of global infection outbreaks and eradication efforts. For COVID19, vaccines were developed within one year. Yet for many infectious diseases vaccines are not on the horizon and development pathways take much longer. Given the importance of vaccines for global health, we ask the question who is responsible for developing vaccines that can protect us from the next pandemic? What innovations are needed to make sure we will all stay safe?

For further questions and information, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl. 

The robot judge and arbiter: the advance of AI in judicial proceedings?

• By: prof.mr. Henk Snijders
  Language: English

As was the case last year, priority will be given to alumni over accompanying guests. Invitations will then, in principle, be issued on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the date on which interest was registered. If you've any questions please contact our Cleveringa Committee member victor.juttmann@iese.net.

Between Power and Possibility: The Case for Hope in International Law

• By: professor Jason Rudall
  Language: English

At a time when international law is repeatedly violated, ignored and openly challenged by power, it is tempting to conclude that it has failed. This lecture argues instead that violation should not be confused with irrelevance. Those most exposed to injustice continue to invoke international law, not because they are naïve about its limits, but because it remains one of the few languages through which claims can be made against power.

Across conflicts, climate litigation and struggles for accountability, individuals, communities and states continue to use international law to name wrongs, demand responsibility and insist that legal commitments mean something. Their actions remind us that international law is not simply a body of rules handed down to us, but something that is continually interpreted, contested and reshaped by those who use it. The lecture asks what room remains for hope in that space between power as it is and the possibilities that law can still open up, but also the responsibility of the next generation to keep alive the hope of what international law might yet make possible.

If you've any questions, please contact our Cleveringa Committee member Jo-Anne Wemmers at jo-anne.m.wemmers@umontreal.ca.

Die Tyrannei der Freiheit

• By: prof.dr. Paul Nieuwenburg
  Language: German

If you've any questions, please contact our Cleveringa Committee member Susanne Regehr via susanne.regehr@web.de.

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in New York will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

By: dr. Marleen De Meyer, director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo

More information? Please contact NIMAR at nimar@hum.leidenuniv.nl. 

To Brussels with Beccaria: History and Evolution of EU Criminal Justice

• By: prof.dr. Jannemieke Ouwerkerk
  Language: English

The works of the 18th century Italian intellectual Cesare Beccaria have been profoundly influential on domestic criminal law and justice across Europe. This lecture discusses whether and to what extent Beccaria’s ideas on crime and punishment (e.g. legality, proportionality) have also found their way to the much younger transnational criminal laws and policies enacted by the European Union. The lecture also addresses current developments at EU level which pose particular challenges to upholding classical criminal law principles such as those essential in Beccaria’s work.

For any questions, please contact the members of the Rome Cleveringa Committee: Inge Weustink (iweustink@gmail.com) and Frianne Zevenbergen (friannezevenbergen@hotmail.com). 

La democracia y los derechos humanos en la era de la IA

• By: Esther Kuisch, UNESCO Regional Director Latin-America 
  Language: Spanish

If you've any questions please contact our Cleveringa Committee member Felix Quartero at felix.quartero@minbuza.nl. 

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Strasbourg will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Tbilisi will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.

More information about the Cleveringa Meeting in Tokyo will follow as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact us at cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl.