What reproducing sameness looks like in Dutch universities

This event focuses on a research project starting this academic year within the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (ME), Disrupting Sameness in Dutch Academia, an NWO-funded consortium project, of which TU Delft is one research site. Disrupting Sameness aims to tackle the underrepresentation of minoritized ethnic groups in Dutch academia through intervention-based research that contributes to a more inclusive academic environment. Whereas many diversity, equity, and inclusion projects tackle this issue by focusing on marginalized groups, this project innovatively focuses on the norm group, examining what organizations and individuals do to (re)produce and maintain the norm, or sameness in academic professional settings. This project aims to map patterns of sameness and develop ways to disrupt these. At TU Delft, the focus is on disrupting sameness in education, while at the other institutional partner sites parallel issues within academic middle management and medical professional settings are addressed.

In this lunch time lecture, Olga Sooudi, an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and principal investigator of the project, will discuss the background of the project, and how the reproduction of sameness can on the one hand perpetuate privilege and reproduce marginalization on the other in the academy. She will also present preliminary insights from the project’s research agenda setting, and specifically on how the reproduction of sameness is experienced in different Dutch university settings, hinting towards what stakeholders see as important to “disrupt.” In the latter part of the lecture, Edwina Wong, the postdoctoral researcher on the project, will present the relevant preliminary insights from the TU Delft agenda-setting.

Programme

12:45-13:00: Welcome with coffee/tea
13:00-13:45: Reading 
13:45-14:15: Conversation with coffee/tea
 

Target group: open to all 
Accessibility of the room booked: The venue is wheelchair accessible
Food options: Coffee, tea, and cookies will be provided
Language: English