Manumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission... Show moreManumission is the release from slavery, and therefore, a transition from the most extreme form of subjugation into another position and status in society. Some historians have defined manumission as a formal act, often understood as a gift that severed the bond between slave and master. More recently researchers have emphasized that it was a lengthy process that involved pre-existing dependencies and resulted in new hierarchies. This article takes a fresh look at the process and tries to gain a fuller understanding of manumission by examining it from the position of the manumitted and their social relations. Taking into consideration a wide range of documentary sources from colonial, notarial and Dutch governmental archives, we reconstruct the dependencies that were created in the process of manumission. The dependencies that evolved during manumission processes were related to family and other kinship ties, but also had an urban, communal, religious, economic and institutional logic. Manumission was not only an act at a specific moment, but also a process, and it was not a bilateral, but a multilateral one. With the instrument of manumission and within the limits set by economic reality and the colonial government, the manumittees tried to make meaningful life choices that transformed slave society profoundly. We find that they created complex dependencies across boundaries of status and racial categorization. Show less
Oratie uitgesproken door Prof.dr. Nadine N.W. Akkerman bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Vroegmoderne Literatuur en Cultuur aan de Universiteit Leiden op vrijdag 3 mei 2024
Betrokken burgers vormden de ruggengraat van de Republiek. Het dagelijks leven draaide voor een groot deel op buurtorganisaties, gilden en schutterijen – en dat waren juist de stedelijke... Show moreBetrokken burgers vormden de ruggengraat van de Republiek. Het dagelijks leven draaide voor een groot deel op buurtorganisaties, gilden en schutterijen – en dat waren juist de stedelijke instituties waar zij deel van uitmaakten. In 1796 kondigden de Bataafse revolutionairen het einde van sommige van deze instellingen af en introduceerden zij het staatsburgerschap. Maar was daarmee de rol van de stedelijke burger ook uitgespeeld?Dat komen we te weten als we luisteren naar de stadsbewoners zelf. Aan de hand van de levens van Haarlemmers en Groningers tussen 1747 en 1848 illustreert dit boek het voortbestaan van lokaal burgerschap. Zij komen aan het woord via verzoekschriften, kronieken, gelegenheidsgedichten, vergadernotulen en mondelinge klachten op de burgemeesterskamer. Hoe zag de ideale stedelijke gemeenschap er volgens hen uit? Welke rechten en plichten had een burger in hun ogen? En wat waren de dure plichten van een stadsbestuurder? Voor dit burgerschap putten stadsbewoners met souplesse uit traditionele én revolutionaire idealen en praktijken. Show less
This dissertation explores the ways in which affective responses to disabled bodies are represented and how this invites us to read these bodies aesthetically. I argue that this affective impact... Show moreThis dissertation explores the ways in which affective responses to disabled bodies are represented and how this invites us to read these bodies aesthetically. I argue that this affective impact can be understood as an affordance, a term I use to describe how the appearance of and interaction with disabled bodies produces affective responses such as fear, wonder, or disgust. I study the relationship between representation and affective reactions through literature and other art forms. Through close readings of literary texts and works of art, this dissertation offers an alternative to so-called model thinking—an approach that emphasizes categorization. Instead, I propose a reading that focuses on how bodily capacities are culturally and socially translated into (dis)abilities. Unlike taxonomic approaches that categorize and generalize, this method allows moving from the particular to the private. Works of art, although prone to generalization, emphasize their unicity and resist categorization. By analyzing how different art forms represent disabled bodies, the dissertation brings a new dimension to understanding our emotional responses and the aesthetic appreciation of bodily diversity. Show less
Rede uitgesproken door Prof. dr. Pieter ter Keurs ter gelegenheid van zijn afscheid als Hoogleraar Museums, Collections and Society aan de Universiteit Leiden op maandag 8 april 2024
Research Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat... Show moreResearch Integrity (RI) is high on the agenda of both institutions and science policy. The European Union as well as national ministries of science have launched ambitious initiatives to combat misconduct and breaches of research integrity. Often, such initiatives entail attempts to regulate scientifc behavior through guidelines that institutions and academic communities can use to more easily identify and deal with cases of misconduct. Rather than framing misconduct as a result of an information defcit, we instead conceptualize Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) as attempts by researchers to reconcile epistemic and social forms of uncertainty in knowledge production. Drawing on previous literature, we defne epistemic uncertainty as the inherent intellectual unpredictability of scientifc inquiry, while social uncertainty arises from the human-made conditions for scientifc work. Our core argument—developed on the basis of 30 focus group interviews with researchers across diferent felds and European countries—is that breaches of research integrity can be understood as attempts to loosen overly tight coupling between the two forms of uncertainty. Our analytical approach is not meant to relativize or excuse misconduct, but rather to ofer a more fne-grained perspective on what exactly it is that researchers want to accomplish by engaging in it. Based on the analysis, we conclude by proposing some concrete ways in which institutions and academic communities could try to reconcile epistemic and social uncertainties on a more collective level, thereby reducing incentives for researchers to engage in misconduct. Show less
Fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore,... Show moreFluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore, the presentstudy was set up to investigate the effect of fluency training on speechfluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness of interpreter trainees. Twogroups of interpreter trainees at a university in Iran took part in the study,receiving the same amount of instruction and practice (12 hours over 4weeks). The experimental group (N=30) spent 33% of the time (i.e., 4 of the12 hours in the training program) on dedicated fluency strategy training,encouraging the memorization, repetition, and retelling of audio and videomaterials. The remaining 67% was spent on training general speaking skills.The control group (N=30) were only taught general speaking skills in thetraining program but received no dedicated fluency training. Systematicinterviews were run to assess the interpreter trainees’ speech fluency,comprehensibility and accentedness, which were judged independently bythree expert raters at three moments of testing, i.e., pretest, immediateposttest, and delayed posttest (one month later). The findings revealed thatthe fluency training significantly enhanced the interpreter trainees’ fluency,and to a lesser extent the students’ comprehensibility but had only amarginal effect on accentedness. The pedagogical implication would be thatawareness training on speech fluency Show less
Since the invention of the Indian writing system around the third century BC, Sanskrit literature was no longer exclusively oral. However, not all genres immediately adopted the new possibilities.... Show moreSince the invention of the Indian writing system around the third century BC, Sanskrit literature was no longer exclusively oral. However, not all genres immediately adopted the new possibilities. In order to fully understand the orality and writing of Sanskrit literature, I will first define a threefold division of what I call ‘the compositional complex’, the totality of processes involved in the creation of texts and their subsequent usages. The first stage is the composition of the text, the second is its preservation for the sake of future generations, and the third is its transmission to the audience. Each stage can be oral or written. After a brief discussion of secondary literature on the compositional complex of the Vedas, the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, I look for textinternal evidence for the compositional complex of Purāṇas in the Bhaviṣyapurāṇa, ‘the Purāṇa of the future’. On the basis of this single Purāṇa, it is possible to make a reconstruction of the composition, preservation, and transmission of Purāṇas, where orality and writing intertwine. Show less
The present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of... Show moreThe present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of students were formed. All of them studied English as a foreign language at the BA level at Bu-Ali Sina University, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. Participants took a pre-test of listening comprehension skills before starting the programme. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, argumentation-based learning by the iBrainstorm application. The total instruction time was the same for two groups, i.e., 32 hours. Students then took a post-test and, a month later, a delayed post-test in listening comprehension skills. The results show that the use of the iBrainstorm app significantly improved the students’ listening comprehension skills, and significantly more so than those of the control group. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, material producers, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy Show less
Oratie uitgesproken door Prof.dr. F.W.A. Korsten bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Literatuur, Cultuur en Recht aan de Universiteit Leiden op vrijdag 15 maart 2024
The Kingdom of the Hittites is often described as ‘the land of a thousand Gods’ and, indeed, from contemporary texts we know of countless deities who were worshipped. While there is evidence for... Show moreThe Kingdom of the Hittites is often described as ‘the land of a thousand Gods’ and, indeed, from contemporary texts we know of countless deities who were worshipped. While there is evidence for the existence of large Hittite stat-Tues, none have ever been found. What happened to them? Show less
