“Leading up to my inaugural lecture, I thought: ‘What is expected of someone who becomes a professor and then delivers an inaugural lecture?’ I had no idea. So I asked around. And I thought that my inaugural lecture had to fit into a certain mould. That I had to list all my academic merits and mention every name and list my publications. Then I thought: ‘No. I want to use this opportunity for something else.’
"We must be deeply aware that our role goes beyond this academic world"
“We have to talk about how we are doing science in 2024. We say: You have a part to play. But how far are we prepared to live up to that motto? To what extent do we want to push the boundaries of university systems when it comes to meaningful societal impact? We have already taken many steps when it comes to other forms of recognition and rewards. But perhaps the fact that my inaugural lecture is considered unconventional and requires courage says less about me than about the world we work in. We must be deeply aware that our role goes beyond this academic world.”
Fully embracing it
“It is about accepting that if we are striving for a university that stands in the midst of society and contributes to pressing, complex societal issues, we must then fully embrace that you need a diversity of staff to accomplish that. People who are fully dedicated to teaching. Theorists who spend their time applying for big grants and publishing in top journals. And people who invest in collaborations with societal organisations, the government and citizens. We should not strive to turn every individual academic into a jack-of-all-trades – we should add the sum of our individual parts to form the collective whole.
“But we are not set up for that yet, especially with our current mindset. It should be as important for a researcher to publish in a top journal as it is for me, based on my research, to work with Foreign Affairs and put on the agenda that now is the time to start reinvesting in strengthening support for international solidarity in the Netherlands. But there's a lot of tension in this: the university's strategy may call for a different interpretation of our role, but when people actually do it... ooh, uncomfortable! In our heads, we have a yardstick for how a scientist should be and what they are supposed to do. And when you put that yardstick next to me, you think: ‘Sara? She’s an odd one out’. But should we continue to apply the same yardstick to everyone? Because then I, and others too, will be dead in two years. Okay, not dead, but done.”
Spotlights
“We need to spotlight where things can be done differently. For example, on revaluing – or perhaps, for the first time, really valuing – research involving societal partners. After all, all the funding systems within the university are mainly geared towards money from large national or international government research programmes. If I receive money from a societal organisation, I risk going through the same bureaucratic hurdles as with an ERC grant worth a few million. As long as we continue to put public funding above private funding, and set up systems and valuations accordingly, those few fools working with smaller amounts from societal organisations are really going to wonder if it is still worthwhile. And that has a lot of impact on living up to our motto, because that relationship with a societal organisation represents so much more than money: it is conditional for the societal impact that we claim to pursue.”
Positivity
“Make no mistake, I am very positive! I am sitting here. I have been appointed chair of the department and Endowed Professor. These are signs of change; they are the result of leaders with guts, who we increasingly have. I see this all happening around me, which makes me think: ‘Yes, the time is now!’ Let’s cherish being different and let’s put aside the tendency to think we have to look a certain way as academics and have to do the same as others to be successful."
"In many different places within the university, you can see the odd ones out, the underdogs trying to fulfil their role in a contemporary way"
“It is not a utopian idea. It is a reality that is not quite there yet, but that can really be achieved. In many different places within the university, you can see the odd ones out, the underdogs trying to fulfil their role in a contemporary way. I think we should not underestimate that a kind of spill-over effect can take place from those people to students and young researchers, who get to see different examples. That this is not immediately visible in the bigger picture, that we still have a fairly classical view of what a scientist should look like, what academic education should look like, what we should be training for, and so on, fair enough. But sufficient new colour is being added to that picture to eventually lead to a contemporary university.”
Responsibility
“So for me, this appointment also comes with responsibility. I am convinced that I have a role to play here. I want to help build a new university world. You can feel from everything that we are all saying that we need people like me. And I say that in all modesty – I want to be careful in this respect, so that the headline does not read: ‘Sara thinks a lot of herself’. But you can feel it. We have it in our own power. That other world really starts with ourselves. And that is really good news! So, can we now have a decent conversation with each other about indirect government funding and contract funding, or about recognition and rewards, and about what the consequences of that would be?”
Sara Kinsbergen’s special teaching and research remit is a collaboration between the Radboud Centre for Social Sciences, the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies (CAOS) and the Wilde Ganzen Foundation.