CCAN's Classy Salon: Professor Emerita Geraldine Van Bueren on Poverty, Human Rights, and University Diversity Policies

We are excited to invite you to a special edition of the CCAN’s Classy Salon, with a lecture by Professor Emerita Geraldine Van Bueren, and a panel discussion with several prominent UU researchers and policy makers on class representation in universities.

Lecture

Professor Emerita Geraldine Van Bueren (Oxford/BIICL/Queen Mary, UK) will give a lecture at the Utrecht University by invitation of the Class-Conscious Academics Network (CCAN). Van Bueren is a renowned legal scholar and barrister, who is known for, amongst other things, her work as one of the original drafters of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and her research on the status of poverty in human rights law. More recently, as Chair of the international Alliance of Working-Class Academics, an organisation for the advancement of people from lower socio-economic status backgrounds in academia, she has composed a ‘Code for Equal Opportunities for Working-Class Students and Academics’ concerning the integration of class concerns in university’s diversity policies alongside e.g. gender and ethnicity, as this is often imperfect or even missing altogether. Celebrating the partnership between the AWCA and the CCAN, Van Bueren will give a lecture on Poverty, Human Rights, and University Diversity Policies.

Panel discussion

Following the lecture, there will be a panel discussion on the relevance of Van Bueren’s research in general and the Code in particular, exploring how to better address class representation on an institutional level at Utrecht University. The panelists include:

• Prof. Dr. Leoniek Wijngaards (professor in Data Use for innovation in Higher Education, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, and a member of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion [EDI] Steering Committee, UU). Wijngaards' research focuses on academic enrollment, achievement, and diversity in higher education.
• Dr. Jos Philips (assistant professor in Political Philosophy and Ethics at the Ethics Institute, and coordinator of Master Applied Ethics, UU). Philips' research focuses on human rights and poverty as issues of global justice.
• Dr. Mr. Alexandra Timmer (associate professor in Human Rights Law at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights [SIM], and a Steering Committee member of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Office [EDI], UU). Timmer's research focuses on equality and non-discrimination in EU law, the ECHR, and international human rights treaties.

Schedule

• 15:30: Doors open.
• 16:00: Welcome by the Class-Conscious Academics Network.
• 16:05: Lecture by Prof. Em. Geraldine Van Bueren.
• 17:00: Panel discussion.
• 18:00: Reception with drinks, opportunity to meet other students and academics (especially encouraged for 1st-gen students!)

Location: Sweelinckzaal (Drift 21, Utrecht)

Entrance: Free, the event is open to all UU students, academics, and staff, as well as anyone outside of the UU who is interested in the topic.

Registration: Registration is required due to limited space: forms.gle/Rb9XfycR4wGSpGNx5

More information: CCAN Events Page.

The event is financially supported by and co-organised with the Utrecht University’s Ethics Institute, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Institutions for Open Societies, University College Utrecht, and the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Office (EDI).