Fifteen Years of Weibo: New Voices Shaping Social Power in China

Speaker: Manya Koetse
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact us via pek-online@minbuza.nl

Manya Koetse is a Sinologist and Japanologist (Leiden University) specializing in China’s social trends, online media, and digital culture. She is the founder of What's on Weibo, a widely-read independent platform offering analysis and insights into Chinese social media trends and societal issues.

About the lecture

Over the past fifteen years, Weibo has become more than just another social media platform; it’s a space where state media channels, brands and businesses, everyday citizens, meme creators, and unlikely heroes ignite national conversations and even drive social change in China. In this lecture, 'Fifteen Years of Weibo: New Voices Shaping Social Power in China,' Manya Koetse explores the stories that went viral and left a lasting impact, diving into the unique power of Chinese social media to shape public discourse and connect a diverse nation in unprecedented ways.

The power and vulnerability of connectedness

Speaker: prof.dr. Miguel Versluys
Language: English

You will receive more details about the meeting (like the address) after registration. If you have any questions please contact Ondrej Krikzo via ondrej.krizko@minbuza.nl.

About the lecture

What deep histories of globalisation can teach us about the future
For many politicians and their voters, globalisation seems to have changed from an (economic) panacea into a (social) nightmare and it is generally assumed that we live in a time of increasing deglobalisation in which boundaries between countries and cultures are once again going to play an important role. Was globalisation not good but bad after all? By sketching a deep historical perspective, professor Versluys will show in his lecture that, in fact, that is the wrong question to ask.

Such a deep historical perspective is equally useful, he argues, to rephrase and reframe other important societal issues at present. There is, moreover, an urgent need to do so because to shape a different future we first need to rethink the past in which we anchor ourselves.

'Location unknown: The Offline-Online Divide in Public Services'

Speaker: prof.dr. Sarah Giest
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact the Cleveringa Committee at alumni.leiden.brussel@gmail.com.

About the lecture

Governments are increasingly investing into digital and data strategies, leveraging technologies like AI and automation to enhance public services. These initiatives aim to improve efficiency and accessibility. However, they often overlook the diverse needs of citizens. In this context, the critical question is whether this digital push truly makes public services easier and more accessible for everyone. The shift towards digital services can inadvertently exclude those without the necessary skills, resources, or familiarity with bureaucratic processes.

Many citizens rely on local community resources—what can be termed ‘offline or social infrastructure’—to navigate public services. Unfortunately, this support often goes unnoticed in government data, leading to a disconnect between digital solutions and real-world needs. This gap can decrease trust in public institutions and result in inadequate support for vulnerable populations. To address these challenges, it is essential to integrate data, digital, and social infrastructures in public policies. A balanced approach is needed to ensure that digital advancements enhance public services without marginalizing those dependent on offline support systems. This integration can bridge the offline-online divide, making public services more inclusive and effective for all citizens.

Speaker: prof.dr. Bert Koenders
Date: Wednesday 11 December

More information will follow as soon as possible.
Questions? Please let us know via cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl. 

Academic Freedom Under Pressure

Speaker: prof.dr. Adriaan Bedner
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact Cleveringa committee member Marrik Bellen via m.w.bellen@library.leidenuniv.nl. 

Presentation by Adriaan Bedner: 'Turning the gaze inward: populism and its effects on academic freedom in the Netherlands'. 
Professor Bedner is the head of the Van Vollenhoven Institute at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University.

Presentation by Herlambang Wiratraman: 'Normalising abusiveness: Indonesia's academic freedom in the age of deception'. Dr. Wiratraman is Leiden alumnus and lecturer at the Law Faculty of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.

Making Europe Great Again? After the presidential elections: Europe in a changing world

Speakers: Monika Sie Dhian Ho, Jan Paternotte and Koen Petersen
Language: English

*Signing up for the dinner can be done until 25 November 09:00 a.m.

About the lecture

Now that Donald Trump has won the US elections, it is clear that Europe will face some major challenges. There is a big chance that the US will stop supporting Ukraine and leave the conflict to Europe. Trump has even suggested that the US will withdraw from NATO. Meanwhile, there is no sign that the war in the Middle East will end any time soon. What is clear, however, is that they will be focusing more on the Indo-Pacific region, for economic reasons but also in view of the further rise of China as an economic and military superpower. China presents itself as the champion of the Global South, but not without making some of its partners in Africa and Asia dependent on it.

How should Europe react to these developments? Should it prepare for a more independent role? Is such a role realistic? Or should it seek to strengthen NATO and keep America interested in its traditional North Atlantic links, with or without Britain? How should it position itself vis-à-vis the Global South? What strategy is advisable in a world where local conflicts can easily explode but are no longer defined by a simple East-West dichotomy?

About the speakers
Monika Sie Dhian Ho is General Director of the Clingendael Institute for international affairs. She is also vice-president of the State Committee on Demographic trends 2050 and a lecturer at the Netherlands School of Public Administration in The Hague. Earlier she was a lecturer in International Relations and International Political Economy at Leiden University, researcher with the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy WRR, and Director of the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, the social-democratic think tank in the Netherlands.

Jan Paternotte is a Member of Parliament for D66. He studied international relations and international law and is a specialist in American History. In Parliament, he is his party’s specialist on foreign affairs and Europe, foreign trade, higher education, and the media. He lives in Leiden.

Koen Petersen is a member of the Dutch Senate for the VVD. He has studied American studies and political science and has published extensively on American politics. The position of the Netherlands in the world is one of his other interests, and he is chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Aid.

75 Jahre Genfer Konventionen- humanitärer Schutz oder Illusion?

Speaker: prof.dr. Robert Heinsch
Language: German

For further questions and information, please contact the Cleveringa Committee via susanne.regehr@web.de.

“They’re eating the dogs” – The Use of Social Media by the Trump Campaign

Speaker: dr. Sara Polak
Language: English

More information about the location will follow as soon as possible.
Questions? Please let us know via cleveringa@luf.leidenuniv.nl. 

About the lecture

'Social media platforms have played a role in presidential campaigns for nearly twenty years, but the way in which they change the political landscape, including presidential campaigns, continues to feel new. Traditional ‘ground game’ campaigning, Get Out the Vote actions, and polls no longer seem to be as reliable as they used to. Both candidates, but Donald Trump especially, seem to be playing the game according to new rules. In this talk I will discuss how the game has changed, and why despite its seriousness and the potential consequences of another Trump presidency, it can still be helpful to think of politics in terms of games and play.'

About the speaker
Sara Polak is a university lecturer in American Studies at Leiden University, focusing on US politics, media and play. She is working on a book about Donald Trump, social media and play (to be published in 2025). She has also published FDR in American Memory: Roosevelt and the Making of an Icon (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021), and is currently embarking on a research project called Worlding America: How Play Shaped the United States from New Media to Politics, 1503-2028.

Political Patronage, Clientelism and Autocratization

Speaker: prof.dr. Petr Kopecký
Language: English

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

Intellectual Resistance against Rome in the Early Empire

Speaker: prof.dr. Casper de Jonge
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact Cleveringa committee member Inge Weustink via iweustink@gmail.com.

About the lecture

On 26 November 1940, prof.Rudolph Cleveringa, professor of law at Leiden University, gave a famous protest speech against the measure taken by the invading Germans of removing all Jewish professors from their posts. Cleveringa was arrested and imprisoned. Two years earlier, the German professor Harald Fuchs, professor of Latin philology at Basel, published his book Der geistige Widerstand gegen Rom in der antiken Welt (Berlin 1938). Fuchs was strongly opposed against the political developments in Nazi Germany. His book examines the ancient resistance against the rule of Rome and the Roman emperors, but it can also be read as an (indirect) indictment against Nazi Germany.

Inspired by Cleveringa and Fuchs, this lecture will examine how Greek intellectuals of the early empire used different literary techniques to criticize Rome and the first emperors. We will interpret the oppositional voices of authors like Timagenes of Alexandria, Diodorus of Sardes, and Pseudo-Longinus, the author of On the Sublime. While explicit criticism of Rome could be dangerous, these writers adopt subtle literary techniques to formulate their aversion to the empire.

About the speaker
Casper de Jonge is a professor of Greek language and literature at Leiden University. His research concentrates on Greek literature in the Roman world, narratives of migration, rhetoric, literary theory and the sublime. Casper de Jonge received Veni and Vidi grants from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO). He is program director of the Bachelor Greek and Latin Languages and Cultures (Leiden), coordinator of the OIKOS research group ancient rhetoric and aesthetics, member of the editorial board of Mnemosyne and the Mnemosyne Supplements.

Grocio y una nueva forma de mirar el mundo

Speaker: prof. Raúl Campusano
Language: Spanish

For further questions and information, please contact the Cleveringa Committee at felix.quartero@minbuza.nl. 

Fifteen Years of Weibo: New Voices Shaping Social Power in China

Speaker: Manya Koetse
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact us via sha-events@minbuza.nl

Manya Koetse is a Sinologist and Japanologist (Leiden University) specializing in China’s social trends, online media, and digital culture. She is the founder of What's on Weibo, a widely-read independent platform offering analysis and insights into Chinese social media trends and societal issues.

About the lecture

Over the past fifteen years, Weibo has become more than just another social media platform; it’s a space where state media channels, brands and businesses, everyday citizens, meme creators, and unlikely heroes ignite national conversations and even drive social change in China. In this lecture, 'Fifteen Years of Weibo: New Voices Shaping Social Power in China,' Manya Koetse explores the stories that went viral and left a lasting impact, diving into the unique power of Chinese social media to shape public discourse and connect a diverse nation in unprecedented ways.

The Other Holocaust: Care, Children and the Jewish Catastrophe

Speaker: prof.dr. Sarah Cramsey
Language: English

For further questions and information, please contact us via wen-receptie@minbuza.nl. 

About the lecture

We continue to know very little about how the Holocaust happened to a majority of victims and survivors: babies, toddlers, children designated as Jews by Nazi law and those who cared for them during this extraordinary event. This absence of care and inattention to the “invisible work” of caretaking in existing Holocaust histories is surprising, exceptional and intellectually dangerous. Strikingly, the absence of very young children and their caretakers from the stories we write about the Jewish tragedy warps our most basic understanding of the genocidal crimes that unfolded during the 1930s and 1940s, our consequent memories of this genocide and the longer history of early child-rearing across the Jewish experience. This talk draws from Sarah Cramsey’s new book, The Other Holocaust: Care, Children and the Jewish Catastrophe. The Other Holocaust reconfigures what we think we know about the Jewish catastrophe and the seemingly-timeless but always-contingent process of nurturing the youngest in our collective midsts across historical time.