The colour purple: why it's important to our new Dean
During the New Year's Reception at FSW, new Dean Sarah de Rijcke gave her maiden speech. The first official moment at which she's able to share what she stands for and what to expect of her. In case you weren't there, or you want to read the speech at your own pace, below you can find the integral copy of her speech.
Thank you Kristiaan (for introducing - ed.), I am really glad to be here, it’s very good to see you, I hope you all had a relaxing break.
This is the start of my deanship of the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences and I wanted to take a moment for a special word of thanks to my predecessor Paul Wouters, who is also here today.
Paul: I wanted to thank you and the others on the Faculty Board for your leadership over the past years. I remember you used these types of speeches to make statements. So, one time, if my memory serves me well, I think you wore a scarf with the colours of the rainbow. Thanks for using your time as dean to move the faculty to a more all-inclusive institution.
Inspired by that, I decided to dress in purple today. Not only because it is my son’s favourite colour, but because it allows me to express what I stand for as your new Dean.
I feel strongly about fostering a sense of community, of togetherness. One of the strategic goals of our Institute of Psychology is to be “1 institute’, a collective. And I would like to think that this is also an ambition for our faculty at large: to stand together, to have a shared sense of purpose, and to build a diverse community that fosters diversity and inclusion and fights against inequality and intolerance, with empathy and care.
Especially in times like these, with political turmoil and wars in several parts of the world, which moves us all.
The colour purple. As a daughter of a visual artist, a painter, who spent most of her childhood around squeezed paint tubes and the smell of turpentine, what fascinates me about the colour purple is that it is hard to pin down or define. Its boundaries are fuzzy. Is it a reddish blue, or is it a blueish red? Or is it something in between, a bit of both?
The colour purple is hard to classify.
At the same time, it is everywhere. But it requires patience, time, and the trained eye of an artist to see that. To see it in shades of bushes when you take a walk through the park, in the sunset at the beach, in shades of faces, which my father used to paint portraits.
This type of scrutiny and probing is also very much a thing scientists do; we are always asking ourselves what it is that we are observing, we are interested in classifying and determining, but always with an eye to the next question or difficult topic. Like painters, we too are trained to have a great tolerance for fuzzy boundaries, and for the unknown.
And the further you come, the more research you do, the more you realise that there is so much more you actually don’t know. And that we need others to grow and to advance.
We need to collaborate and one strong mechanism for that is through inter- and transdisciplinary work. Which is one of the strategic goals of our faculty, moving forward.
So the thing about the colour purple is that it is hard to pin down or define, and it is a bit different from other colours in that respect. And I love that about purple, as I also love that about people who don’t fit neatly into boxes, which can sometimes be a leadership challenge, but in the end, when there is enough respect and trust and care between people I think an organization can only learn from the juxtaposition of difference.
In an environment such as our faculty, rich in differences when it comes to the disciplines we house, the backgrounds of our students and staff, their experiences and perspectives, learning is intensified if we contrast all these differences respectfully and with care.
So I dressed in purple because this colour is a way to highlight the value of respecting each other and working together across differences, and beyond boundary disputes. This is true of all organisations but there is also something specific about the science system that I do not want to leave unsaid before I close on a more cheerful note.
So some of you might be familiar with the book and the movie called The Colour Purple. It follows the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South of the US in the 1900s. A life filled with abuse, racism and trauma. But the end of the story is that her love for herself grows as she becomes more confident and independent. The colour purple is used here to refer to her empowerment, to her growing confidence and sense of pride.
I want a similar narrative arc for science.
Unfortunately, at the moment the science system globally suffers from some major flaws, including excessive competition, forms of bias, and lack of openness.
This is not something that can be fixed purely by changing our own behaviour; these structural issues also need to be addressed by changing certain governance measures and policy instruments.
People who know my research know that over the past years, I have been worrying a lot about the perverse effects of research assessment. In my research, I found that metrics-driven assessment has some unhealthy side effects.
This thinking with indicators also affects the 'social' aspects of academia. We're talking about things like decreasing collegiality, a dwindling sense of community, or poor leadership.
This culture is today also driven by pressure to secure funding in competitive four-year cycles. This makes it very hard for researchers to do long-term, risky projects, or work in fields that have a big impact on society but don't get cited as much, like applied sciences or social sciences. As a result, research agendas don't always focus on what society really needs. Also, all this competition can make scientists less likely to collaborate, which is crucial for solving complex problems.
One of my all-time favourite characters is Pippi Langström, or Pippie Langkous as they say in Dutch. I remember watching her shows when I was a kid. Pippi had this great saying: “I've never tried this before, so I should definitely be able to do it.” I totally love that. And I think in academia, we need to encourage this kind of attitude more than we do now. We should be promoting experimenting with new things, getting out of our comfort zones, and being daring without taking ourselves too seriously. But, actually, what we're seeing with early career academics is the opposite. A lot of them are dealing with anxiety and an unhealthy pressure to stick to problematic standards. One of the reasons I wanted to become a Dean was to help change this, to help them feel more empowered and confident.
And to help accomplish that asks something of all of us, and perhaps especially so of people in leadership roles. I am therefore thrilled to have the opportunity in my new role to work together with a great team of colleagues, including Kristiaan, Vice-Dean of Education, including Rolf Oosterloo as portfolio holder operations, and including Laura Boncz, our assessor. And I would like to particularly put the spotlight on Bart Barendregt, who - like me - is new to the Faculty Board and will take up the role of Vice-Dean of Research.
With that, I want to wish you a colourful new year!