H.V. Ockham

Week of Inspiration 2024

In May the University of Twente will celebrate its 63rd anniversary. During the week before the Dies Natalis the UT treats you to a programme packed with inspiration and fun. Come and join with your friends and listen to speakers of national and international fame. We have surprising topics ranging from dinosaurs to space travel and from smartphone addiction to the next president of the US.

Everybody is welcome at these free and sustainable events: students, non-students, people from the region and beyond!

Powered by Studium Generale, Honours Programme and Honours Association Ockham

Get inspired, visit the Week of Inspiration 2024 on May 21, 22 & 23!

  • Tuesday lunch: David Hordijk - To the end of the world (Eng)

    Tuesday 21 May | 12:45-14:00 | Around 13:30 there’s a short break, followed by Q&A | Vrijhof/Agora

    David Hordijk was a student when he quitted his studies to set out for a walk from the Netherlands to Finisterre, the ‘end of the world’ and goal of the pilgrim’s route of Santiago de Compostella. He tells about this 2,500 kilometer walk and whether he succeeded in detaching himself from all the routines of everyday life. He had plenty meaningful and funny encounters. Through crowdfunding he raised money to ensure that he would find his own piano on the cliffs of Finisterre. You will hear his own compositions, see beautiful images and hear his exceptional story. Did he return more inspired?

    Moderator: Hiska Bakker (Studium Generale)

  • Tuesday Evening: Maartje Bregman - Wanted: climate optimists! (NL)

    Dinsdag 21 Mei | 19:30-21:00 | Vrijhof/Agora

    Sometimes you lose all courage when you think about rising global temperatures. Will the world act fast enough? Or will we perish from floods, heat or famine? Maartje Bregman is a climate optimist, a greenfluencer who gives hope: even with small individual actions you can do something good together. On sustainability and climate, inequality and injustice. Her positive approach counterbalances the negative tenor of a sustainable life in which you have to deny yourself everything: you should not fly, skip meat, leave the car at home. With her enthusiastic performances and on social media, she emphasises precisely what you can do. In cooperation with the Green Hub UT.

    This program is in Dutch.

    Moderator: Dan Hartenberg (Green Hub Twente)

  • Wednesday lunch: André Kuipers - Discovering space (Eng)

    Wednesday 22 May | 12:45-14:00 | Around 13:30 there’s a short break, followed by Q&A | Vrijhof/Agora

    Dutch ESA-astronaut André Kuipers lived and worked for 204 days in the International Space Station. What is it like to live in space for such a long time? How did it change Kuipers’ worldview? According to Kuipers we are in fact all astronauts, on a fragile spaceship, called Earth. What valuable insights does space travel provide us, so that we can take better care of our planet? And what will the future bring; sustainable rockets and a manned mission to Mars? In cooperation with KIVI Students Twente and Space Society Twente.

    Moderator: Jennifer Herek, Dean of the Faculty Science and Technology

  • Wednesday evening: Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal - Who will be the next President of the USA? (Eng)

    Wednesday 22 May | 19:30-21:00 | Vrijhof/Agora

    Skirmishes over the US presidential election in November 2024 have been dominating the news in the last years. Who will succeed Joe Biden as the 47th president? Biden again? Or will Donald Trump survive all court charges and rise again? Or will a new candidate surprise us? The elections are important because America is a very dominant country. Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal gives a current state of affairs. He is a distinguished journalist who studied American studies, was NOS correspondent in the US for many years and made the television series Droomland Amerika (2016) and De slag om Texas (2020) in the run-up to earlier elections. In cooperation with Sirius.

    Interviewer: dr. Nolen Gertz, Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy (UT)

  • Thursday lunch: Hans Schnitzler - Digital detox — a philosophy of digital abstinence (NL)

    Donderdag 23 mei | 12:45-14:00 | Rond 13:30 is er een korte pauze, gevolgd door Q&A | Vrijhof/Agora

    Are we all turning into smartphone zombies? This pressing question is posed by philosopher Hans Schnitzler in his book Digital detox (2023). As an experiment, he had students undergo a week-long digital detox. Their testimonies raise uncomfortable and fundamental questions about our relationship to the screen world. 'I only now realise how numb I am all the time,' one of his students declared. Is the smartphone actually still at the service of us, or are we at the service of the smartphone?

    This program is in Dutch.

    Moderator: Peter Timmerman (Studium Generale)

  • Thursday evening: Melanie During - The last spring of the dinosaurs (Eng)

    Thursday 23 May | 19:30-21:00 | Vrijhof/Agora

    Tyrannosaurus rex and Brachiosaurus. Their names sound familiar, yet we only know what their bones tell us about them. Why are we so fascinated by these giants and why does their mass extinction intrigue us so much? Paleontologist Melanie During MSc (PhD-candidate Uppsala University) discovered that the meteorite that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct must have struck in spring, 66 million years ago. How did she make this stunning discovery? During is author of the Dutch book De laatste lente van de dinosauriërs.

    Moderator: dr. Eric Mulder, former curator museum Natura Docet and lecturer 'Origins' @Honours program (UT).