Diversity & Inclusion

Mission

The Diversity & Inclusion platform has since 2018 been engaged in the development of all aspects of diversity and inclusion to create a safe learning and work environment and social justice for everyone within Erasmus School of Law. The platform points out current issues around this theme and connects, supports, exchanges information and gives advice to everyone within the faculty.

Prof. Franziska Weber has been appointed as Faculty Diversity Officer to safeguard the realization of Diversity & Inclusion within Erasmus School of Law.

Contact: diversityesl@law.eur.nl.

News

Erasmus School of Law

Launch of the Diversity Calendar ‘Diversity Days’

In recent months, we have been working hard within the Diversity and Inclusion Platform of Erasmus School of Law on an inclusive and diverse calendar, called 'Diversity Days'. This calendar includes holidays of world religions, days of commemoration and awareness in the context of inclusion such as the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, World Autism Day and International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. You can easily add the calendar to your own Outlook calendar, without showing that you are 'occupied' due to a day from the Diversity Calendar. Follow the guide below to make Diversity Days part of your own Outlook account and from now on be aware of several interesting days.

For questions and/or comments you can always contact us at diversityesl@law.eur.nl.

Start of the Mentor Project 2022-2023

Last Friday, January 20, the opening drinks and thus the official start of the Mentor Project took place. The aim of the program is to link first-generation students to experienced professionals working in practice or academia, whereby several contact moments will take place. This will enable first-generation students to orient themselves towards a career in legal practice or law, with an emphasis on developing professional skills. Scientific research shows that first-generation students experience special challenges during their studies, but especially during the transition to the professional world. The focus of the project is also on diversity, both regarding the group of students and the range of mentors (view our list of mentors here).

Getting to know each other

During the opening drinks, the paired mentors and students were able to meet each other for the first time. First, a presentation was given about the program content, after which students and mentors participated in an exercise in which they could introduce themselves in a creative way. The linked mentors and students were then sent out in pairs to discover the new Langeveld building and to get to know each other better. After the walk, everyone gathered again for drinks.

Content of the program

In the coming months, the students and mentors will see each other at least once a month, where they can organize their meeting themselves. The students will also receive workshops aimed at personal growth and professional skills and will have several intervision moments with a career coach. In June, there will be a closing drink to look back on this pilot version of the Mentor Project.

For more information, contact mentorproject@law.eur.nl.


 

Minor D&I

A successful first year of the Minor Smart Perspectives of Diversity & Inclusion

The approach to diversity and inclusion in different contexts can be seen as an important and complex theme of our time. Therefore, Emese von Bóné, Associate Professor at Erasmus School of Law, and Paul van de Laar, Professor of Urban History at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, set up the new multidisciplinary minor Smart Perspectives of Diversity & Inclusion in this academic year.  During the minor, students have looked at diversity and inclusion from a historical, judicial, economic, sociological, criminological and cultural perspective. The cultural dimension is of fundamental importance in the discussion of inclusiveness. Culture is the connecting link in the minor, making the new minor unique within Erasmus University Rotterdam.  On 10 November 2022, the students gave their final presentation based on Oscar Wilde’s Salomé case study, with music by Richard Strauss. The final presentation took place in a court setting in the Aula of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.


 Prof. Annelien Bredenoord
Erasmus School of Law (Photography: Anne Knoop)

Women@ESL met with rector

Women@ESL is the network for all female employees of Erasmus School of Law which has the goal to strengthen the female community and engage in gender-balance and diversity related topics. On 24 June the network met with Prof. Annelien Bredenoord, the first female rector of Erasmus University Rotterdam for a Q&A. In an open and vibrant atmosphere participants could ask questions about the university’s diversity policy, but also share their diversity-related experiences and give their constructive feedback.


Erasmus School of Law (Photography: Anne Knoop)

Meet & Greet Rechtbank Rotterdam

On 11 May, ESL, in collaboration with Rechtbank Rotterdam, organized a meet and greet for interested students. During this meet and greet 'law, society and diversity' was the primary theme. Among the speakers present were not only judges, but also judges in training. After each speaker introduced themself, the students were split into groups and matched per round with one of the speakers so that the students could ask them questions and start a conversation about the role of diversity within the justice system. The meet and greet ended with a drink in the Erasmus Paviljoen where all participants could exchange contact details with each other.


Vrouwen in academia
Erasmus School of Law (Photography: Michelle Muus)

Towards forming a female community at ESL

In January 2022 Women@ESL met yet again in an informal atmosphere to foster their community and to discuss gender- and diversity-related topics. Women from various departments, career stages and from both academic and administrative support staff groups were present. Two important initiatives formed the core of the discussions: 1) pursuing more transparency in ESL decision-making with a view to ensuring diversity and 2) a mentoring program @ ESL.

To further build and foster the sense of community, Women@ESL decided to organize informal get-togethers every last Friday of the month. The first one of these drinks will take place on February 25, 16-17:00 - please save the date! Some program activities are also being planned. All Women@ESL will receive an invitation, but please do get in touch in case we by accident missed you.


Erasmus School of Law

New minor SMART Perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion

Yesterday, we had a highly educational and fun afternoon, discussing Diversity in student populations from a psychological and pedagogical perspective, led by Dr. Jacqueline Schenk. This session is part of the new minor SMART Perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion, organized by Dr. Emese von Bóné (Faculty of Law) and Prof. dr. Paul Van De Laar (Faculty of History, Culture, and Communication) at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Together with 22 international students, we discussed various aspects of diversity, the importance of the context when discussing and evaluating diversity, and how aspects of diversity affect the way we make decisions!.

Thank you to everyone who was there and made this afternoon a success! With special thanks to Menno, Anouk Opschoor and Jolanda Opschoor from Brownies&downieS in Capelle aan den Ijssel for the wonderful lunch and your enthusiastic presence at Erasmus University!


Erasmus School of Law

New Partnership between ESL and Bridges Network Foundation

Last March 24, ESL and the Bridges Network Foundation established a partnership to increase inclusiveness and diversity in legal practice. The Bridges Network Foundation is an initiative of various professionals who work or have worked at law firms in the Netherlands that aims at linking students with a multicultural background and law firms. The cooperation agreement between ESL and the Bridges Network Foundation aims to narrow the bridge between the universities and the legal profession. This will manifest itself in practice by increasing the connection between law students with a bi-cultural background and employers in the legal profession, in order to provide interested students with an extensive network and to increase knowledge and awareness with regard to law firms and the legal profession in the Netherlands in general. Practical examples of what this cooperation can entail include organizing (online) meetings where experiences can be exchanged that touch on cultural diversity and working within the legal profession. In addition, lectures will be organized where an external speaker will tell more about the importance of cultural diversity in large organizations such as law firms. ESL's Diversity and Inclusion Platform will be closely involved in this collaboration. Follow Stichting Bridges’ activities here.


Erasmus School of Law

CLI fellowship on inclusion research in teaching

Dr. Nina Holvast and Dr. Willem-Jan Kortleven have been granted a CLI fellowship for their proposal ‘Voorbij het deficitdenken: naar inclusiever onderwijs en diversiteitsbeleid aan Erasmus School of Law’ (‘Beyond deficit thinking: towards a more inclusive education and diversity policy at Erasmus School of Law’). This fellowship is given out by the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI) and allows them both to devote 1 day a week over the course of the next 2 years to this project. The D&I platform is happy to collaborate with this important research.

For their prior research on this topic, please see here.


Erasmus School of Law

Minor Diversity & Inclusion

Dr. Emese von Bóné and Professor Dr. Paul Van De Laar have developed the MINOR Smart Perspectives of Diversity&Inclusion for Bachelor students of Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Universiteit Leiden and TU Delft. It is English-taught and multidisciplinary!

Erasmus School of Law (ESL) and Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC) offer this new, multidisciplinary minor Diversity & Inclusion starting in the new academic year (September 2022). It is one of the great but also complex themes of our time. Aspects of History, Law, Economics, Social Sciences, Criminology and Liberal Arts will be presented in this minor. The cultural dimension is of fundamental importance in the discussion of inclusiveness. That is why ARTS & CULTURE serves as a unique connecting link in this minor.

You can send an email to vonbone@law.eur.nl if you have any questions.


Erasmus School of Law

Research on Diversity in the educational material of Bachelor Erasmus School of Law

In 2018, the Diversity&Inclusion Platform conducted a study regarding the diversity in the educational material in the Bachelor. Because the Bachelor's degree programs of Erasmus School of Law work with problem-based learning (PBL), the majority of the educational material consists of so-called 'problems'. In these problems (similar to cases) actors appear. In the research conducted by the Diversity&Inclusion Platform, the actors in the problems were classified according to gender (m/f/unknown), name (western/non-western) and status (low/neutral/high). The aim of this study was to determine whether there is diversity and equality in the educational material (e.g. equal distribution of men/women) and whether the actors in the educational material are a somewhat representative reflection of society and student population (use of Western and non-western names). Finally, it was investigated to what extent the status of the actors is divided over the gender and background of the characters used.

The Law, Tax Law and Criminology programs each have three years with eight blocks. Eight problems are used in almost all blocks. In this study, nearly 500 problems were investigated and the actors were classified.

The 2018 study showed that the majority of the actors used in the problems are male (69%) compared to 31% of female actors. In 2018, 77% of the actors had a Western name, compared to 23% of non-Western names. In addition, the status assigned to certain actors was regularly stigmatizing. It was striking that, for example, a mayor in a problem was always a man and a victim was often a woman. Perpetrators of problems more often had a non-Western name than lawyers, for example. The table below shows the results of the 2018 survey:

Table 1: Results of research for diversity of educational materials in 2018

Year

%male

%female

%Western name

%non-Western name

  • B1 Law
60,5%39,5%72,9%21,5%
  • B2 Law
71,1%28,9%71,1%24,4%
  • B3 Law
61,4%38,6%83,1%12,0%
  •  
    
  • B1 Crim*
65,0%35,0%95,5%4,5%
  • B2 Crim*
78,7%21,3%87,2%12,8%
  • B3 Crim*
54,8%45,2%45,2%54,8%
  •  
    
  • B2 Tax L*
61,0%39,0%89,9%9,2%
  • B3 Tax L*
76,4%23,6%71,2%8,5%

*Only the courses that do not overlap with the Law courses are included.

The results of the research in 2018 were shared in the Bachelor's deliberations. The block coordinators have indicated that they take a critical look at the diversity in their teaching material, and some block coordinators have requested the results of their own course. It is important to mention that the differences between the subjects are large. There are subjects that already did well in 2018 in terms of diversity in the actors, but there were also subjects where there was room for improvement.

The survey was conducted again in 2021 to determine whether the educational material has become more diverse and inclusive in the past three years. This research has shown that many courses show a (small) positive change compared to the situation in 2018. Many subjects have included more female actors in their problems and the actors have a more diverse background. However, this does not apply to all subjects and unfortunately the differences are marginal on average. The table below shares the results of the 2021 study:

Table 2: Results of research on diversity of educational materials in 2021

Year

%male

%female

%Western name

%non-Western name

  • B1 Law
60,5%39,5%72,9%21,5%
  • B2 Law
71,1%28,9%71,1%24,4%
  • B3 Law
61,4%38,6%83,1%12,0%
  •  
    
  • B1 Crim*
65,0%35,0%95,5%4,5%
  • B2 Crim*
78,7%21,3%87,2%12,8%
  • B3 Crim*
54,8%45,2%45,2%54,8%
  •  
    
  • B2 Tax L*
61,0%39,0%89,9%9,2%
  • B3 Tax L*
76,4%23,6%71,2%8,5%

*Only the courses that do not overlap with the Law courses are included.

The differences between the two moments of investigation are clearly shown in the table below.

Table 3: Differences between results from 2018 and 2021

Year

%male

%female

%Western name

%non-Western name

  • B1 Law
-5,7%+5,7%-9,9%+8,6%
  • B2 Law
-3,2%+3,2%-2,9%+15,4%
  • B3 Law
-3,4%+3,4%+9,4%+6,8%
  •  
    
  • B1 Crim*
+16,2%-16,2%+3,8%+0,2%
  • B2 Crim*
+4,9%-4,9%-1,7%+1,7%
  • B3 Crim*
-20,2%+20,2%+20,2%-20,2%
  •  
    
  • B2 Tax L*
-6,0%+6,0%+7,3%-6,1%
  • B3 Tax L*
+0,9%-0,9%-23,3%+2,9%

The percentages do not always add up to 100%, because actors whose gender or name are unknown are also included in the calculation. For example, an increase in the percentage of Western names does not automatically lead to a decrease in the number of non-Western names. In the coming period, the Diversity Platform will make further efforts, in collaboration with all lecturers, to make the educational material even more diverse and inclusive, so that the actors involved in the problems are a good reflection of the (student) population.

If desired, the results per subject can be requested by the course coordinator from Stephanie Wagener (wagener@law.eur.nl) or Masuma Shahid (shahid@law.eur.nl).


Erasmus School of Law

International Multidisciplinary Summer School

The international multidisciplinary Summer School was held from 26 to 28 August 2021 and covered topics of diversity and inclusion via the music of the West Side Story. The Summer School stressed the importance of diversity and inclusion. Diversity was approached from a historical, legal, sociological, economic, criminological and cultural perspective. The Rotterdam Conservatory (Codarts), the Wereldmuseum and museum Boijmans van Beuningen provided the cultural approach towards diversity. Two workshops were given in a multicultural setting. The Summer School showed that diversity is multi-interpretable and allowed the students to take an out-of-the-box approach towards the theme of diversity and inclusion.

The Summer School was organised by Emese von Bóné of Erasmus School of Law and Paul van de Laar of Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

For more information watch our video on International Multidisciplinary Summer School.

Women in academia evenement op vrijdag 5 november 2021

Women in Academia event

Upon invitation of Dean Suzan Stoter female researchers were invited to a Women in Academia event on Friday, 5th November 2021. During the event they discussed the experiences of women in academia with Honorary Doctorate holder professor Katharina Pistor. They talked about career choices, challenges and female leadership. The event was as an opportunity to meet, to acquaint, to have fun and to share in an interactive session to strengthen the inclusiveness and with that the quality of the academic community of Erasmus School of Law. Inspired by this kick-off event, plans were made for various future meetings involving women and men!


Erasmus School of Law

New collaboration with Orde van Advocaten in the making!

The Erasmus School of Law diversity platform is teaming up with the‚ Platform inclusie en diversiteit‘ of the Orde van Advocaten. This is an association of 37 lawyers founded in February 2021 to foster diversity and inclusion in the advocacy. The goal of the envisaged cooperation is to raise awareness of the current diversity culture in the advocacy and to jointly enhance it. Erasmus School of Law with its very diverse student population is a natural candidate for such a collaboration. Project ideas that concern among other a mentoring program are currently being worked out.


Erasmus School of Law

Meet-up with the advocacy

Stichting Bridges Network aims to further connect students with a multicultural background and employers in the (commercial) legal profession in order to help interested students gain a wider network and to increase their knowledge and awareness of (commercial) law firms. Are you a bachelor or master law student with a multicultural background and are you curious about the stories of lawyers who work at commercial law firms? Then sign up for a meeting about cultural diversity at commercial law firms!

When: Thursday 18 November 2021, 15.30-17.00.

Registration: possible until November 15, 2021 via info.bridgesnetwork@gmail.com. There are only limited places available at the office, so sign up quickly! First come, first serve. Other participants can also participate digitally via Microsoft Teams.


Erasmus School of Law

Han Entzinger Award for the Best Master Thesis on Migration and Diversity

The Erasmus Migration and Diversity Institute organises the annual Han Entzinger Award for the Best Master Thesis on Migration and Diversity. Master theses from any MA or MSc program at Erasmus University Rotterdam are eligible. Nominations may only be made by the master thesis’ first supervisor(s). Supervisors (from any EUR/ISS department) may nominate max. 1 master thesis. The nominated student needs to have graduated during or since the 2020-1 academic year. To nominate, please send a copy of the master thesis with a short (3-4 line) motivation to Nathan Levy (levy@essb.eur.nl). The deadline for sending in your nominations is 17:00 on 8 November 2021.

An award jury will review the nominated theses on the following criteria:

  • The thesis provides an innovative perspective on migration and diversity
  • The thesis is based on a sound methodology and research design
  • The thesis provides an excellent contribution to the academic literature on migration and diversity (either in migration studies or in a mainstream discipline)
  • The thesis is well-written and structured

The award jury consists of Prof.dr. Susanne Janssen (ESHCC), Prof.dr. Peter Scholten (ESSB), and Dr. Nanneke Winters (ISS). The jury is chaired by Prof.dr. Han Entzinger. The winner will be announced in mid-November, and presented at the next EMDI seminar on 25 November 17:00.


Erasmus School of Law

Building New Blocks

Building New Blocks offers financial support to EUR students and staff for developing and evaluating projects that aim to promote equal opportunities in primary, secondary, and higher education. Do you want to pilot a mentorship programme for Rotterdam's high school students? Do you have an idea that can increase students' sense of belonging?

Then apply now!

Deadline: 30-06-2021 or 30-09-2021


Erasmus School of Law

Athena Award Nomination Invitation

The FAME Athena Award recognizes staff and students who make a substantial contribution to the position of female talent within the academic environment.

Do you know an initiative which has made an extraordinary contribution to the position of female talent within the EUR or Erasmus MC?

Nominate these colleagues or students for the FAME Athena Award!

You can nominate the initiative with all members included through the webform until Friday 10th September 2021! The criteria and guidelines regarding the nomination of an initiative can be found in the regulations. Questions? Email: Fame@eur.nl


Erasmus School of Law

ECHO Awards

Students can be nominated for the ECHO Award 2021, a prize organized by the Expertise Centre for Diversity Policy, for excellent talent with a non-Western background in higher education. The ECHO Award consists of a Summer Course at UCLA in the United States, access to ECHO’s extensive and participation in ECHO's leadership program. Students who stand out because of their entrepreneurial spirit, organizational skills, active social involvement and constructive approach to challenges related to exclusion, can be nominated.

For further information visit the ECHO Awards website.

Deadline for application: 14-6-2021 (09.00 AM)


Erasmus School of Law

Diversity, jurisdiction and society

The judiciary plays an indispensable role in our society; a society that is constantly changing. This requires continuous growth of the judiciary and, within that development, diversity is more of a central value. To give this theme the attention it deserves and to introduce students to the judiciary in a personal way, Erasmus School Law is organizing a Meet&Greet.


Campus Woudestein

EUR voted most inclusive employer

Recently EUR was voted the most inclusive employer of 2020. The 'De Bart' award was presented via NPO Radio 1 (Dutch only) and was accepted live by HR policy advisor Judith Wiskie. 'De Bart' was named after Bart de Bart, who founded SWOM (Foundation for Customised Studying & Working). SWOM aims to help Young Professionals with a disability progress in their professional life and career.


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