Cleveringa chair
The Cleveringa chair was installed by Leiden University in memory of Professor Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa and the courage he demonstrated in November 1940 during the German occupation . It also commemorates the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945.
The Cleveringa chair is held by a different person every academic year. The holder can be Dutch or international. This rotating professorship has been in existence since 1970. Its thema alternates annually between World War II and Peace, justice & security.
Cleveringa lecture by the Cleveringa professor
On or around 26 November, the Cleveringa professor delivers the Cleveringa lecture in the Great Auditorium of the Academy Building. The lecture is open to anyone who wishes to attend, particularly students and lecturers at Leiden University, but also other interested parties. The Cleveringa professor is appointed on the advice of a committee made up of the Council of Deans.
Holders of the Cleveringa chair
The first two Cleveringa lecturers held the chair for longer than one year.
Please note that, although the titles have been translated into English to give an impression of their content, not all lectures are available in English.
- 2023-2024 Frank van Vree: The Ritualisation of the Past. On the ‘Lesson of History’ for the Present
- 2022-2023 Gert Oostindie: Courage and Disregard
- 2021-2022 Barbara Engelking: The Attitudes of Poles towards Jews during the Holocaust and Jan Grabowski: Uses and Abuses of Holocaust History in Poland. An Overview
- 2020-2021 Roméo Dallaire: Are all Humans Human? Ethical Responsibility in a New World Disorder
- 2019-20 Katja Happe: People make the difference - Personal perspectives from the occupied Netherlands
- 2018-2019 Corinne Dettmeijer: Human Trafficking in 2018: on justice, freedom and responsibility
- 2017-2018 Prof. Marjan Schwegman: Cleveringa en Meijers - Een weerbarstige geschiedenis van getuigen en overleven
- 2016-2017 Dr. Joanne Liu: Whose lives matter
- 2015-2016 Prof. J.P.H. Donner: European Cooperation
- 2014-2015 Prof. Carol Gluck: Doing Justice to the Past: 70 Years After World War II
- 2013-2014 Prof. Michael Ignatieff: Civil Courage and the Moral Imagination
- 2012-2013 Prof. Timothy Snyder: The Bloodlands, the Cleveringa Legacy and the Future of European History
- 2011-2012 Dr David Van Reybrouck: Democracy in crisis: the dangers of electoral fundamentalism
- 2010-2011 Prof. Hans Blom: ‘History is about people’
- 2009-2010 Dame Rosalyn Higgins: Ethics ands International Law
- 2008-2009 Ian Buruma: A question of Decency
- 2007-2008 Prof. Arthur Kleinman: Today’s biomedicine and caregiving: are they incompatible to the point of divorce?
- 2006-2007 Kees Schuyt: Democratic virtues
- 2005-2006 Louise Fresco: New food laws
- 2004-2005 A.P. van Walsum: Enemies and opponents
- 2003-2004 G. Salomon: Does peace education make a difference in the context of an intractable conflict?
- 2002-2003 Job Cohen on behalf of H.J. Geiger: Strangers
- 2001-2002 Th.C. van Boven: The past is never over
- 2000-2001 Nasr Abu Zayd: The Qur'an: God and man in communication
- 1999-2000 Max van der Stoel: Minorities and conflict prevention
- 1998-1999 Victor W. Sidel: Medicine and human rights
- 1997-1998 Ed van Thijn: Our valuable cultural heritage: on tolerance, non-discrimination and diversity
- 1996-1997 B.J. Asscher: Law, freedom and responsibility
- 1995-1996 no Cleveringa professor; lecture delivered by L. Leertouwer: Cleveringa's suitcase
- 1994-1995 A.R. Zolberg: Wanted but not welcome
- 1993-1994 T.A. Mensah: The group system in international negotiations: an appraisal
- 1992-1993 E.H. Kossmann: Bentham and Goethe: two inheritances
- 1991-1992 D.J. van der Kaa: Demographic dilemmas in a democratic Europe
- 1990-1991 H.J.J. van Beinum: On participative democracy
- 26 November H. Drion: 1940, looking back fifty years later
- 1989-1990 Sompong Sucharitkul: International law and international relations in a pluriform world
- 1988-1989 F. van Dam: The Third World as Fable
- 1987-1988 M.L.L.V. Storme: The trial: like in a mirror
- 1986-1987 P.R. Baehr: Human rights and foreign policy: en buitenlands beleid
- 1985-1986 H.A.J. Deleeck: The unequal distribution of social benefits and poverty
- 1984-1985 M.J. Lerner: The justice motive in social relations: adapting to times of scarcity
- 1983-1984 J. Kaufmann: On words and deeds. Problems of a new international economic order
- 1982-1983 E.L. Feige: Observer-subject feedback: the dynamics of the unobserved economy
- 1981-1982 Not occupied; 26 November lecture by L. de Jong: The relativity of historiography
- 1980-1981 A.J.F. Köbben: Holy fire: on the difficulties and opportunities of research on minorities
- 1979-1980 Ch.J. Enschedé: The power of legal science: government policy and social sciences
- 1978-1979 I. Samkalden: An international law on Human Rights: how to get there and how to maintain it
- 1977-1978 I. Adelman: Redistribution before growth: a strategy for developing countries
- 1976-1977 M.H. Gans: The Jews in the Netherlands
- 1975-1976 E.A. Shils: Intellectuals and political power
- 1973-1975 J. Tinbergen: How can we change power structures?
- 1970-1973 B.A Sijes: Some Marxist ideas on the take-over of political power in the past 70 years