{"id":115682,"date":"2020-07-15T20:18:26","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T18:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=115682"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:44:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:44:32","slug":"maria-grever-will-still-bid-farewell-with-or-without-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/07\/15\/maria-grever-will-still-bid-farewell-with-or-without-ice-cream\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Grever will still bid farewell, with or without ice cream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Grever has worked at EUR for twenty years, 19 of which she enjoyed tremendously. She considers professorship a privilege. From being able to conduct research to being in demand for numerous interesting committees, but also certainly giving lectures. She\u2019s not finding it easy to let go after all these years of hard work.<\/p>\n

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Maria Grever<\/span><\/p>

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\u2018Postponement\u2019 is not something that will quickly be associated with the ever-punctual Maria Grever, although it is an appropriate word for her departure. She was actually supposed to retire to emeritus status on 27 November 2019, but stayed on for a while at the Faculty Board\u2019s request. Grever has been emeritus professor since 1 April, but what about the planned departure? That was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

At the end of June, Grever gave an online presentation<\/a> of her new book Onontkoombaar Verleden<\/em> (Inescapable Past), but this was explicitly not a farewell event. \u201cWhen you leave you also want to thank people and you don\u2019t do that via a webinar\u201d, explained Grever. \u201cCertainly not after all this time.\u201d She was involved with the History department for some twenty years. Not only as Professor of Theory and Methods of History but also as Education Director, founder of the Centre for Historical Culture (2006), and in recent years as Head of the History Department.<\/p>\n

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The last meeting in which Maria Grever was head of the History department. (February 2020)<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

15 May 2020 was certainly circled in red for over a year in the diaries of Grever and Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). That was to be the day of her leaving do. The guests were invited, the hotel rooms were booked despite the Eurovision Song Contest running at the same time, and the menu for the farewell dinner had been finalised \u2013 with vanilla ice cream for dessert. \u201cAnd then the coronavirus arrived. That was a huge disappointment\u201d, stated Grever. \u201cI\u2019m still hoping that I can hold my farewell speech in the aula in late autumn, or in January 2021 if necessary.\u201d It\u2019s possible that this will not be as big an event as originally planned, since it\u2019s still not clear how the virus will develop. \u201cWe postponed it with a heavy heart and although the online book presentation was \u2018simply great\u2019, I could really do with a bit of closure, to coin a phrase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privilege<\/h2>

What next? Someone with a 31-page CV (\u2018and that\u2019s just a selection\u2019) is certainly not going to stay out of the action. \u201cPeople are asking me if I want to go travelling, but that\u2019s not for me\u201d, stated Grever. \u201cI like visiting France, Italy and Spain. But I really enjoy reading and writing and I deeply miss giving lectures.\u201d She will be starting a new challenge on 1 August, as NL-Lab research fellow in the KNAW Humanities Cluster. Research is being developed here on Dutch culture and identity. \u201cI\u2019m really delighted and honoured by this appointment. There are really good and inspiring researchers there and I\u2019ll be able to reflect on and discuss my new research with them, and vice versa, they\u2019ll be able to benefit from my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\tA new position as dean? \u2018Oh, no! That\u2019s nothing for me\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

ESHCC is still looking for a new Dean. Is that not an option? The answer arrives before the question finished: \u201cOh, no! That\u2019s nothing for me, and I\u2019ve been asked to take on such positions many times. It seems such a hard job and one that I don\u2019t find very interesting. My work was the ideal combination of doing research, writing, giving lectures and carrying out management tasks in my specialist field: History. The workload was always high, but I kept it that way because I enjoyed it so much. I\u2019m telling you: that position was a true privilege.\u201d There was a period in which I received a request a week for a committee, a prize-giving, lecture or \u2018something else really exciting\u2019.<\/p>\n

With heart and soul<\/h2>

Changes were introduced five years ago to keep the History study programme \u2018vital\u2019. Inspired by the then Rector Henk Schmidt, the teaching blocks in the first year of the bachelor degree were reduced so that there could be more focus on one course. And since then it\u2019s also been possible to follow the bachelor degree and master degree in English. The then Executive Board also decided that History should have a minimum number of students, and that lower limit was achieved easily each year.<\/p>\n

Grever is proud of each result she has achieved over the years: the increase in student numbers, all the research funds obtained by researchers, the research itself, but certainly the external research and education assessments. \u201cYou can\u2019t imagine how much work is involved in these assessments\u201d, she explained. The report<\/a> of a recent research assessment has just been received. For \u2018social impact\u2019 the department received an excellent, and a very good for both research and long-term perspective.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018I enjoy doing that together with colleagues\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

As recently departed head of the department, the success is also largely hers. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with heart and soul for the department and faculty since 2000, and have enjoyed everything most of the time. I\u2019m someone who likes to build something within my specialist field or related field and I enjoy doing that together with colleagues. The Centre for Historical Culture that I founded in 2006 is very precious to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet, all these fantastic results over the past few years have left a slightly bitter aftertaste. The Keuzegids selected the Rotterdam History bachelor degree as the best in the Netherlands for three consecutive years. \u201cThat was during my time as departmental head. This also happened when I was programme director (2002-2007). I used to receive a note or bunch of flowers from the Rector, but now we\u2019ve received nothing. Ab-so-lu-tely nothing!\u201d It\u2019s not a disaster, as she says herself, but she misses that token of appreciation.<\/p>\n

Where are the women?<\/h2>

The Chair of Grever has been empty since 1 April and there is still no successor. \u201cAlthough we were promised that.\u201d Interim Dean, Frank van de Duin Schouten is now also the interim departmental head. Grever hopes that a replacement will be found quickly because all her old tasks from giving lectures to management tasks are being carried out by her former colleagues. \u201cWithout a successor, even more work ends up on the shoulders of those who are already so overloaded. They\u2019re not robots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grever would not like to say who should take over \u2018her\u2019 Chair, as that\u2019s not up to her. \u201cAlthough I do notice that there is only one female structural Chair holder in the faculty. That\u2019s really disappointing.\u201d Ten years ago there were three women with a structural Chair within ESHCC. As well as disappointing, Grever finds it worrying that there\u2019s now only one.<\/p>\n

Grever says that it is extremely important for an organisation that it gets the gender balance right. Female professors are, for instance, not only needed for diversity, but are also vital as role models and contact points for younger women with academic ambitions. The lack of women in senior positions is not good for ESHCC, neither internally nor externally. \u201cActually in these times it\u2019s really stupid. And getting a female Dean won\u2019t help. It\u2019s simply vital that you also have enough women in the departments, and not only assistant professors but professors too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most difficult year<\/h2>

Grever looks back with real fondness on her work at EUR, with the exception of academic year 2018\/2019. \u201cMergers often bring out the worst in people, and that is what happened\u201d, she reflected. The merger of the faculty didn\u2019t happen in the end, but people really started to oppose each other. Grever feels that so much was lost that year. Money, time and trust. \u201cAll that wasted energy for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Disproportionate, out of control, intimidating and unbecoming of a professor\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Last academic year wasn\u2019t great for the faculty, but was a particularly bad one for Grever. In a departmental meeting, Professors Klemann and Wubs gave a vehement declaration of no confidence in the faculty management. According to them, someone from the faculty was said to have \u2018leaked\u2019 information to NRC Handelsblad<\/em> (daily newspaper) about the then Interim Dean Dymph van den Boom committing plagiarism. Intense, personal criticism was also directed to Grever. The words \u2018manipulative\u2019 and \u2018out for personal gain\u2019 were mentioned. The men left the meeting without awaiting the discussion. Grever: \u201cEveryone was shocked. Nobody went with them and we simply carried on with the meeting.\u201d She found their behaviour to be \u2018disproportionate, out of control, intimidating and unbecoming of a professor\u2019. \u201cThe most embarrassing thing was that this all happened just prior to the external education assessment, which is so crucial for a study programme.\u201d Immediately after their departure from the meeting an anonymous statement with the accusations they made about the four-member Faculty Board was sent to Erasmus Magazine. \u201cThe accusations were totally unfounded\u201d, stated Grever. \u201cThis also became apparent from the bizarre Hoffmann investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The behaviour of these two professors made Grever feel unsafe. Van den Boom had left by then and in a temporarily Dean-less faculty, there was no manager with whom those involved could discuss the events. Grever\u2019s criticism mainly applies to the lack of institutional support. \u201cApparently you\u2019re fair game if you\u2019re attacked, because there has never been any public rectification.\u201d In a departmental meeting at the end of last summer, the Interim Dean read a statement in which he expressed his condemnation for the professors\u2019 behaviour. Grever: \u201cHe also explained that Wubs, who was not present, had distanced himself both from the way they had acted and from the content of what they had said. I\u2019ve still never heard anything from Klemann.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Siep Stuurman and Maria Grever<\/span><\/p>

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Grever didn\u2019t lose any sleep over this until the moment that her farewell speech was postponed. When 15 May didn\u2019t go ahead, she missed closure. She experienced a little closure during the online book presentation. \u201cYou\u2019re the best colleague I\u2019ve ever had\u201d, stated historian Siep Stuurman at the presentation. \u201cFor me, your arrival in Rotterdam was a real opening to a better world. Not that the world before that wasn\u2019t good, but the world after was better. At least my world.\u201d Glowing praise at a farewell that explicitly wasn\u2019t supposed to be a farewell.<\/p>\n

Hein Klemann and Ben Wubs were both asked to respond. Both professors did not accept this offer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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