spring!

Spring is in the air, and things are happening! Well, at least I am determined to smell spring and discern a very spring-like quality in the sunlight. Plus, all the signs of spring are undeniably cropping up: lovely sneeuwklokjes (snowdrops) on a plein in Den Haag a couple of weeks ago, the return of some very chirpy songbirds outside of my window, the increasing masses of tourists, and of course, the return of GreenPeace and other charitable canvassers on all the busy street corners!

Last week this change in the air made me feel restless for change myself, but this week it's making me aware of all the things I have to do before I head back to Canada (and all the things I have to do once I'm back in Canada - but, maybe there I'm getting a bit ahead of myself!).

This week, on top of all the usual things, I had an interview on Monday (yay!), had to finish preparing my own paper to be presented at a reading group next week on questions of the culturalization of citizenship (eep!), am attending another reading group on Thursday afternoon about national identities (nice), and am looking forward to what looks like a really interesting discussion Thursday evening: "Echt Nederlands" (Real Dutch; unsurprisingly, the site is also really in Dutch).

Frank J. Lechner (a Dutch-American sociologist; I read his book), Ergün Erkoçu (an architect), Willemijn Maas (director of the AVRO), and Pieter-Matthijs Gijsbers (director of the Openluchtmuseum Arnhem) will be moderated by Kees Ribbens (researcher at the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie) in their discussion about the dynamics of Dutch identity formation: "Hoe veranderen ideeën over Nederlanderschap en wat is hierin de rol van maatschappelijk beleid en cultuurpraktijk?" (How are ideas about Dutchness/ Dutch nationality changing, and what is the role of social policy and cultural practices?) The discussion is going to be in Dutch, so even though I think I'll have my work cut out for me trying to keep up, it should be really interesting. If you're keen on attending, entry is free, and the event is from 19:00 to 21:00 March 11th (Imagine IC – Bijlmerplein 1006-1008 - Amsterdam Zuidoost, 1 minute walking from station Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena).