Radboud Philosophical Facutly Journal

Categorie: Off the Record

  • Off the Record with Marilyn Kallasse

    Marilyn Kallasse is a woman on a mission. She’s a 21-year-old international student from Estonia. Not content with simply studying PPS, she is the Chair of F.C. Sophia, and can often be found working at the Coffee Corner at the UB.

    Rather than starting by asking you for a fun fact about yourself, can you tell me a fun lie about yourself?

    ‘‘I can’t lie. I physically can’t lie. I have never successfully lied in my life. I don’t know. There are no lies… there is only truth. That is not a good answer, but YOLO. I can tell you a fun fact about myself, though!’’

    Oh! Go for it.

    ‘‘I am very intrigued by countries ending with -stan. Two days ago, I watched an hour-long video about Turkmenistan. They have all the Guinness world records for having the most marble buildings in their capital. Did you know that?’’

    I did not know that!

    ‘‘Now you know!’’

    What’s your favourite -stan country?

    ‘‘I am intrigued by Kazakhstan… the capital looks like a mixture of Dubai and Las Vegas together, and I am very intrigued by this. I watched a documentary about it, and the nature is very beautiful, so I am going to go there one day.’’

    What is it like to do a full-time study, a part-time job and a board year all at the same time?

    ‘‘…It’s sometimes a very silent, loud scream… Sometimes it’s hard, but I’m a big fan of time management. To be honest, right now there are only two things in my mind, board and work. I rest is kind of like, in the background. It’s stowed in my filing cabinet. It is tiring, but I’m trying my best and right now I’m doing fine with it. I feel like an actual businesswoman, ‘cos I need to have my phone ringer on all the time. It’s a thing.’’

    Speaking of being a successful businesswoman, what gives you a feeling of achievement?

    ‘‘If we talk about doing a board year, I think the most fulfilling feeling is when someone notices that I did this thing, or that thing, and says: ‘this was very nice’. I’m a big fan of words of affirmation. I’ve been getting a lot of ‘good job’s’ and pats on the back, and I’ve been going ‘whooo!’. It’s so goofy.’’

    Do you have some wisdom for us?

    ‘‘I don’t wanna sound too cheesy, but I think people should be more kind to themselves. If there are days where you feel like you can’t do anything, like if you went to the library for 9 hours and all you did was Buzzfeed quizzes, that’s fine. I try to practise with myself saying that it’s okay, life goes on, and I shouldn’t hold it against myself. I think some of my friends struggle with this as well. It’s okay to realise at 12pm on a Monday that you’re done and you can go home. We ball. And some of us are bald…’’

    [to me, as an aside] ‘‘You know how in courtrooms they have those keyboards to write everything down in shorthand? You would be so slay at that, typing all this down. It would be so slay.’’

    If 2016 was the year of realising things, what was 2023 the year of?

    ‘‘I mean, I feel like people started realising things in 2016 and STILL haven’t fully realised everything. 2023 is – okay, another very cheesy answer – but it’s about being kind to yourself and others, and it’s just… I don’t know, life is hard and there is inflation, like, beer is getting more expensive, it’s all a lot. But I feel like at the end of the day, what we have is other people and ourselves and we should just be kind.’’  

    What is your favourite word in every language you speak, and what does each word mean?

    ‘‘So in Estonian, my native language, my mother tongue, the word is ‘tohuvabohu’. It means chaos. It’s a goofy word because, like, you can literally use it for anything. It’s the Estonian equivalent of ‘goofy chaos’. It rolls very nicely off the tongue. It’s not a common word in the Estonian language anymore, like, you would hear a grandmother say it. I think that’s very beautiful.

    In Dutch it’s definitely the word ‘smoorverliefd’, because it means being ‘head over heels in love’ with someone, and I think it’s so nice in Dutch that it’s only one word. In other languages you have to use a lot of words to get the point across. But the Dutch came up with just one word for it, and I think that’s really beautiful. Also, shoutout to Doe Maar for writing a great song.

    I think my favourite word in English… is an adjective, though. Does an adjective count as a word?’’

    If I answer the question, am I allowed to keep this part in the interview?

    ‘‘Yeah… I guess… An adjective is a word, right?’’

    Yes.

    ‘‘Okay… It’s probably goofy! Because with goofy, you can give away so many things. ‘That’s goofy’, as in, ‘I think that’s weird’, ‘that’s goofy’, as in, ‘I think that’s funny’… if I don’t know what to say, I can say ‘goofy’. It’s a good word.’’

    Is it kind of like when Paris Hilton says, when you don’t know what to say, you can say ‘That’s Hot?’

    ‘‘Yeah, literally.

    …Oh, and I don’t have a favourite word in German.[1]’’

    Which musical album changed your life?

    ‘‘I think the album that has had a genuine physical effect on me was the first time I listened to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on the trolley to work – we have trolleys[2] in Estonia, goofy – and that’s when… I’ve always, you know, been surrounded by music, but that was the moment when I really realised what music can do to people. And it’s a great album!’’

    What are you reading right now?

    ‘‘I haven’t started a new book, but I love Dolly Alderton, and I just finished a book by her where people write prompts to her and she responds to them. Sometimes women in their 20s can feel like they need to have a boyfriend, bla bla bla, and what she writes is that the biggest loves in her life have been her friends. I think that’s really important.

    Next, I’m going to read Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma. It’s about a woman who moves to a different planet to start a new life. But I haven’t started, I’ve only read one page.’’

    Speaking of starting a new life, what are your hopes for the future? Where will you be, and what will you be doing?

    ‘‘I see myself staying in Nijmegen and doing my Master’s here as well, maybe another board year. Then, I would like to work, for example, as an ambassador one day. I would like to be the Estonian ambassador in the Netherlands… but maybe that’s too ambitious.’’

    Do you have any final messages for the Universe, before I end the interview?

    ‘‘Please come to F.C. Sophia’s Lustrum activities, it’s going to be really fun!’’

    Anything else?

    ‘‘That’s it!’’

    [1] I have received word that ‘tohuvabohu’ is also used in German. It is originally a Biblical Hebrew word meaning ‘primordial chaos’, i.e. the formless chaos/void before creation.

    [2] A trolleybus is an electric bus that gets power from overhead wires.

  • Off the Record: FTR Coffee Corner’s Bert

    From the moment I enter the 15th floor’s coffee corner, I am welcomed by the ever-warm and comforting smell of coffee. On the table lies a crossword puzzle, glasses and an empty cup. “Can I get you something?” Bert asks, holding a small stick of liquorice in the left corner of his mouth. “Coffee, please,” I answer. He pours us both a fresh cup of hot black coffee and while we settle down at the table next to the bar, the great view of Nijmegen accompanies us. 

    Bert works on Mondays and Thursdays at the coffee corner on the 15th floor of Radboud University’s Erasmus building, which houses the spirit of Philosophy, Theology and Religious studies. Since the thinking mind needs a lot of coffee to process all that has been read and written, it seemed like a good idea to interview Bert who, together with Yolande, takes care of this precious place we all need in our daily lives.

    “So, Bert, can you tell me something about yourself?”

    “Well, I am Bert, originally a carpenter. Previously, I did maintenance for student housing. And my hobbies are birds and working with wood to make things.”

    When I ask Bert what he likes to make, a whole story unfolds in the morning of a regular but quiet day. He has just created a couple of parrot-trees from wood for his volunteering job at an elderly home where he is creating a birdhouse. Apart from doing all kinds of activities with the elderly, he also likes to cook. Right now, he is experimenting with spices from Greek cuisine, a very relevant region to the 15th floor. He is also very interested in antiquities. He tells me he owns a few massive books containing catholic illustrations which he absolutely loves. And that is not all. In his earlier days, he worked at what is now called Orientalis, the former biblical open-air museum, where he created museum pieces based on Roman archaeological excavations. Moreover, he is very skilled in renovating pieces of furniture, and in the past, he restored playgrounds to construct any furniture that his family had ever dreamed of.

    “Need to check if there is still enough coffee.”

    While greeting the incoming personnel, Bert heads off to the bar. When he returns, I ask him how many cups of coffee he drinks during the day, and what his favorite coffee is. He answers: “I think, well, it is a little bit less right now, but on average, 12-14 cups. I used to drink fresh filter coffee, but now we have Senseo at home, the dark Senseo. Nice, with a layer of foam on top.” And when I continue to ask for his favorite pastries on the side, he adds: “Just cookies. Regular plain waffle cookies. The only pastry I really like is schuimgebak.”Freely translated, it is a foam-pastry (again, the foam!). 

    We talk about all sorts of subjects, but a very important part of Bert’s life has not yet been addressed, so I return to the subject of birds. His eyes begin to sparkle when I ask him about his favorite birds.  “Colored canaries. And a putter. Well, actually, it is a goldfinch, but here, we call it a putter[1]. Beautiful bird to look at.” He shows me some pictures and videos of these beautiful, tiny creatures. His favorites are the red colored ones, mosaic-like, and we both listen to the charming, bright whistles of these birds. An amusing fact: because of his elaborated whistle-hearing abilities, Bert discovered that he was a little hard of hearing. “At one time, I entered the shed and I wondered, why don’t I hear the birds? Those sharp tones were just gone.” We both laugh. “Let’s see if there is enough tea left.” Whistling to himself now, he makes sure that everything is always in place and taken care of. 

    Next year, Bert will retire, and because he doesn’t have a yacht to run off to Dubai with, I ask him what he plans to do. He wants to continue his work as a volunteer at the elderly home, touring around on his moped, and specifically, he would like to spend his days fishing. He adds: “Then… I completely relax (…) I personally prefer the ‘old-school’ solid stick, which is far more beautiful to use, because then you have a sort of feeling with it (…) and when I am tired, I will buy some coffee and a meatball for my friend and I, and all of it is just very relaxing.”

    Bert is a morning person, a listening ear, a calm and friendly man. He has found his way at the 15th floor and he stresses the feeling of involvement he experiences during his working days which is created by the people at the coffee corner. When I stop my recording at approximately fifty-five minutes, we continue chattering for another forty-five minutes about movies, his family, and all sorts of things. Serving ourselves a final round of hot coffee, we discuss the missing cups problem while the sun breaks through the clouded, rainy morning. Just another day at the coffee-corner…

    [1] ‘Het puttertje’ is famously known as a painting by Carel Fabritius and the book cover of Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’.

  • Off the Record – Veronica Vasterling

    Voor deze jubileumeditie van Splijtstof interviewden we Veronica Vasterling. Zij is een lange tijd verbonden geweest aan de FFTR en hield zich in die tijd bezig met politieke filosofie, genderstudies en wijsgerige antropologie. Afgelopen jaar ging Veronica met pensioen — een uitgelezen kans om nog eens terug te blikken op meer dan 30 jaar FFTR.

    (meer…)

  • Off the Record – Heleen Murre-van den Berg (part II)

    First of all, congratulations on your appointment as the Dean of our faculty. [1. This interview was translated by Janneke Toonders en Mireille Kouevi. The interview took place in September of last year (2021); the text has been somewhat updated to reflect the context of early March 2022.] You have challenging times ahead of you. To what extent did a sense of duty play a role in your acceptance of the position?

    I would say that a sense of duty certainly played a role. However, now that I have held the position of Dean for about two and a half months, I also notice that I enjoy it. It is a privilege to be in this position and to lead this organisation – I realise that more and more. As vice-dean, I was, of course, already involved in the process, but it is rather different to actually be in charge.

    (meer…)

  • Off the record: Heleen Murre-van den Berg

    Splijtstof erkent dat de inhoud van dit interview een gevoelig onderwerp aansnijdt en dat sommige mensen deze gebeurtenissen (of soortgelijke gebeurtenissen) hebben meegemaakt. Het is niet onze bedoeling iemand hiermee te kwetsen of van streek te maken. We publiceren dit interview omdat we het belangrijk vinden te erkennen wat er is gebeurd en passief zwijgen te voorkomen.

    Een paar dagen geleden werd bekend dat prof. dr. Heleen Murre-van den Berg de nieuwe decaan van de faculteit FTR wordt. Per 1 juli volgt zij prof. dr. Christoph Lüthy op. Professor Murre-van den Berg, hoogleraar Mondiaal christendom, was de afgelopen twee jaren vice-decaan en als zodanig ook belast met het dossier ‘sociale veiligheid’. Ze gaf leiding aan een faculteitsbreed cultuurtraject en ging daarover in februari van dit jaar met onze redacteuren Vera Naamani en Jochem Snijders in gesprek. Inmiddels is het cultuurtraject bijna afgerond, waarbij de laatste bijeenkomsten na de zomer zullen plaatsvinden als we hopelijk op de campus weer fysiek bij elkaar mogen komen. Waar relevant is in het navolgende interview met de huidige stand van zaken rekening gehouden.

    Lees verder…

  • Off the Record: Marc Slors

    Enkele seconden nadat Marc en ik elkaar hebben begroet via Zoom wordt Marc getrokken door de instrumenten, een Fender Stratocaster en een Epiphone Dot, die aan mijn muur hangen. Zoals iedere liefhebber richt hij zich direct op datgene wat hem zo aantrekt: muziek. Luisteren, maar vooral ook het spelen. In deze editie van Off The Record zal dit dan ook in het middelpunt staan.

    Wie college heeft gehad van Marc Slors kent hem als een spraakzame hoogleraar met bevlogenheid voor zijn vakgebied cognitiefilosofie. Naast zijn academische bezigheden is Marc echter ook een begenadigd muzikant die meerdere instrumenten kan bespelen: “Ik heb lange tijd gitaar gespeeld, en speel al heel lang piano en percussie, maar bas heeft nu mijn voorkeur.”

    Lees meer…

  • Off the record – Fleur Jongepier

    “It’s just the way I see things.”

    If I mention the name of Jane Goodall, most will know whom I am talking about. But if I mention the name Hugo van Lawick, will it ring a bell? Yet, it is thanks to Hugo that we have those beautiful pictures of Jane holding hands with chimps or letting them scratch her back. There is power in photography. The power of making an otherwise private and brief moment public and immortal. The power of selecting what has to be remembered and what can be forgotten.

    © Fleur Jongepier

    It is with these thoughts in mind that I prepared my questions to Fleur Jongepier, assistant professor of (digital) ethics at Radboud University, who agreed to talk about her passion for photography (which can be observed more extensively on her website: https://fleurjongepier.myportfolio.com/photography). We call on a sunny Thursday afternoon. As soon as Fleur appears on my screen, I notice the luminous interior of the room, and I cannot help but think that it is really the kind of room I would have pictured her in. I have never talked to Fleur before about this passion of hers, so to break the ice a little, I begin by asking her about the origins, so to speak, of her interest in photography.

    (meer…)

  • Off the Record – Christoph Lüthy

    The One with the Swiss Dean and a Bottle of Wine

    I have been wanting to write this interview for quite a long time. Everything started because Ted, one of our editors, told me (attention, SPOILER ALERT!) about an alleged piece of advice that Christoph Lüthy, professor in the History of Philosophy and Science at Radboud University and dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies, gave to Matt Damon (who, fortunately, didn’t follow it) and to some scones-eating British politician (who, unfortunately, didn’t follow it). This was the rumor I had been waiting for, but then the summer holidays arrived, the Italian seaside distracted me, the new semester started, and all sorts of things every student is familiar with happened. Like a good bottle of Brunello di Montalcino that you save for special occasions, this interview had been put on hold, waiting for the best moment to be written.  And it was still there waiting when the familiar voice of the interviewee himself greeted me with a lively “Buongiorno!” in the koffiehoek (15th floor of the Erasmus Building, the place to be for every philosopher in Nijmegen). The day to open that metaphorical bottle of Brunello di Montalcino had been set, but I needed some insights from one of the persons who knows prof. Lüthy best, namely his wife Carla Rita Palmerino, professor of the History of Philosophy at Radboud University and program coordinator of the Research Master in Philosophy. And no, if you were thinking about a love blossomed within the Erasmusgebouw’s walls, you would be mistaken. Their love blossomed in a way more romantic (but equally cold and foggy) setting, in dear old Scotland, as they recently revealed in an interview with VOX.

    (meer…)

  • Off the record: Paul van der Velde

    In de rubriek Off the Record praat Splijtstof met docenten en onderzoekers over hun bezigheden buiten de universiteit. Voor deze editie spraken we met Paul van der Velde, hoogleraar Aziatische Religies aan onze faculteit. Het gerucht ging dat Van der Velde in een vorig leven dolfijnentrainer was, maar dit bleek helaas een misverstand. Wel werkte hij voor diverse dierentijdschriften, waar hij een rijke dierenkennis en een nog rijkere verzameling anekdotes aan heeft overgehouden. 

    Lees verder…