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De Vries - Van der Kooy Memorial Lecture

In 1996, the Dutch Studies Program was further enriched by the addition of the De Vries - Van der Kooy Memorial Lecture. Jan de Vries, a Dutch physician with the World Health Organization who taught at the University of Michigan, and Meindert van der Kooy, Director of Plant Operations at U of M, were instrumental in the formation of the Netherlands America University League in Ann Arbor. In honor of their extraordinary efforts to promote the study of the language and culture of the Low Countries, the annual De Vries - Van der Kooy Memorial Lecture has been held annually since 1996.

Previous speakers have included Richard Lauwaars, a member of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (1996), the renowned poet and award-winning biologist Leo Vroman on the "common ground" between science and the arts (1997), the humanitarian and heroine of the Dutch Resistance Marion VanBinsbergen Pritchard, who saved more than an hundred Jewish children (1998), the great scholar of Dutch-Indies literature E. M. Beekman (1999), the physician and Dutch parliamentarian Corrie Hermann (2000), and Holocaust survivors Jaap Polak and Ina Soep (2001). E. M. Beekman's wonderful lecture on Rumphius and Dermout, "A Different Magic: What a Naturalist Taught a Novelist," has since been published in a beautiful format. We would love to be able to publish the lectures in this series regularly if we could find the necessary financial support.

De Vries - Van der Kooy Lecture Videos

De Vries - Van der Kooy Lecturers

 Year  Lecturer
 1996  Richard Lauwaars, Jurist and Teacher
 1997  Leo Vroman, Poet and Scientist
 1998  Marion Van Binsbergen Pritchard, Rescuer and Humanitarian
 1999  Professor E.M. Beekman, Scholar and Author
 2000  Corrie Hermann, Public Health Physician and Parlementarian
 2001  Jaap Polak & Ina Soep, Holocaust Survivors and Humanitarians
 2002  Charles Gehring, Translator and Director New Netherland Project
 2003  Dr. Robert P. Swierenga, Educator and Historian
 2004  Philo Bregstein, Author and Filmmaker
 2005  Jonathan Israel, Historian and Philisopher
 2006  Susan Kuretsky, Art Historian and Educator
 2007  Rob Kroes, American Studies Scholar and Writer
 2008  David Barnouw, Historian and Author
 2009  Michiel Van Kempen, Writer and Caribbeanist
 2010  Anton Van Kalmthout, Lawyer and Criminologist
 2011  Ludo Beheydt, Cultural Historian and Linguist
 2012  Jane Wolff, Landscape Architect
 2013  Jan Willem Duyvendak, Sociologist
 2014  Russell Shorto, Author and Journalist
 2015  Irene Butter, Holocaust Survivor and Humanitarian
 2016  Ronald Bartlema, Editor-in-Chief NOS Jeugdjournaal
 2017  Gea Sijpkes, CEO of Humanitas Deventer
 2019  Bernice Severin, Social Worker Veilig Thuis Amsterdam

Archive: De Vries - Van der Kooy Memorial Lecture

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