Diversity Week 2026

Workshop: Inclusive Language

How inclusive is the language you use every day? In this interactive workshop, you'll actively explore inclusive language in everyday university settings. Using the UG’s Inclusive Language Style Guide, you'll work with real-life examples to identify and rephrase non-inclusive wording.

We’ll touch on topics like gender, identity, ability, cultural background, and common Dutch-English pitfalls – but the focus is on practice, not just theory.

You’ll leave with greater awareness, practical tools, and more confidence in your communication.

Hot Moments in the Classroom: Practising Academic Freedom When Free Speech and Social Safety Collide

Teaching is where academic freedom is practised, not just discussed. Yet lecturers regularly encounter hot moments: a student says something others experience as harmful, a discussion about Gaza, climate, gender or medical-ethical dilemmas turns confrontational, or nobody dares to speak. In these moments, freedom of expression, social safety and academic freedom can pull in different directions.

This workshop treats academic freedom as a skill that can be developed. Working with cases from their own teaching, participants explore what happened, what was at stake, and what could have been done differently. Together, we build a practical repertoire for opening up difficult topics, making disagreement productive, and creating a learning environment that is safe without being conflict-free.

After the workshop, participants will be able to recognise hot moments early, identify what is at stake, choose from concrete interventions, and articulate their own boundaries and position as a lecturer in a way that fits their discipline and teaching style.

Interactive session: Feeding the Monster: Rethinking Feedback in Diverse Teams

Giving and receiving feedback is challenging enough. Add an intercultural dimension, and concepts such as honest, respectful, and constructive can mean different things to different people. In STEM education, these differences can quietly affect collaboration.

In this interactive session, you'll explore why feedback is often "lost in translation." Using Mitch Hammer's Intercultural Conflict Styles (ICS) framework, you'll discover how cultural communication preferences shape the way people give and receive feedback.

You'll then put these insights into practice by playing Feedback from a Monster, a role-play-based serious game developed within the international ENLIGHT CoCreate project and piloted in the UG Bachelor's programme in Artificial Intelligence. The game provides practical tools for fostering more inclusive collaboration and more effective feedback in STEM learning environments.

Workshop: Bringing Equality to D&I

Diversity and Inclusion has become the language of institutional progress, yet inequality persists, and in many places, deepens. This workshop asks a thought-provoking question: has D&I, as it is often practised today, become part of the problem?

In many organisations, D&I has shifted from a movement for social change to a management tool. Representation has improved, but underlying power structures often remain unchanged.

Drawing on political theory, institutional critique, and real-world examples, this workshop explores how D&I can be repoliticised by focusing on the systems that reproduce inequality. Together, we will examine what it means to pursue genuine equality, rather than simply managing inequality more effectively.

Workshop: Giving Voice to Values

How do you find your voice and act on your values when they're tested in the workplace? This interactive, skill-buillding workshop moves beyond asking "What is the right thing to do?" to "How can I get it done effectively?" Together we will explore practical ways to respond in the face of pushback, practice strategies for speaking up, and strengthen the confidence to align actions with values in real-world situations.

Walk and Talk

Trade your usual lunch sport for some fresh air … and your usual lunch buddy for someone brand new!

Grab your lunch, head outside, and pair up with someone you’ve never (really) talked to before, maybe someone from a different team, a different country, or someone whose path you’ve never crossed. Over the next 30 minutes, find out what gets them excited about work, what they do on a lazy Sunday, where your worlds overlap, and where they wonderfully do not!

We tend to stick to people who feel familiar: same background, same interests, same lunch table. Totally normal, but it also means that we miss out on the people who could teach us something else. A 30-minute walk is a low-key way to cross that invisible line, swap perspectives, and maybe make an unexpected new friend along the way.

Stuck on what to ask? No stress: we’ll hand you a few conversation starters to break the ice. No small talk about the weather required (unless you really want to…).

Workshop: Inclusion starts with I (the impact of I on us)

In this one-hour workshop, the main question will be: what does inclusion actually mean in your work? And what can you as an individual do in your daily practice, team, faculty, and the university to make inclusion an everyday reality? Or should this be a joint effort?The workshop will have a world cafe format, with plenty of opportunity for exchange of views and experiences. At the end of the session, we hope you will leave with inspired ideas to take the next steps towards a more inclusive university.

Unwanted Behaviour During Your Internship: How Do You Recognise It, and What Can You Do About It?

During an internship, you may sometimes encounter situations that don’t feel right. Behaviour that crosses a boundary, comments that stay with you, or an atmosphere that makes you feel unsafe. But what exactly constitutes inappropriate behaviour, and more importantly: what can you do about it?

In this interactive workshop by ECHO, we will explore the themes of discrimination and inappropriate behaviour during internships. Through relatable scenarios, you will practise recognising behaviour that is not okay and explore how you can respond — both for yourself and for others.

Forget dry theory: you’ll actively engage with the topic, share your own experiences if you wish, and leave with practical tools you can use straight away. No prior knowledge is required — everyone is welcome.

What Is Sheltered Employment, and What Opportunities Are Available Within and Outside the UG?

The University of Groningen aims to be an inclusive university. An important part of this is sustainably employing and retaining people with disabilities or health conditions that may make it more difficult for them to find or maintain employment. Sheltered employment can provide additional support and opportunities for people who face barriers to finding or maintaining a job.

This may require adjustments to tasks, working hours, furniture, or other aspects of the workplace. During this presentation, job coach Maarten van Klaveren will explain what these adjustments can look like and what support is available.

We will discuss what sheltered employment (Afspraakbanen) positions are, what support measures exist, and what options are available both within and outside the University of Groningen. There will also be room to share and discuss experiences you may already have.

Are you a manager and would you like to learn more about what is involved in hiring and employing someone with a disability or health condition? Join this presentation during Diversity Week!

Please note: This presentation focuses primarily on participants with an HBO-level education or higher.

Story Café: Where Diversity Meets Social Safety

Step into a warm, welcoming space designed for genuine connection. Inspired by Nora Bateson’s Warm Data Lab meeting methodologies from the Art of Hosting, our Story Café moves away from statistics, precise solutions and rigid debates to explore the messy, beautiful and complex intersections of diversity and social safety through the power of human storytelling. We will provide the space and you are invited to bring your stories.

Grab a cup of tea or coffee, pull up a chair and join a table. Each table features a unique prompt designed to spark fresh perspectives, allowing you to share personal experiences, listen deeply, and wander between conversations - and allow ideas to cross-pollinate. There are no right answers or forced conclusions here - we aim to create a fluid environment to look at our culture through diverse lenses. Come share your story, hear others and help us weave a stronger, more inclusive university community.

Dilemma Game

How do you engage in fruitful discussions about issues related to diversity and inclusion? How can you find and practice solutions together?

The dilemma game uses dilemmas from everyday life that you use as conversation starters. Dilemmas to reflect on, respond to, discuss, and perhaps rethink in an environment without judgment or criticism, but where space is created to understand other opinions. In this workshop, we will discuss some of these dilemmas together.

Neurodiversity@university: Studying with ADHD and autism - research findings and experiences

More and more students are living and studying with ADHD or autism. Their brains process information in a different way and therefore they perceive, behave and communicate differently. This is also called neurodivergence - a form of neurodiversity. This session combines research findings, experiences of study advisors and lived experiences from the audience.

With brief talks by Dr. Yvonne Groen (neuro/biopsychologist), Drs. Jadwiga Michlewiz (former Research Master student in Psychology) & Dr. Novika Purnama Sari (education specialist).

Short Film Event - Stories of belonging, mental health, neurodiversity

Join for short films screening, followed by a discussion and reflection. We will watch stories that spread across topics of identity, community, mental health, creativity, neurodiversity and friendship. Join us if you are interested in learning more about the DEI, or if you are a film enthusiast who enjoys creative discussions, cozy vibes and movie snacks!

Beyond Nice: Kindness and Hostmanship as Professional Practice

What does it truly mean to welcome students into our institutions, especially across lines of culture and difference? Drawing on Jan Gunnarsson and Olle Blohm's concept of hostmanship and Catherine J. Denial's pedagogy of kindness, this interactive session invites participants to reconsider hospitality, trust, and compassion as foundations of teaching, as prerequisite rather than a complementary add-on.

We will offer educators and staff a chance to reflect on how genuine care can reshape classrooms and everyday academic life, and to look into possibilities within your own reach.
We hope participants leave with a renewed perspective and practical tools to bring back to their own practice.

The Mentor Games: Promoting Student Well-being through games

Discover how games can spark meaningful conversations about student well-being, safety, and inclusion.

In this interactive session, you'll experience two serious games developed for the Faculty of Science and Engineering's mentor programme for first-year bachelor's students. Through realistic scenarios on drug safety and social safety & consent, you'll explore how game-based learning encourages reflection, dialogue, and awareness.

Designed with the diversity of the student population in mind, these games offer an engaging way to discuss challenging topics and learn from different perspectives.

The Inclusive Teaching Art Walk

Do a 2-hour reflective walk along ten artworks in the city centre of Groningen. You'll get a booklet with background information and some questions about how the artworks can challenge, change or confirm your views on inclusive education.

You can do the walk with someone else, or on your own, at a time that suits you. During a special get-together in Diversity Week, you can exchange experiences and insights with other people who've completed the walk.

Plenary event with Rector Magnificus Jacquelien Scherpen

Join us on Thursday for the plenary event of Diversity Week, organised by the University of Groningen’s Central Diversity & Inclusion Office.

A key highlight of the programme is a conversation with Rector Magnificus Jacquelien Scherpen on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in higher education. The plenary will also bring together a range of speakers and perspectives to explore where diversity and inclusion stand globally and to address ethnic-racial inequality in academic careers.

Doors open at 11:30, with presentations starting at 11:45. Lunch Bites included

Programme

11:30 Doors open

11:45 The Global State of Diversity & Inclusion

presentation by Janet Jackson, Chief Diversity Officer

12:15 Dialogue with the Rector

Jacquelien Scherpen, Rector Magnificus

12:45 What would you do?

Table discussions & lunch

13:15 Putting D&I into Practice: what the D&I office do

Michaela Carriere, D&I programme manager

13:30 Inclusive curriculum: Who gets to be represented?

Jules Roboz, Stephen Jones and Jelmer Borst

Come along to hear different perspectives, join the conversation and connect with others from across the university community.

Making diversity our strength: how to harness diversity across our learning environments for pluri-perspective learning and transformation?

In universities like ours, people with different backgrounds, talents and walks of life learn and work together every day. How do we, as lecturers, recognise, accommodate and harness the multi-faceted diversity within our learning environments? Which diversities do we embrace, prioritise and ignore? Why create space to learn across boundaries?

In this Education for Lunch session, Marloes Ambagts draws on her PhD research to explore how and why you currently harness diversity in your work. She invites you to use pluri-perspective learning as a lens to rethink (y)our learning environments in dialogue with non-usual suspects.

This is a hybrid session. You can join us either at Zernike or online

Weaving diversity into a fabric of belonging

How do we create an environment where differences are not only acknowledged but actively contribute to a sense of belonging? During this creative ‘Do & Talk’ dialogue session, we will explore together what belonging means within the University of Groningen.

Through a guided group conversation, participants will share experiences, perspectives, and insights on diversity, inclusion, and belonging in everyday university life. At the same time, we will collaboratively create a large woven textile artwork. Each strip of fabric added to the weave represents a story, experience, or perspective that forms part of the UG.

By literally weaving together, we make visible how diversity and belonging are interconnected. The final artwork will serve as a collective expression of the many voices, backgrounds, and experiences that strengthen our university community.
The session will be facilitated by colleagues trained in the dialogue and participatory methods of Art of Hosting. No weaving experience is required. Only curiosity, openness, and a willingness to engage with others.

Seen and accepted: fostering belonging through a neurodivergent lens

A sense of belonging significantly influences wellbeing, resilience, and academic success. Yet belonging does not arise spontaneously: it depends on genuine connection with others, on being seen and accepted for who one is.
Establishing such connection requires greater care when engaging with individuals whose communication styles or ways of experiencing the world differ from our own. Without adequate awareness of these differences, well-intentioned interactions may inadvertently leave others feeling overlooked.

This session examines belonging through a neurodivergent lens. Our guest speakers Dr. Yvonne Groen, Drs. Jadwiga Michlewiz, Dr. Novika Purnama Sari (faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences) will present their research alongside professional experience as study advisors, offering insight into the conditions that support belonging for neurodivergent individuals.

The session will also draw on lived experiences from the audience. Rather than a one-directional presentation, participants are invited to contribute their own perspectives and questions throughout the discussion. Whether neurodivergent themselves, working with neurodivergent students or colleagues, or seeking to deepen their understanding, all participants are encouraged to engage.

Masterclass Inclusive Dialogues

What does it mean to engage in dialogue where everyone feels truly seen, heard and empowered to contribute?

Hosted by the Dialogue Team Social Safety, this interactive masterclass introduces you to some core principles of Participatory Leadership (Art of Hosting) - a powerful framework for facilitating meaningful, inclusive dialogues.

In this mini-masterclass, you will learn practical methodologies to work with collective intelligence. We will explore how to design conversations that bridge diverse perspectives, manage power dynamics, and foster psychological safety. Whether you are leading a seminar, chairing a committee, or managing a team, you will walk away with actionable tools to host collaborative spaces where every voice matters. Join us to transform how we connect, converse and co-create our culture.

Inclusive Curriculum Roadmap Kickoff

Have you ever noticed a perspective missing from your courses? Wondered why certain voices, authors, or ways of knowing are absent from the curriculum? Or found resources and perspectives that enriched your understanding of your field and deserve a place in the classroom? Join the launch of the Inclusive Curriculum Roadmap and learn how you can help shape a more inclusive curriculum.

In this session, we will explore how students can turn observations and ideas into constructive, evidence-based proposals for change. You'll connect with fellow students, learn about the pathways available within the university, and begin developing your own advocacy trajectory for the semester.

Whether you want to improve a single course or contribute to broader curriculum change, this roadmap offers practical tools, collective support, and opportunities to make a lasting impact. Your experiences and insights matter. Join us and help build more inclusive learning environments.

D&I Catalysts
A session for staff and students to discuss how to be change-makers to drive meaningful equity, diversity and inclusion progress in the Faculty of Law.