Maranke Wieringa wins Diversity & Inclusion Award 2022
On Friday 25 March, the Diversity & Inclusion Award 2022 was presented by Diversity Dean Janneke Plantenga to Maranke Wieringa, PhD student in Humanities for their contribution to awareness about inclusion and ableism. The other two contenders for the award were Hamed Noori and Kinan Alajak.
In addition to the Award, Maranke receives a sum of € 2,500, which can be used to promote diversity at Utrecht University.
The Diversity & Inclusion Award 2022 was presented during a festive ceremony at the University Hall. It was one of the many activities that took place in the context of the Diversity month March. This year, the committee received eight nominations. All were of very high quality, according to Janneke Plantenga. The members of the jury were Marieke de Bakker, John de Wit, Aylin Kurtkaya and Brigitte Prieshof. All three nominees contribute in their own way to greater inclusion at the university.
Winner Maranke Wieringa is one of the founders and driving forces behind the inter-university platform Accessible Academia. The platform draws attention to the obstacles encountered by disabled academics and students at universities and provides a space for discussing these experiences. In addition, Maranke works with the platform to improve the position of disabled staff and students at universities. Maranke was involved in establishing a wheelchair catheter in the University Hall, and has been frequently interviewed on accessible working environment and their own experiences of inclusion at the university and is also active on social media. They are also taking steps to make education more inclusive. Courses have been converted to the Life Long Learning platform, allowing students to work at their own pace, and from a distance. The jury is impressed with Maranke's various activities, despite the obstacles they encounter in their daily work.
The other nominees for the award this year were Hamed Noori and Kinan Alajak. Hamed Noori was an Incluusion-student. Based on this experience, he founded the Online Coaching Center together with others in 2020, followed by an international platform for free coaching, the Online Coaching Community. His latest initiative is the Online Coaching Academy. He is seen as a role model for student wellbeing. The third nominee was student Economics & Business Economics Kinan Alajak. He founded the English Academy for Newcomers. The Academy helps international students better prepare on their education at Utrecht University. Furthermore, he launched the Refugee Wellbeing and Integration Initiative. He also is a member of the EDI Taskforce of the Utrecht School of Economics. The Diversity & Inclusion Award has been presented annually since 2019 to students and staff who are working to make the University more diverse and inclusive.