Naema Tahir, assistant professor of law at UCR, will defend her dissertation ‘The Arranged Marriage- changing perspectives on a marital institution’ on November 6th, at Utrecht University. Her dissertation answers the question: “What do we mean by arranged marriage? The research goal is to understand the arranged marriage from within the tradition. In other words, from within the own social context in which it is practiced. The focus in this dissertation is on British-Pakistani arranged marriages and covers the period after the post-colonial migration of Pakistanis to the United Kingdom. This dissertation is based on legal, philosophical, anthropological and sociological insights. Her supervisors are prof. dr. Barbara Oomen, professor of the Sociology of Human Rights and prof. dr. Bert. Van den Brink, Professor of Political and Social Philosophy and Dean of UCR.
Christian Blaha MA, MA teaches Composition in the Music Performing Program. He will defend his dissertation ‘What is possible in Middelburg, is not possible’ on November 4th, at Utrecht University. From the late 1960s onwards, the Dutch province of Zeeland’s capital Middelburg was to become the Dutch bridgehead of international avant-garde art. The city would hold this unique position for about two decades. Directly responsible for was the equally famous and notorious association Youth & Music Zeeland (Jeugd en Muziek Zeeland– J&MZ)/ New Music Zeeland Foundation (Nieuwe Muziek Zeeland – NMZ) with her nonconformist creed: ´We pick up everything another does not´. At the end of the 1970s, the association took the visual arts organizations Forum and De Vleeshal along in its artistic wake. Inspiring and cross-pollinating each other, the institutions together formed the ‘Middelburg Art Triangle’. This dissertation ‘What is possible in Middelburg, is not possible’ presents the impressive historical curve of J&MZ/NMZ, guided by extensive lively photographic material as a compelling triptych. Hence the years of enormous creativity of ´The Middelburg Miracle´ J&MZ/NMZ from the period 1969-1989 deserve to be kept in grateful and lively memory, partly in order to inspire future generations. His supervisor is prof. dr. Albert Clement, professor of Musicology at UCR, and Head of the Arts & Humanities department.