Inaugural lecture of Ms Dr. J.W. van Saane

cortege of inaugural speech Ms Dr. J.W. van Saane

The inaugural lecture of Ms Dr. (Dutch title) J.W. van Saane took place Friday 24 April last at the aula of VU University. I volunteered to photograph the event, but hadn't come round to post the photos as I fell down with the flue this past week. In the photo above Dr. J.W. van Saane is the woman immediately on the right of the beadle.

The two pictures above show the cortege, this is the procession of professors in their ceremonial togas led by the beadle who is holding her ceremonial staff. The photo immediately above shows the dean (fourth of the left) of the Faculty of Theology, Professor W. Janse, at VU University.

The procedure of an inaugural speech is quite simple: first the rector magnificus introduces the candidate.

Next the candidate takes the stage accepting the post as a professor, in this case Dr. J.W. van Saane accepted her post as professor in Education Theology & Religious Studies. In her inaugural speech or public class dr. J.W. van Saane explained what kind of education she meant by: "What I have in mind is education in which knowledge transfer, academic skills and scientific distance are combined with religious or philosophical identity-building."

front row (family side) at the inaugural speech

The cortege is seated at the front row of the aula at the right of the family. Shown above are from left to right: rector magnificus Professor J.W. Winter, Ms Professor M.M. Jansen (rector  PThU), Professor W. Janse (dean Faculty of Theology), unknown female professor, Professor B.J. Lietaert Peerbolte, Ms Professor H. Amirav, unknown male professor and Professor S. Paas.

Dr. J.W. van Saane after her inaugural speech

After her inaugural speech the dean of the Faculty of Theology, Professor W. Janse welcomed her in her post as professor. 

At the ending of the ceremony the cortege is allowed to leave the aula first, led by the beadle. Subsequently the afternoon was ended with the opportunity to congratulate Professor Van Saane during a reception at the foyer.

I very much enjoyed photographing this academic event, I just need to have more guts to be right in front of the audience and not to be too shy to come close to the stage. All I need to do is to relax a bit more and see the opportunities of the moment. Also, lighting was poor and I shot the whole event with a fixed 50 mm lens, which was fine but gave me little room for zooming in on my subject.

at the bar