For 75 years of academic endeavors at the UvA
Folia celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, October 13 to be exact. Starting this week, the editors will look back on each of those years every day with a (part of an) article or video, counting down to the day when the UvA's university magazine celebrates exactly 75 years.
Once every 25 years an anniversary is a special year. For Folia, 2023 is such a year. The “bulletin of the citizens,” as Folia once began, will be 75 years old this year, a special anniversary year. Under the title Folia Civitatis – magazine for the community – the magazine printed on newsprint, actually a kind of newspaper, first appeared on October 13, 1948. So Folia is celebrating its 75th anniversary in October, and that date looms large. Starting this week, the editors will pay daily attention to this special anniversary with the series “Folia Counts Down”.
The series consists of – you guessed it – 75 short historical episodes in which we count down daily to October 13. We will highlight the ups and downs of the University of Amsterdam as seen through the eyes of the editors. Each of the editors co-writes daily, with a different illustration each day, created by science editor Sija van den Beukel.
Academic endeavors
Of course, this is not the first time Folia is celebrating an anniversary. Former editors (some of whom are already very old) undoubtedly remember the beautiful golden jubilee year of 1998, celebrated in style with a party in the Oudemanhuispoort and honored with an anniversary book entitled Academic Endeavors, written by the now deceased former editor Jos Dohmen. The book’s subtitle is “The University of Amsterdam according to 50 years of Folia,” and this is how the editors of Folia still work: we report, bring news, and research the background of stories, and we do so as objectively as possible and to the best of our knowledge and belief, but also as seen through our eyes.
Print edition of Folia
What will the editors do this anniversary year? Well, we won’t be producing a large and beautiful anniversary book. But in October – for the first time since becoming an online medium five years ago – we will produce another print edition of Folia, specially dedicated to the anniversary and presented at a festive gathering in Crea.
This comes in addition to the history series we are starting this week. It is striking how UvA history repeats itself and how the university sometimes seems to stand still in the maelstrom of time: all kinds of issues that played out 10, 20, 50, or 75 years ago are still relevant and topical today: unequal access to the university, an occupation by the left or right, demonstrations, quarrels with university neighbors, deficits in the university budget, an excessive influx of students, professors who fall through the cracks and students who want more say.
The editors will report on these and much more in the coming months in the series “Folia Counts Down,” starting tomorrow with the year 1948.
