In the poem, Dickinson, who loved birds, pictures hope as a bird. I would in particular like to thank Professors Tony Platt and Carol Serron for their insights and inspirational speeches on this topic, as well as Ian Loader and Richard Sparks for making me think more deeply about my role as an academic through their 2013 publication Public Criminology?, and last but not least my wonderful PhD students for being already so aware of their role as public intellectuals and for asking all the right questions leading to stimulating discussions.īefore I proceed, I would like to share a poem by Emily Dickinson, which is called ‘Hope, is the thing with feathers’ and was published in 1998 by R.W. In this post, I draw on a series of discussions I have had over the past two years with close colleagues and friends who are all grappling with the question on ‘how to make both a social and a scientific/ academic impact’ or perhaps put more simply, how to balance activism with academia and figuring out what ‘activism’ could entail. Yet, as I will argue, in doing this, we need to keep reflecting upon ourselves: as a network, as public intellectuals and as humans. Because, even though it might be easy to lose hope while being confronted with all the hardships, unfairness and inequality that many of us encounter in our fieldwork, I am hopeful that we can and already do make a difference as a network. My central message is to have and to hold on to hope. This post is a condensed version of this speech. I had the honor to present the closing remarks for the ‘ Beyond Critique’ seminar that was organized to celebrate Border Criminologies 5th birthday on April 19th and 20th, 2018. Post by Maartje van der Woude, Professor of Law and Society at Leiden University and Chair in the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society.

Hope is a feather