NFA

NIAS Fellows Association

The NIAS Fellows Association, NFA, is the alumni organisation of NIAS. Its principle aim is to promote “the optimum functioning of NIAS for the benefit of past, present, and future Fellows at NIAS”. It also aims to promote “the bonds between all those who have been associated with NIAS”.

The Association was founded in 1977. It yearly organises the NFA Day to which all members are invited. The highlight of the NFA Day is the Uhlenbeck Lecture named after the founder of NIAS, Professor E.M. Uhlenbeck (1913-2003). It is delivered by one of the former NIAS Fellows.

The NIAS Fellows Association also contributes to the opening day of every research year.
The NFA played an important role in the mid-1980s in defending the interest of the Institute at the time when large budget cuts in Dutch academia threatened NIAS’s existence. On various occasions the NFA has donated commemorative art works, such as Trophy by Peter Kattenberg.

Membership is open only to (former) NIAS Fellows and Staff.

The NFA currently has 1200 members. The life-time membership fee is € 100 for Fellows from universities in the Netherlands, and € 75 for Fellows from outside the Netherlands. To join the NFA, please contact Rita Buis.

The NFA Board consists of:

Annelou van Gijn, Chair
Julia Noordegraaf, Secretary
Jan Lucassen, Treasurer
Aafke Hulk, Rector of NIAS, Staff Representative
Rita Buis, Personnel & Administration, Staff Representative

The 2011 NFA Day on 9 June 2011 was not only an entertaining and interesting event, featuring Johan Heilbron's Uhlenbeck Lecture “But What About the European Union of Scholars?”, it was also a very festive one at which the NFA presented NIAS with a gift to mark NIAS's 40th anniversary. The gift consisted of a wall painting of the poem @NIAS  by Maria van Daalen, Writer-in-Residence 2009/10, painted by Hendrik Ribot on the west wall of the NIAS Conference Building.