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Celebration Diversity Day | Intersectionality

On Tuesday, October 7, 2025, we are celebrating Diversity Day with a focus on Intersectionality*. From 12 pm to 6 pm there will be a symposium organized by nine diversity networks of HU University of Applied Sciences, UMC Utrecht and Utrecht University. 

After a powerful keynote about intersectionality by neurodiversity expert, Rosalie Ekstein, you can choose two workshops.  Workshops include cultural sensitivity training, digital accessibility and having sensitive conversations from an intersectional perspective. You can also have your professional photo taken in a safer space and discover what your aura says about you.  We are closing the day with a borrel where you can further connect with the different diversity networks. Registration for one of more parts of the day is possible until Friday 3 October. Everyone is welcome! 

 

This event is being organised by Netwerk USP Inclusief (soon to be named U-AccessAbility) with support from the following networks: 

Programme 

In the registration form you can register per workshop. 

12.00 – 12.30: Walk in with coffee and tea

12.30 – 13.40: Keynote (ENG)

13.40 – 14.00: Break

14.00 – 15.00: Session 1, choice of workshop 

15.00 – 15.30: Break

15.30 – 16.30: Session  2, choice of workshop 

16.30 – 18.00: borrel 

All parts of this symposium have intersectionality as a starting point. We are organising the event with a continual focus on inclusion and inclusive language. 

Content

Keynote ‘Neurodiversity: neuroqueer from an intersectional perspective'(ENG)

During this seminar, Rosalie Ekstein (they/them) will take you on a journey through the world of gender and sexuality within the neurodiversity movement. The concept of ‘neuroqueer’ will be introduced and linked to other identities. This intersectional perspective offers insight and guidance for anyone involved in social inequality, HR, or neurodiversity. Rosalie is a sociologist-philosopher, neurodivergent, including neuroqueer, and supports organizations with change processes.  

 

The keynote will be closed with words from John de Wit (Diversity Dean of Utrecht University) and Elena Valbusa (Diversity Officer of HU University of Applied Sciences).

All day exhibition 

Exhibition Taboo 'Tabee' by GSA (HU University of Applied Sciences)
Muslims from the LGBTIQ+ community often face discrimination because of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Their struggle goes beyond an internal dialogue. They are faced with questions about how to fit into their environment, and what if you also struggle with your gender identity? The Taboo Taboo exhibition breaks taboos through the personal stories of seven people who are all queer Muslims. The exhibition is open throughout the symposium and can be visited without registration at the Instituutsplein. (Padualaan 101).
Analyse your aura by CultuurConnect (UMC Utrecht)
What does your aura say about you? That’s a good question. Throughout the day, we experience different emotions and moods, and these affect your energy balance. As a result, your aura is constantly changing, and with it, the color of your aura. During a 15-minute session, a sensor measures the different frequencies of the energies in your body (which together form the aura of the human body) in real time. Various graphs are used to display the information gathered. .

Session 1 – workshops

1. Living Library 'Voices of Migration' by Incluusion Community (ENG)
Voices of Migration invites you to step into a living library where current and former Incluusion students share inspiring stories about their lives. These personal accounts highlight resilience, creativity, and identity beyond the label of “refugee.” The aim is to challenge stereotypes and open space for genuine connection and understanding. Sessions will be limited to 15 participants to keep the dialogue personal and engaging. Everyone is welcome to join, listen, and ask questions in a safe and respectful environment.
2. Workshop on culturally sensitive guidance for Caribbean-Dutch students by CariMix (HU University of Applied Sciences) (NL)
This workshop is in Dutch, for a full description please go to the Dutch website: u-accessability.nl/agenda/diversity-day.
3. Intersectionality and sensitive conversations by Network USP Inclusive (NL)
This workshop is in Dutch, for a full description please go to the Dutch website: u-accessability.nl/agenda/diversity-day.
4. Professional Photography 'Looking professional' by Queer@UU
In this session, you’re invited to take “professional” profile pictures in a safe(r), welcoming space. Our wonderful photographer, Lyz Soraya (they/them), will spend a few minutes with each participant to create photos that feel like you. Alongside the photoshoot, we invite everyone to reflect on what it means to look “professional” and to share experiences and ideas in a group setting. This workshop is especially intended for marginalized communities (e.g. queer, BIPOC, and disabled folks are warmly encouraged to join). The session will be held in English, but Lyz also speaks Dutch. After the workshop, you’ll receive 2–3 edited photos via email. We’ll provide a few small extras (like a mirror and makeup remover), and you’re always welcome to reach out to us if there’s anything else you’d like to have available.

Session 2 – workshops

1. Digital Accessability by Network USP Inclusive (NL)
This workshop is in Dutch, for a full description please go to the Dutch website: u-accessability.nl/agenda/diversity-day.
2. Group dialogue about lgbt+ themes and its relation to intersectionality by BeYou! (NL)
This workshop is in Dutch, for a full description please go to the Dutch website: u-accessability.nl/agenda/diversity-day.
3. Hidden Curriculum by Network USP Inclusive (ENG)
Do you want to become more aware of your own implicit behavioural patterns and expectations in your classroom? Do you want to share your hidden expectations about what it means to behave like a “good student”? Then come to this workshop on the hidden curriculum. Connected to the USO project “playing the hidden curriculum,” this workshop delves into the unwritten social and cultural rules that speak from the routines, rituals, and institutional structures in our education system. We discuss how the hidden curriculum creates an unlevelled playing field for students who lack prior familiarity with those rules (like first generation students and ethnic minorities), potentially negatively impacting a student’s self-image and sense of belonging. We make the concept concrete and palpable by sharing stories of (first-generation) students struggling with these unwritten rules and work with participants to playfully explore how the hidden curriculum manifests itself in their own classrooms.
4. Session 'Sip and Paint' by ACHN (ENG)
Our concept is a “Sip & Paint” experience featuring unique African tea flavors. The session will be guided in English, with the theme: “Home is… The Art of Belonging.” Through this welcoming space they will be encouraged to express and reflect on what “home” and belonging mean to them, creating a deeper sense of connection and clarity within themselves. Everyone is welcome to join, including students and staff.
5. Workshop 'Navigating the D&I landscape – the Diversity & Inclusion Reflection Tool HU University of Applied Sciences as a Compass (NL)'
This workshop is in Dutch, for a full description please go to the Dutch website: u-accessability.nl/agenda/diversity-day.

Practical information

Date: Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, from 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Location: Utrecht Science Park, HU University of Applied Sciences, Padualaan 101.

Admission: free.

For whom: this celebration is for everyone who works or studies at an organisation associated with Utrecht Science Park. This includes staff, managers, (HR-)professionals, and other interested parties.

Accessibility: the venue is wheelchair accessible and a quiet room is available. Can we help with anything else? Let us know when you register and we will look at the possibilities with you.    

Registration: you can register until Friday 3 October.  

Registration

*intersectionality is the acknowledgement that all forms of oppression, exclusion, and discrimination are connected. When several identity factors overlap, this can result in complex combinations of discrimination and privilege. Factors including, but not limited to, gender, race/ethnicity, (dis-)ability, neurodiversity, class, sexuality, religion, body type/weight, and age combine to create unique intersections. It is not simply ‘stacking several identity factors that can lead to discrimination’, also called ‘oppression Olympics’, as in ‘gosh, that person not only has to deal with sexism and trans hate, but also with Islamophobia and racism!’. Intersectionality means that it makes no sense to only advocate for the human rights of one group while another group is still being excluded. For example: if someone is advocating for the rights of white women, but not for Black women and other women of colour, they’re not intersectional. If someone is fighting against racism, but continues with ableism within their anti-racist movement, they’re not intersectional. The term was used for the first time in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw.