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Interview Busschbach to our difficult situation.’ He then tells me to the side: ‘As if anyone would care that we would be abolished, but we all were still very idealistic ’. He then continued the story: ‘I can still remember that it was a very cold and hard winter. We went out in the middle of the night of course because it was completely illegal. We did not want to be seen by the police. And so we had these leaflets and we also had a waste bag with glue in it, but it was so freezing that the glue actually froze inside of the bag so we really had to stop after two or three hours! We were so cold!’ Professor Liebregts goes on: As a second way of getting attention we also wanted to occupy the building of the Classical department, but we were very very polite and we first asked permission from the caretaker of the building whether he would allow us to have a sleep over. We were granted permission and we took our sleeping bags and we were off to the Classical department. I can still remember that I spent two nights in the office of my professor of Latin. He adds: ‘the caretaker was such a nice man; he stopped by the second night to see whether we were still okay and whether we needed anything. We on the other hand were trying to be fearless and wanting to make a point we were OCCUPYING the building! That shows that no one took it actually very seriously! As a last attempt we also wrote a letter in Latin to the pope in Rome to explain the situation and whether he could actually prevent the minister of education of abolishing our department and we actually got an answer from the Vatican! Well, not the pope himself of course but one of his spokespersons who said that ‘The pope regrets that these languages will no longer be able to be studied in Utrecht but I hope that you will understand that the pope has no say in these matters and cannot intervene in what seems to be a government affair.’ So in the end the department closed down and I was really one of the last to still graduate in Utrecht. The rest had to go to Leiden, Amsterdam or Nijmegen.’ After these fabulous anecdotes I asked him a bit about his job ‘What does a Professor actually do?’ ‘Basically what I do are 3 things: one, I have my research, so like anyone else I have to write a number of articles or produce a certain amount of researches a year. I also have of course my amount of teaching which ranges from first year students to MA students. As a professor you are also involved in all sorts of levels of administration which includes implementing new plans for the faculty, trying to improve on the program, to meet on a regular basis with other chairs of faculty departments, and I have assessment talks with the people for whom I am responsible, let’s say the literature people, on a yearly basis. So there are a lot of meetings and committee work involved, as well as the writing of official letters and reports.’ ‘And which part do you like best?’ ‘Teaching!! I also like research very much, but I find it almost more like a private sort of thing. As a researcher you are far less public and in touch with people, with the exception of going to a conference or keeping up contacts with those experts with whom you can discuss your work. In this sense, I think teaching is a more fun thing to do because there is more social interaction and I simply like to teach. Teaching is the most direct form of being occupied with your profession.’ ‘And which part the least?’ ‘Administration, because these administrative meetings can take for hours and sometimes after a few hours you think what am I doing here? Of course sometimes decisions are The Angler – Year 8 – <strong>Issue</strong> 2 13
Interview Busschbach being made, but in The Netherlands people like to confer endlessly about everything.’ ‘What was the highlight of your career thus far?’ ‘Perhaps people would expect me to say when I attained the full professorship, but no, what I really still see as the highlight of my career is getting my doctorate. So the fact that my PhD thesis was accepted, which I then defended here in Leiden. The rest that comes after is simply a result of that sort of investment of 4 years spending, well basically, on writing a book and hoping that it will add something to scholarship in the eyes of other academics. Getting my doctorate, then, that was truly the high point!’ Being at the top of his career, I asked him ‘What are your future goals? What’s next?‘ ‘At this point I am still a chair for a number of years so I want to survive these years, but I would like to have at a certain point a bit more time to do my research: to write things I still want to write. It would also be fun perhaps at a certain point to spend some time abroad. I was offered a job at an American university once which I turned down for personal reasons. I am not sure what I would do if they would offer it to me again.’ ‘Would going abroad be something you would want to do for career reasons or personal reason?’ ‘Personal, because I am quite happy where I am now; I still really like being here in Leiden. I think it is the best place to be at this point in my career. After these questions about his professorship and his plans for the future I still had a few short unrelated questions that I wanted to ask him. Even though the interview lasted over an hour and a half he was still very patient and more than willing to answer some more questions. ‘Name the one thing you could not do without?’ ‘My daughter’, he said with full conviction! ‘When people really get to know you what are they often surprised to learn about you that most would not have guessed?’ ‘Ha ha, that I go to U2 concerts.’ ‘What is in your opinion U2’s best song?’ He tells me that he cannot pick just one song and that he likes all the songs on the album Achtung Baby (1991) (Click link to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJP iKvb5fmc ) He says: ‘I think they never topped that and I can still listen to ALL the songs on Achtung Baby. They are still excellent!’ ‘What is your favourite novel?’ ‘James Joyce’s Ulysses! It is a cliché, but it really got me into English. I am teaching it now for the 3 rd time and I am reading it for the 6 or 7 th time. Every time I discover new things. Such a great book! I have been reading it for more than 30 years now. It stood the test of time for me.’ ‘What is your favourite quote?’ ‘It's hard to single out particular quotes, but I have noticed that on certain occasions, certain lines from Ezra Pound's Cantos come into my mind as this is a poem which is also a text (like Ulysses) which has been with me for most of my life now, and which I never tire of reading. So two lines from that long poem seem to have a certain significance to me: “In the gloom, the gold gathers the light against it.” (from Canto XI), and “So The Angler – Year 8 – <strong>Issue</strong> 2 14
Page 1 and 2: The Angler Interview with Professor
Page 3 and 4: Content Page Content Editorial 2 Ph
Page 5 and 6: Philology Rutten Dessert is compris
Page 7 and 8: Literature Hansen From Hogwarts in
Page 9 and 10: Linguistics v.d. Meulen In other wo
Page 11 and 12: Language Acquisition Brentjes Ethio
Page 13: Interview Busschbach After getting
Page 17 and 18: Culture Allinson Christmas in Engla
Page 19 and 20: All Things Albion Lokas Drinks, Mov
Page 21 and 22: Movie Review Baumann Nostalgic Noel
Page 23 and 24: Going Abroad v.d. Meulen Going Abro
Page 25 and 26: International Student Brotchie Eric
Page 27 and 28: Creative Writing Contest Anonymous

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