Publications 

I am not Black, I am a UCU student By Marvella Zimbiri, on behalf of PoCCo It’s officially the beginning of my third and final year at UCU (finally). It also marks the third year that I’m the only darkskinned Black woman on campus. So let us state a problem that I have written about many times in this column: Where are all the Black people? You could argue Utrecht is a very white city, and sure, there aren't as many of us here as there would be in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, etc

*This column was written before the release of the film. Spain is on a roll this year, but with the many highlights, there are a comparable number of lows to address. One of the most pressing is the migrant crisis in Ceuta and the tensions it’s causing with Morocco and among Spanish people, really testing us as a nation. Similar to the rest of Europe, Spain is sadly seeing a rise in far-right ideologies among younger generations, fueled by racism, xenophobia and homophobia. T

While Sexual Market Value (SMV) is an established part of the female habitus, the magnitude of modern aesthetic upkeep really became visible when boys started punching themselves in the face. This generation's real-life American Psycho, popular streamer Clavicular, has promoted “Bone-Smashing,” hitting your face with a hammer to improve your jawline, since his teens. And Clavicular isn't niche. Longevity influencer Bryan Johnson reportedly spends $2 million USD annually on hi

“I’m having major brain fog.” Maybe you have said this after staring at the same sentence in your textbook for ten minutes without absorbing a single word. Maybe you thought this when you hiked the three million steps to your top Kromhout room and immediately forgot why you were there. Maybe when you opened your laptop to write an essay and somehow ended up “working on the formatting” for two hours. When our brains feel like they have been replaced by a bowl of lukewarm insta

If you’ve ever been to a concert, festival, or even a large gathering like a football game or the big countdown on New Year’s Eve, you’ve likely experienced the intense feeling of being connected to other people, even complete strangers, to the point that it sends shivers down your spine. A rush that lingers for days afterwards, even in a melancholic way that leaves you wishing you could experience it again and again. It is something much deeper and stronger than just shared

How Otobong Nkanga Presents the Multilayered Nature of Colonialism in Unearthed: Midnight By Saska Bourgoin Haspérue Far beneath the waves, a line taut with tension flows by, dragging with it semi-robotic, almost doll-like arms. Behind it, a giant net is loose in the current, and jellyfish narrowly escape its deathly pull. Vertically crossing the composition, jagged orange lines connected to minerals are visible. The whole tapestry shimmers, almost as a memory does. This piec

My curiosity with Meisje Op Kermispaard (lit. Girl on Carousel Horse) began three weeks ago. I stole a glance at the statue while rushing for cover from a torrential downpour. When I was back in the city centre a couple days later, I made a point to pass over the Stadhuisbrug and get a closer look at her. Usually equestrian sculptures are very serious business — intended to commemorate nobility or war heroes of times long passed. This one is distinctly silly. The horse’s mout

Among the various illustrious Spanish painters whose works can be found in museums around the globe, I would like to introduce one of my personal favourites: Néstor de la Torre. Néstor Martín Fernández de la Torre (7 February 1887 - 6 February 1938) was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to a well-off family, which gave him the opportunity to study under various teachers (including the painter Rafael Hidalgo de Caviedes in Madrid) before continuing his artistic education in

I am, and I don’t like it. By Leonoor Post If you’re ever wondering about others’ perception of you, I would recommend cataloguing what questions kids tend to ask you. Whereas adults just squint their eyes, size me up and inevitably get to some conclusion that satisfies them, children will ask anything they want directly, no matter how disapprovingly their parents glare at them. So it happens that they’re the ones most often wondering aloud what my gender is. Illustration by

Patriotism. Today, for many people it’s the defining characteristic of certain far-right parties. For others, it's sitting down to watch your national team play in some competition. For some it’s the virtue that pushes young people to enrol and go defend their home country. And yet, inside the walls of our campus, many people who were never patriotic when they still lived in their homeland are now firm supporters of said homeland. But how does this “expat-patriotism” phenomen

I have been wearing makeup daily since I was eleven years old. While this may seem shocking to some, to me, spending almost an hour a day making myself look the best I possibly can used to be a normal, necessary part of my day, almost like brushing my teeth. At the time, I did not think deeply about why I was so preoccupied with my appearance. I simply knew that applying makeup was enjoyable, and that it made me feel good. As I got older, I started to reflect more critically

Cannibal Capitalism, a book by American philosopher and political scientist Nancy Fraser, is a powerful critique of capitalism. It shows how the current system is consuming the planet, the system of democracy, and, alongside these, its very self. The following piece is not a detailed review or book recommendation (although you should read it, because it really is an amazing book), but rather a potential starting point for a discussion or debate that could extend across multip

“Where are you from?” This inevitable question we hear so often in our lives as we relocate and meet new people is mostly innocent, its intent being a quick and easy way to get to know someone. But to international students, this innocence is lost in the deep breath we take before answering as we wonder what to say this time. We weigh our options, pivoting between the boring “It’s complicated” and the long “Well, I was born in X, but my parents are from Y and Z, and I feel mo

What would it take for you to go vegan? For me and a few of my friends, all we needed was a challenge, at least for a week. Indefinite veganism, though, would take a bit more consideration. But what am I willing to give up for my values? What steps am I willing to take? I currently (aim) to eat vegetarian. Of course, there are exceptions, but I don’t cook meat for myself and I aim to avoid it elsewhere. The decision, for me, was almost purely ecological, as going plant-based

This summer, from the 26th of July to the 1st of August, Utrecht University (UU) hosted the European University Debate Championship (EUDC) for the year 2026. 375 participants split into 200 teams originating from a total of 33 countries. Out of these 200 teams, 35 were Israeli and originated from institutions complicit in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Furthermore, a number of these participants were confirmed to be past members of the Israeli occupation forc

A few days ago, I picked up a phone call from a friend. She was in tears, and after a long moment during which I could only hear her faint breaths on the other end of the phone, she started, slowly, to explain. She said, in a broken voice that sounded like she was on the brink of collapsing, that she had seen someone the night before who reminded her of a past love, and that she had been crying ever since. The vulnerability of her voice made it sound as if this encounter had

What does it mean to support the killing of our home? Imagine the world as pristine as the Holocene. Forget machines, forget every large scale extraction, use, abuse, production and consumption. What would we do with our world if we could start again? Would we repeat our decisions, continue to support the killing of our home? Or would we change our behaviour and redesign our systems? In the spirit of hope, trust and imagination, I would say yes. To some extent we already liv

Sometimes I miss my high school teachers. Of course, I had a few that I disliked, but none of them frustrated me like some of my UCU professors. I’ve met professors here who seem very passionate about the things they teach yet fail to convey their knowledge to students. In my time at UCU I’ve met three types of bad teachers: incapable professors, mean professors and confusing professors. They have made me think about why these types of teachers specifically appear at universi

The first Pride March was held in 1970 in New York City, and since then, June has become a celebration of identity and hope throughout the world. Utrecht has its own Pride, which features a boat parade and street parties all over the city. This year, it was on June 6, but there was another Pride event that weekend, even closer to home: our own campus’s festival! From June 4 to June 7, QueerCo hosted an on-campus Pride Festival in collaboration with over fifteen other committ

In your time at this college, you will likely hear a lot about how “UCU is a bubble, and you should try to break it from time to time by seeking out entertainment or hobbies in the city”, etc., etc. I certainly found it true that, with its lovely, enclosed campus and relatively small community, this place can lull you into thinking that you don’t need anything else (groceries be damned; that’s what silent dinners are for). But I don’t want to talk about The UCU Bubble™. The p