Meet Leiden Law School's new D&I officer
Starting on 1 February 2026, Nadia Sonneveld will work one day a week as the faculty's Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) officer. Here, she explains how she came to take on this role and her priorities for the coming months.
How did you become a D&I officer?
'I was actually asked if I would like to take on this role. After discussing it with my department, we agreed that I would do it for one year and working one day a week.'
What will you focus on as D&I officer?
'I’ll start by exploring Diversity & Inclusion within the organisation, focusing on staff and not (yet) students. First of all, I mainly want to get a feel for the 'temperature' within the faculty. What’s going on? What do staff actually understand by D&I?'
Why is this exploration important?
'It’s important because a university should reflect society. So, not only is it the right thing to do, it’s also a smart thing to do. This is why I’ll be doing a round of visits to departments and staff services. For me, this year will very much be an exploratory year: taking stock, identifying obstacles, and seeing what works.'
How will you approach this?
'Important advice to myself: invest time in your network and getting to know each other. I’ll attend the central D&I meetings and work with staff departments such as HR, M&C, Education, and Research. At other faculties, for example, D&I falls under HR and staff have sometimes been given structural hours to focus on it. So, I’ll have to divide my time and use it well. Unfortunately, I can’t be available to answer all D&I questions from the faculty.'
Have you already spotted certain matters that need attention?
'Yes – small, but important, things. For example, participation bodies often work only in Dutch, though they’re meant to be for everyone. Or practical things like arranging a sign language interpreter in time. I believe in clear steps: that's how you notice what works and what doesn't.'
What do you see as the core of D&I?
'Nobody fits the 'normal' standard. Think of ADHD, sexuality, disability, first-generation students and staff. The real issue is: how welcome do you feel? It’s all about making everyone, both students and staff, feel safe and at ease. This also helps retain and attract top talent, while at the same time building a broad, forward-looking organisation.'
The new D&I officer is available for one day a week via: D&I@law.leidenuniv.nl
Who is Nadia Sonneveld
Nadia Sonneveld is Associate Professor at Leiden Law School, Leiden University, affiliated with the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society. She has a multidisciplinary background in anthropology, Arabic, and Law. Sonneveld conducts legal-sociological research on law and family law, religion and migration in the MENA region, and on empirical conceptions of justice and dignity in post-conflict societies, with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon.
One important project she recently concluded is Living on the Other Side, which studies how migrants in Morocco experience important life events such as birth, marriage, and death within formal and informal legal frameworks.
She is also involved in multidisciplinary initiatives such as Picturing Scholasticide, an exhibition on the destruction of higher education in Gaza.
In 2024, together with former D&I officer Susanne Deen, she made the film Going Beyond Gender with funding from an NWO Aspasia grant which aims to accelerate the advancement of women scientists.
Nadia is one of the initiators of Scholars for Scholars Leiden, which was set up in 2024 within the research programme The Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a Pluralist World (EPFR). This initiative has now become an official LUF fund. Scholars for Scholars aims to create a sanctuary for at-risk scholars.