These are the nominees for the Casimir Prize 2025-2026
Three teaching teams – from Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Political Science, and Psychology – have been nominated by their colleagues for the Casimir Prize for 2025–2026. The winner will be announced on 8 September during the faculty’s opening ceremony for the academic year.
The Casimir Prize is awarded annually to a teaching team that has brought about renewal and innovation in teaching. The prize consists of €1,500, to be spent on team-building, knowledge-sharing or exchanges with internal or external parties. The jury report is also part of the prize.
And the nominees are:
Redevelopment Social Theories course (Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology)
Team: Sander Hölsgens, Siddharth Divakaruni, Nikki Mulder, John Boy, Jason Irwin, Liselotta Janke, Marit Pauwels, Sarah Bozuwa en Jasmijn Rana.
Under the leadership of course coordinator Sander Hölsgens, this team – comprised of lecturers, (student) members of the programme committee and communications staff – has revitalised the first-year module Social Theories. By incorporating podcasts featuring professionals, they have established a clearer link between theory and practice. In addition, they have implemented an innovative form of assessment, inspired by the concept of the ‘unessay’. In this way, they encourage students to take an active approach and teach them not only to apply theory but also to theorise.
Redesign Inleiding Vergelijkende Politiek/Introduction to Comparative Politics (Political Science)
Team: Petr Kopecký, Diana Dávila Gordillo, Jan Meijer, Jesse Doornenbal, Tim Kalkman, Benjamin Kester, Alexandros Ntaflos, Marieke van der Maden, Bernardo Reis dos Santos, Julia Puente Duyn, Virgilio Urbina Lazardi, Amber Lauwers.
In redesigning the Inleiding Vergelijkende Politiek/Introduction to Comparative Politics course, the team has developed an improved version of this foundational course in the bachelor across two tracks in Leiden and The Hague. The team introduced co-teaching in the lectures and achieved a deeper integration of the theory covered in the lectures and the academic skills taught in the seminars, ensuring that this course has well-coordinated content and a continuous learning pathway, and that students perceive the lectures and seminars more as a unified whole.
Workshop Entrepreneurial Skills in Innovations in Clinical Neuropsychology (Psychologie)
Team: Franz Wurm, Ineke van der Ham, Judith Schomaker, Marijn Coers, Matthijs Bossong, Anke Schat, Sander Kuin (PLNT), Christian Ramakers (PLNT)
With the help of a Grassroots grant, this team has developed Entrepreneurial Skills workshops as part of the Innovations in Clinical Neuropsychology course. These workshops support students in developing the necessary entrepreneurial skills and skills in designing and implementing new tools within the field of clinical neuropsychology. In developing and delivering these workshops, the team collaborated with colleagues from PLNT to incorporate their expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship into the workshops. In addition, a ‘teach-the-teacher’ handbook was created to ensure the sustainability of these workshops for the future.