Petition is addressed to: The Leiden University Executive Board; the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University plans to shut down the Italian Language and Culture program. The Faculty Board justifies its decision based on the following arguments: (1) a limited global perspective, a narrow geographical focus, and limited relevance of geopolitical developments within the field; (2) the uniqueness of the program; (3) societal significance, or the extent to which the program fulfills a social mission (e.g., as Italian is not a mandatory school languages in the Netherlands, the training of teachers in this language has no relevance). Additionally, (4) enrollment perspectives and future-oriented considerations are taken into account.

The program strongly questions the validity of this reasoning, particularly with regard to the first three points. As faculty members, we see that the relevance of the Italian Language and Culture program in our society and in the geopolitical context has by no means diminished—on the contrary. We are working to convince the Faculty Board and Leiden University of this relevance in an effort to save the program.

We kindly ask for your support in this endeavor.