At BOEL (formerly known as Zalen Schaaf) in Leeuwarden, Akademydei was traditionally opened by Prof Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, director of the Fryske Akademy. Jantine van der West, Citizen Science and Knowledge Utilisation Officer, spoke about “Citizen Science and wurkmienskip”. Martine Jansen, research assistant at the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, which is part of the Fryske Akademy, spoke about the international project “Read with Multilingual Early Education”. Martijn Kingma, PhD candidate in Linguistics, spoke about “Perceptual dialectology: Frisian accents on the map”.

In between, mini-lectures were shown on video with Han Nijdam (“What was the role of women in Old Frisian law”), Anne Merkuur (“Is Frisian gradually changing into Dutch?”) and Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm (“Did the Vikings also speak Frisian?”). Of course, new members were also appointed. Liuwe Westra gave laudatory speeches for Syds Wiersma and Piter Tjeerdsma.

The photos were taken by Marieke Balk.

Surrounded by centuries-old trees and buildings, in the historic courtyard garden of the Coulonhuis in Leeuwarden, the Fryske Akademy celebrated the end of its 85th anniversary year on Friday 13 September 2024. Guests included King's Commissioner Arno Brok, Mayor of Leeuwarden Sybrand Buma and poet of Fryslân Arjen Hut. with the appointment of members Eppie Dam and Ammerins Moss-de Boer, with the presentation of the thesis prize to Sannah Debreczeni (and an honourable mention for Herman van Vliet), with a lecture by Henk Wolf, and with music by Hot & Toasty, we can look back on a successful event. The photos were taken by Marieke Balk.

Photo report Akademydei 2024 >>>