Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele Visits UC Berkeley: Celebrating a Historic Partnership in Dutch and Flemish Studies

December 3, 2025

On October 5 and 6, 2025, Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele visited UC Berkeley, highlighting more than half a century of cultural, academic, and diplomatic ties between Flanders and the university. His visit underscored the enduring strength of Dutch and Flemish Studies at Berkeley—home to the oldest such program in the United States—and celebrated new investments in its future.

Diependaele’s two-day program centered around the 2025 Prof. Johan Snapper Lecture and the Signing Ceremony of the Belgian Economic Mission. Also included were meetings with students and faculty, a tour of campus led by Professor Jeroen DeWulf, conversations about the program’s research and outreach mission, and a reception with members of the Belgian Delegation, university leaders, program supporters, and students. His presence reaffirmed the important role the Flemish government and Flanders Investment & Trade continue to play in supporting Dutch Studies at Berkeley.

The foundations of Berkeley’s Dutch Studies program reach back to 1971, when Her Majesty Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands visited campus to celebrate the establishment of the nation’s first Dutch Studies program. Her visit inaugurated the Princess Beatrix Chair of Dutch Language, Literature and Culture, later renamed the Queen Beatrix Chair, with Professor Johan Snapper as its first chairholder. Professor Snapper’s leadership helped define the field in the United States; he went on to author six books, more than fifty articles, and receive major distinctions—including the Congressional Citation of Merit (USA), Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands), and Officer in the Order of the Crown (Belgium).

In 2022, more than fifty years after Princess Beatrix’s visit, a group of donors created the Professor Johan Snapper Endowment for Dutch Studies in recognition of Snapper’s extraordinary contributions. The endowment enabled the establishment of an annual lecture on Dutch literature and culture—the Prof. Johan Snapper Lecture—announced during another royal visit: Queen Máxima’s visit to Berkeley on September 7, 2022. That occasion also marked the launch of the Dutch government’s Dutch Network for Academics in the U.S. (DNA-US), dedicated to strengthening ties among Dutch researchers and scholars working in or connected to the United States.

The centerpiece of Minister-President Diependaele’s 2025 visit occurred on October 6 at the official Signing Ceremony of the Belgian Economic Mission, attended by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Arts & Humanities Dean Sara Guyer, and ministers from Belgium and Flanders.

Among the many bilateral agreements signed that day, one was especially meaningful for the university community: a renewed gift agreement between the Delegation of Flanders to UC Berkeley, reaffirming long-term support for Dutch Studies. The agreement was signed by Minister-President Diependaele and Secretary-General Julie Bynens, together with Dean Sara Guyer and Professor Jeroen Dewulf, the current holder of the Queen Beatrix Chair.

This renewed three-year commitment ensures that Berkeley can continue to offer a fifth Dutch language course, Dutch as Reading Knowledge, tailored for Ph.D. students who need Dutch for research; cover fees for visiting professors through the Rubens Chair; and maintain and expand the Program for the Study of Flanders website.

Since 2023, this partnership has allowed Berkeley to teach Dutch as a foreign language to 60 students annually; offer courses on Dutch and Flemish culture and history to 150 students a year; host public events reaching up to 150 attendees; and sustain the country’s only Ph.D.-level Dutch Studies program, now home to five doctoral students.

The visit concluded with celebrations of the program’s achievements and reflections on its vibrant future. As Dean Sara Guyer noted in 2022, “From Spinoza and Rembrandt to 19th-century novels and contemporary media theory, key conversations in the humanities and arts have been shaped by Dutch artists, writers, leaders, and thinkers. Our Dutch and Flemish Studies program reflects the importance of this powerful history and ensures its continued relevance as a source of intellectual inquiry in our present.”

Minister-President Diependaele’s visit, the continuation of Flemish support, and the enduring legacy of the Snapper Lecture all reaffirm Berkeley’s place as a leading center for Dutch and Flemish Studies—an international partnership more than fifty years in the making and poised to flourish for decades to come.