Theme: Forever Young

Forever Young: two words with great appeal. Youth is often associated with outer beauty and fitness of body and mind. But Forever Young stands for more: it is also infinite renewal, zest for life, charisma or mindset, regardless of your age. Are there ways to maintain it, or is it nonsensical to pursue it? And is a youthful mindset now the same as a youthful mindset 30 years ago? Or does eternal youth represent timeless? And then what is timeless?

TEDxOpenUniversiteitHeerlen
Smedestraat 2
Heerlen, Limburg, 6411 CR Heerlen
Netherlands

Karin Hediger

endowed professor of Anthrozoology at the Open Universiteit

Karin Hediger is an endowed professor of Anthrozoology at the Open Universiteit and a full professor at the University of Basel, Switzerland. She is a licensed psychotherapist and child and adolescent psychologist, has a certificate in animal-assisted therapy, a diploma in equine-assisted therapy, and founded a center for animal-assisted psychotherapy. She is passionate about developing and evaluating interventions for children, adolescents and adults with a wide range of disorders who find it difficult to engage with conventional therapy programs. She is particularly interested in how the human-animal relationship can be used therapeutically and how we can learn from this relationship to improve interpersonal relationships. Her aim is to apply and research new animal-assisted interventions and to learn what the human-animal bond means for people.

Michiel Tjepkema

professor of Public Liability and Mining Damage at the Open Universiteit

Michiel Tjepkema (1974) was associate professor at the Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Leiden University. He worked at the Council of State from 2018 to 2023 and currently holds a Chair of Public Liability and Mining Damage at the Open Universiteit and a chair in Administrative Law at the Radboud University. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Overheid & Aansprakelijkheid and (co-) author of numerous contributions in the field of government liability law, including loss compensation, the mining damage in Groningen, unlawful decisions and government relief. He is also a deputy judge at the District Court of The Hague. Next to his career Tjepkema is a Beatles-fanatic! He has been making podcasts about The Beatles with two friends for years.

Nele Jacobs

professor of Lifespan Psychology at the Open Universiteit

Nele Jacobs is professor of Lifespan Psychology at the Open Universiteit, focusing on human development across the life course. In her teaching and research, she emphasizes positive mental health, exploring factors that contribute to well-being and growth. Her mission is to promote happiness from a positive perspective of human nature. Nele is also affiliated with Maastricht University, has supervised multiple PhD projects, and published over 200 peer-reviewed articles. She has contributed to books in psychology and psychiatry and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences.

Quita Muis

assistant professor at Tilburg University

Quita Muis is an associate professor at Tilburg University. She participates in the long-term, international survey program the European Values Study. Her main focus is research on polarization, with a focus on values and identities: how do our values and identities develop in a rapidly changing world and how does this influence politics and society? Her TEDx Talk will focus on the alleged cultural backlash, in which the surge in cultural liberalism in recent decades has created an authoritarian reflex in Western societies. Certain groups are said to hold more conservative and anti-democratic ideas. Science just disagrees on whether this is precisely the case among older or younger people.

Saïda Assagraui

health psychologist and ambassador of the year 2023 Open Universiteit

Saïda Assagraui began her educational journey in preparatory vocational secondary education and later pursued further studies, completing a master's in Health Psychology at the Open Universiteit in 2022. While studying, she worked as a Social Studies teacher at the ROC in Rotterdam and as a fitness instructor. She now works as a health psychologist at Vitaal Concern and, since August 2023, is a core lecturer for the Associate Degree Social Work program at Hogeschool Rotterdam. Saïda also completed additional training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, ACT, and EMDR. She is establishing her own practice, offering therapy and courses, including "Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body" and "Emotional Resilience for Adolescents."