A completely English version of the new Vox magazine comes out today! You can find it around campus, for example in the global lounge or in the library. It is an interview special, full of articles about dissenters, people who go against the grain. They are vital for an academic climate of discussion, but do they get enough space?

Montasser Alde’emeh, Lotte Jensen, Caspar Safarlou, Willem Halffman, Anya Topolski, Leon Wecke en Jafar Alhashime: a very divers list of names, with one thing in common. All of them are unconventional thinkers, people who are not afraid to give their opinion, despite the possible consequences. Take Leon Wecke. His name stood high in the list of people to interview on the Vox white board last year. He was 83, not planning to retire anytime soon, and was willing to give his opinion on every war in the media. But he died before we could make an appointment, on 13th June 2015.

A year later, his name is still on the board. Leon Wecke is a source of inspiration. Think for yourself! Don’t follow everybody else. In this summer special for 2016 we did eventually write an article about him. Written by Paul van den Broek, who asked Wecke’s wife and colleagues to tell his story.

We searched for other dissenters as well. Like Montasser AlDe’emeh, the external PhD candidate who went to find jihad fighters in Syria for his research. Vox editors traveled to Brussels, Copenhagen and Leuven. They interviewed scientists and students with Armenian, Iraqi, Dutch Danish and Canadian roots. As philosopher Anya Topolski says in this edition: ‘When everybody thinks the same, talks the same and looks the same, how can you ever develop something new?’