Lidewij Nissen and her partner Fons Meijer have an agreement: in the bedroom, they don’t talk about university. They talk about it enough at other times. For example with Peter Nissen, Lidewij’s father, who has been involved with Radboud University since 1977.

Theologian Peter Nissen has witnessed nearly half of Radboud University’s centenary history. The Limburg native, who was once a monk for a year, came to Nijmegen to study in 1977. ‘I was the first in my family to go to university,’ he says. ‘Nijmegen had a broad Catholic cultural tradition, to which I’ve always felt strongly connected. It was the university of big names like Anton van Dunkirk and Gerard Brom.’

After being appointed professor, Peter Nissen often cycled to campus in the morning with his daughter Lidewij, who had in the meantime enrolled in a study programme in History in Nijmegen. And it was there, in the Erasmus building, that she met her partner Fons Meijer, who has been visiting the Nissen family for eight years now.

‘Fons and I were both members of the study association,’ says Lidewij.
Fons: ‘Lidewij was one year ahead of me.’

Fons was living in Oss when he came up with the idea of studying in Amsterdam. But already during the introduction week, he noticed that he was out of place there. ‘I felt like I was sinking and disappearing into that big city, so I quickly switched. I was just in time to be able to start in Nijmegen. The small scale here suits me much better.’

He obtained his PhD last year and now has a job at the Centre for Parliamentary History on campus. Lidewij works as a PhD candidate on the same floor in the Erasmus Building. They occasionally drink coffee together, but prefer to have lunch with their own colleagues.

Fons, laughing: ‘Otherwise, we won’t have anything to talk about in the evening. We already talk so much about the University at home.’
Lidewij: ‘We have agreements about that. We’re not allowed to mention it in the bedroom.’

Fons and Lidewij are always each other’s first reader. ‘We help each other sharpen our ideas,’ says Fons.

Lidewij is currently working on her PhD thesis. She occasionally asks her father Peter, who, like her, is adept at reading seventeenth-century writings, whether she can use a particular word in a particular context, but she didn’t ask him to be her co-reader.
Peter: ‘Her PhD dissertation will be a big surprise for me.’

Erasmus building

He rarely meets his daughter in the Erasmus building anymore, since he took early retirement last year. He no longer felt comfortable in an academic world where bureaucracy and competition reigned supreme. ‘Thankfully I’m free of all that now.’

During his time as a student, PhD candidate, and lecturer, the University was much smaller. ‘Theology was in a side wing of the Albertinum monastery, and the atmosphere there was very personal and relaxed.’

He didn’t get much of a taste of student life, preferring to read a book. His daughter and son-in-law weren’t really party animals either. From the head of the table, he looks at them questioningly. Right?

They exchange looks. Fons: ‘Well …’
Lidewij answers diplomatically: ‘Studying and partying can go together very well.’