Confluence nr#5 ~ Oosterhout, The Netherlands. April 13 till 23, 2026
(Scroll for Program from Day to Day, Practicalities & Crew present on the ground/remote.)
Dear students, dear tutors, dear guests, dear other readers,
None of us will be free until Palestine is free 🇵🇸 🇮🇷 🇱🇧
We hope you’re all finding the strength to keep going. We refuse to be paralyzed by the world's drift toward fascism; instead, we persist and organize.
DAI welcomes you to the low lands, returning here with our program for the first time since May 2025. After an unexpected late cancellation by our hosts in Northern France, due to force majeure, we acted swiftly to keep the program on schedule. We are relieved, to have been able to secure accommodation for the entire group—students, tutors, guests, and crew—at Holiday Park Katjeskelder in Oosterhout from April 13th to 23rd, 2026. This location offers easy access to Breda's train station, with excellent connections to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Schiphol airport, and Brussels/Zaventem airport.
This said: the work spaces available in the park for classrooms and presentations are not ideal, but we're going 'all hands on deck' to stick to our 2025-2026 timeline. Let’s make it happen!
We’ll be staying in shared cottages that serve as bedrooms by night and classrooms by day. Meals are prepared centrally but enjoyed in our respective cottages, together with our roommates or classmates or colleagues. Please read the Chef’s guidelines on organizing your cottage's meal distribution.
In addition to the cottages at the park we have access to one work space at Landgoed de Meerberg. It takes a scenic 25-minute walk through the forest to get there.
After a day of focused study, you might want to take a dip in the park’s covered pool which we share with the other guests (don’t forget your swim gear!) or disappear into the adjacent woods and moorlands. While the town of Oosterhout is just a bike ride or a brisk walk away, our daily life is anchored in the Vrachelse Heide—a nature reserve of drifting dunes, coniferous forests, and historical sites like the 19th-century Jewish cemetery.
Our time in Oosterhout unfolds within the four defining curriculum components of our program. As always, we remain embracive of all gestures and movements that extend within, around, and beyond these pillars:
COOP study groups
Accompanied by COOP-education leader Philippa (Flip) Driest, the COOP tutorial teams and their guests present in Oosterhout are: Noor Abuarafeh, Areej Ashhab, Tewa Barnosa, Frédérique Bergholtz, Marina Christodoulidou, Angelo Custodio, Jurga Daubaraitė, Chiara Figone, Anik Fournier, Aziza Harmel, Daniellis Hernandez, Egija Inzule, Kamila Metwaly, Mokia Dinnyuy Manjoh, Harun Morrison and with a remote contribution by Mandus Ridefelt.
How To Do Things With Theory
Theory tutors Dr. Sladja Blazan, Dr. Sarah Lewis-Cappellari, Dr. Amit S. Rai, Dr. Ghalya Saadawi, Dr. Hypatia Vourloumis and Dr. Grant Watson are joining us for the last time this academic year to carry the final sessions of their HTDTWT seminars. Georgia Stellin is to temporarily and remotely offer her support for the smooth conclusion of this academic year's HTDTWT trajectory.
We are most excited to welcome back Alumni Embassy members Lau ten Zeldam (DAI, 2022) and Noam Youngrak Son (DAI, 2024) who - upon invitation by Dr. Amit S. Rai - are to join his seminar offering their perspectives and learnings on thesis writing.
Palestine Teach Outs#14
PTO are aimed at the entire DAI community, offering an improvised space for multi-facetted invocations (artistic, historical, theoretical or otherwise). For this edition we are joined by Areej Ashhab.
Kitchen ACTS
Spread over two consecutive days, the fifth iteration of the Kitchen ACTS of this academic year, comes alive with the input of 16 student presenters, while our esteemed guests
Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes & Ada Maricia Patterson
will share their improvised responses and reflections with the presenters and performers and with the student body at large. The Kitchen presentations will be attended by Elisa Giuliano and Leire Vergara who will meet with the presenters for post-Kitchen feedback conversations. Kitchen ACTS are convened by Gabriëlle Schleijpen, and supported by Peter Sattler.
Special guest: Marika Vandekraats, DAI's chair of admissions who will join the Kitchen as auditor & a bit more.
WEAVER
As always, our student body is actively contributing to WEAVER through their brilliant leadership of the Factory sessions, the COUNCIL (representative DAI-student body) as well as the student's recurring General Assembly. Sophia Zbinovsky Braddel invites you to this academic year's final session of her food research laboratory coined as 'How To Cook Things While Roaming'. WEAVER's education leader is Nikos Doulos.
DAI Confluence#5 ~ Program From Day To Day:
Please check the program on a daily base, regular updates are to be found at these pages .
Practicalities
* Accommodation: Holiday Park De Katjeskelder, Katjeskelder 1, 4904 SG Oosterhout
* Routes/directions:
BUS 370, 371, 372 ROUTE: Breda Station to De Katjeskelder
WALKING ROUTE: From De Katjeskelder to Landgoed de Meerberg
Crew present on the ground in Oosterhout
* Hospitality & care facilitators: Kastė Šeškevičiūtė and Lonneke Pastoor.
* Senior co-ordinator for production & workspace facilities & study support: Peter Sattler.
* Chef de Cuisine: Sophia Zbinovsky Braddel
for this Confluence in close collaboration with Holly Taylor, assisted by Rachid Fakhre and with guest chefs TitsOut4Snacks (Beatriz and Lexi).
Remotely active to co-shape this fifth Confluence:
Senior co-ordinator "roaming" finances and logistics Jacq van der Spek in collaboration with Georgia Stellin .
Travel Support: Hemminkways
Our bookkeeper, liaising with the ArtEZ financial department: Corine van der Wal
Website curator, editor-in-chief Giulia Crispiani, house style designers Lauren Alexander & Hanna Rullmann.
Please consult our CREW page for a complete overview and more information about the division of tasks.
Protocols
STUDENTS: WHO TO CONTACT; WHEN AND ABOUT WHAT ?
DAI's Code of Conduct for Staff-Student Contacts