Devika Sardjoe Mishre
[she/her]

Chair

FEL was founded because of a dire need for feminist activity in Leiden. I want to continue the mission of bringing a feminist voice and perspective to Leiden and beyond. As chair, I am responsible for injecting ambition in all FEL's projects and finding new allies in our strive for equality for all. In my daily life, I work on my Clinical Psychology Masters after having completed a BBA working in ICT for many years.

Sammy Lee van der Berg
[she/her]

Vice Chair / Secretary

I was born in Amstelveen, but spent most of my life living in Spain. While moving around meant that I mostly grew up in an intercultural environment, I noticed that the conversation around feminism did not differ much from the usual. Feminism was often portrayed as being “too radical” or a movement based on misandry. Because of this, there has always been for me a sort of disconnection from the term feminism and the movement as a whole.

Throughout my teenage years, this slowly started to change, as I came to understand the movement as it was rather than as it was portrayed as being. As every woman, I came to understand through life experiences how necessary it is to be a feminist.  I was never afraid to express my opinions, even in environments where I was often the minority. As a result, I was an active member of my debating society and started an internal organization aimed at ensuring that students’ rights and concerns were fairly represented. 

Apart from being FEL’s vice-chair,  I am also a philosophy student, (Global and Comparative Perspectives (BA)), here at Leiden University.