CCV
25th board of Study Association TWIST, 2025-2026
Eren Toraman (he/him)
Chairperson
Hoilo! I’m Eren and I’m going to be the chair this year! I’m a third year BA-student doing the Descriptive Linguistics track. I’m interested in phonology, morphology and, of course, morphophonology! I’m mostly interested in Malayo-Polynesian and Turkic languages, and I’m currently (trying!) to learn Buginese! Outside of linguistics I like British panel shows, arts & crafts, and collecting language learning books (awh crap that’s linguistics again…).
I’m Dutch-born with Turkish parents, so I speak Dutch and Turkish (and, evidently, English). My French and German are quite decent and my Indonesian…exists!
As chair, I’m responsible for managing the board and being the face of TWIST, so I’ll be present at many external congregations of university-stuff, but also in a lot of committees and most activities, AND I’ll lead the General Assemblies, so you better get used to seeing me!
Ernest Maes (he/they)
Secretary
Hello! I’m Ernest and I am a 2nd year Bachelor student specializing in Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics. I will be secretarializing for TWIST this year, meaning I have responsibility for minuting meetings, the monthmail, website, member registration, and generally writing stuff. I am of Belgian extraction, but have lived much of my life in Sweden under an English-speaking education, hence my primary languages are English, Dutch, and Swedish. Outside of linguistics, I play guitar and have a fondness for music, in particular anything remotely similar to the (post-)punk, pop, and/or prog played by the likes of Wire, XTC, and King Crimson.
Zoé Yearl (she/her)
Treasurer
Zoé Yearl is an active member and committee participant within TWIST, the study association for linguistics students at Leiden University.
Specifically, she has been involved in leadership and organizational roles within TWIST’s committees, such as serving as the chair of the AcademiCie (Academic Committee) and participating in committees dedicated to organizing academic activities, events, and student linguistics conferences.
Disclaimer: This bio fragment was generated with the assistance of AI.
Mina Suryatama (she/it)
Assessor Internal
Heya! I’m Mina and I’m going to be the next Assessor Internal (HR has told me not to abbreviate that as Ass. Int.), basically the social media intern for TWIST. This year, I’ll be doing Descriptive Linguistics. I am Indonesian, from the city of Yogyakarta. I’ve lived there for the first ~20 years of my life (oh and a few brief stints in the US), and had just recently moved to the Netherlands last year—coinciding with the start of my studies. I speak fluent Indonesian, Javanese, and English; though I’m also learning Dutch and Georgian in the meantime.
I’m a total nerd with regards to linguistics. I’m mostly focused on Austronesian languages, with a specialization in the Kayanic subfamily in Borneo; ask me about my Kahaéh Mpraa documentation project! For my thesis (and I guess Masters’), I would like to work towards a description of the grammar of Mpraa. It’s mostly occupied my life for the past ~2 months.
Furthermore, I dabble in the fields of typology, it’s fun to compare the features of languages irrespective of their genealogical backgrounds; ask me about conditionals and RelC accessibility! Lastly, my side interests in linguistics are syntax and phonology (within frameworks of Optimality Theory and Element Theory mostly), mostly because they tickle my math-coded brain a lot. Don’t ask me about RCVP.
Outside of linguistics, I like doing sports! I dabble in HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), baseball, and also tennis, though I hardly have the timeslots in a week to fill every one of them into my schedule. I’m also into playing very autistic-coded games like Football Manager (2024), Rimworld, Victoria 3 and Dwarf Fortress—mostly due to the fact that I can look away from the work spreadsheets and into the fun spreadsheets:™; though I hardly have any time to fit that in my schedule nowadays.
Other hobbies have been redacted for the sanity of the length of this introduction post.
Andries Malcher Faial Zijlstra (they/them)
Assessor External
Hi!! I’m Andries, a second-year student of Computational Linguistics and this year’s External Assessor for TWIST—a role that involves maintaining contact with other associations and organizations. I have a soft spot for almost all Slavic languages, and I enjoy reading about (or in) Norwegian. I’m also working on improving my Russian, so feel free to put my skills to the test!
Beyond linguistics, I’m quite into mathematics and music; in my spare time, I often find myself reading through proofs and exploring other intriguing mathematical problems, or simply listening to one of my favourite artists; currently including the likes of Plini and OK Goodnight (worth a listen if you haven’t)
I’m Brazilian born but hold both Dutch and Brazilian nationalities. My portuguese is sadly lost to time after I moved here.
What does each role mean?
Chairperson
The chair of the association leads the board. This means that they lead the board meetings and GA’s (General Assembly). To lead such a meeting, they have to make the agenda first. The agenda holds all important points to talk about, for example committees, future activities, or other things that are going really well or the opposite.
The chair also participates in external meetings, like de VerO (verenigingen overleg/associations meeting), KleVer (kleine verenigingen/small associations meeting) and the StOP (Studievereniging Overleg Platform/Study Association Deliberation Platform). Besides these activities, the chair is in several committees and attends as many events as possible.
Contact: chair@studieverenigingtwist.nl
Secretary
The secretary is the writer of the association. Writer, you may ask? The secretary writes the minutes during board meetings and GA’s. Almost everything is written down by them: important points explained, and sometimes even comments from other people. Besides writing the minutes, the secretary is also responsible for answering emails that are sent to them and also for writing the monthly newsletters (in our case, this responsibility is shared with the assessor internal). Same as the chairperson, this person is in several committees, tries to attend external meetings as well and of course our own events. Additionally, they are in charge of the website.
Contact: secretary@studieverenigingtwist.nl
Treasurer
The treasurer of the association is responsible for the money. They keep track of the association’s bank account, make up the budget for the school year and also the budget for all committees. If anyone has a question about money, for example for paying for activities organized by one of our many committees, they can go to the treasurer. But the board nor a committee can not just spend money on everything. The treasurer keeps the receipts for everything that is spent.
Just like the chair and secretary, the treasurer tries to attend as many of our own events as possible and is in several committees.
Contact: treasurer@studieverenigingtwist.nl
Assessors
On our board, there are two assessors: an assessor internal communications and assessor external communications They all do different things within the association, but work together closely. It is therefore important to communicate well in order for things to happen.
Contact: assessor@studieverenigingtwist.nl
Assessor internal communications
Our assessor internal communications is responsible for, as the name says, communication within the association. This means being responsible for promotion and making the monthly programmes. Additionaly, this assessor contacts some entities within the university structures. This assessor is also in several committees and works on the maandmail (monthly newsletter) together with the secretary.
Contact: assessor+internal@studieverenigingtwist.nl
Assessor external communications
Our assessor external communications is responsible for communication outside of our association. This can be getting into contact with other study or student associations, as well as our partners. This person is like the other board members in several committees. They also organize the LANGU day.