The Dutch Intercity Seminar on Moduli, which dates back to the early
eighties, was an initiative of G. van der Geer, F. Oort and C. Peters.
Through the years it became a focal point of Dutch mathematics and
it gained some fame, also outside Holland, as an active biweekly
research seminar. The tradition continues up to today.
The present volume, with contributions of R. Dijkgraaf, C. Faber,
G. van der Geer, R. Hain, E. Looijenga, and F. Oort, originates
from the seminar held in 1995--96. Some of the articles here were
discussed, in preliminary form, in the seminar; others are completely
new. Two introductory papers, on moduli of abelian varieties and
on moduli of curves, accompany the articles.