About
With the research chair Sporen van het Verzet (Traces of the Resistance), VUB wants to provide an answer to the growing social demand to breathe new life into the memory of the Belgian resistance against the Nazi occupier. This theme fits in seamlessly with the VUB core values of freedom and equality, solidarity and a deep social commitment based on scientific knowledge. This chair focuses on citizen science, impactful socially engaged research. The general public will be strongly involved in both academic and public-historical work. This is in line with VUB's stated commitment to enter into a dynamic dialogue with society as an Urban Engaged University from a strong research base. In addition, this chair is part of a structural collaboration with the ULB, which will simultaneously dedicate an annual chair for a guest researcher to the history of the resistance.
The main external partner is Helden van het Verzet (Heros of the Resistance), a non-profit organisation that works on the memory of the Belgian resistance. Through resistance cafés, social media, podcasts, novellas and lectures, the stories of the Belgians who fought against the Nazi resistance are made known to the general public.
Objectives
The Chair of Sporen van het Verzet combines a social and an academic mission. In both domains, participation of the general public is central. The Chair will also be assisted by a sounding board group with international experts from the domain and representatives from the heritage sector.
Within the academic pillar, the following concrete objectives are paramount:
- Creation of a line of research on the resistance
- Establishment of a citizen science project on the farewell letters of executed members of the resistance
- Applying for external research funding for projects on specific themes in resistance history (such as the Secret Army, resistance at Belgian universities, etc.)
- Science communication through publications, lectures and conferences
- Supervision of theses on resistance history.
The public history pillar has the following focus:
- Creation of a research environment, public website and digital map with execution sites and other places of remembrance of the resistance
- Organisation of a series of commemoration initiatives at the VUB and in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia
- Public history activities around the history of the resistance, such as lectures, podcasts and digitisation moments of personal archives of members of the resistance
- Preparatory research into the possibilities for a digital resistance museum.
Chair holder and academic coordinator: Nel De Mûelenaere
Nel de Mûelenaere is a lecturer in early modern, contemporary and medieval history at the VUB and assistant professor at the Social and Cultural Food Studies (FOST) research group. She will steer the academic mission of the chair in the right direction.
The OpenLab supports the project's public history activities.
Contact
Dany Neudt Dany.Neudt@vub.be
