Lecture Series: Low Countries Studies 2024

In the course of the evening, the history of the Dutch language is presented under different angles: the Germanic roots, Latin influence, the history of the linguistic border, the first texts in Dutch, the separation of the Low Countries and the birth of a standard language. The lecture also deals with the Flemish movement, the struggle against French, and the search for a Flemish linguistic identity.

Want to know more? 

Read Roland Willemyns, Dutch. Biography of a language, 2013.

Visitors to the Low Countries are often impressed by the cities' cultural and architectural heritage. The lecture guides the student through the medieval and early modern past of the cities of Flanders and Brabant. After examining the representation of the city in medieval and early modern art, the lecturer focusses on the urban network in the Low Countries and the urban economics and politics. He ends by displaying the multiple faces of urban culture.

Want to know more? 

Visit the Groeningemuseum in Bruges!

The geographical meaning of the Low Countries includes Belgium and The Netherlands. The concept is based upon a partially common history and natural similarities. Rare are the regions that show such a diversity in landscapes, both natural and cultural, and in mentality on a rather small area. This lecture presents some geological and historical background that will allow a better understanding of the landscapes and their people when travelling around.

The Dutch Revolt (1568-1648) led to the birth of the Dutch Republic (approximately the current-day Netherlands), while the Southern Low Countries (approximately current-day Belgium) remained loyal to their dynastic lord, the Spanish king. The separation of the Northern and Southern Low Countries was the outcome of a complex political and religious conflict that started in the sixteenth century in the large, prosperous cities of the South (Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent) but eventually led to the spectacular rise of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. The lecturer explains the vibrant, cosmopolitan urban culture of the sixteenth century of which Pieter Bruegel the Elder is the most famous representative and discusses how national identities were molded during the Dutch Revolt, thanks to the unprecedented political use of pamphlets, image and ritual. Although the awareness of a common cultural and political heritage did not entirely disappear, the differences between the inhabitants of the Northern and Southern Low Countries were more and more apparent: the Dutch had always been more freedom-loving, tolerant and thrifty, while the Belgians/Flemish were devout Catholics and true Burgundians, loving good food and wine. The lecturer will discuss and partly deconstruct these clichés, but also show how they continue to live on, most notably in our appreciation of the great 'Dutch' (Rembrandt, Vermeer) and 'Flemish' (Rubens, Jordaens) painters.

Want to know more?

Visit the House of Rubens in Antwerp or the House of Rembrandt in Amsterdam.

Read Hans Vlieghe, De schilderkunst der Lage Landen  or Hans Vlieghe, Flemish Art and Architecture.

Ghent cherishes its image as a rebellious city. Its presumed rebellion is commercially exploited to attract tourists to the city. Literature both contributed to and questioned the image of rebellious Ghent. This lecture will further acquaint you with the literary representation of Ghent as a rebellious city from the Middle Ages to the present.

This lecture provides an illustrated tour through the Flemish media landscape. From trashy to stylish, from entertaining to boring, from enriching to plain stupid, from 'typically Flemish' programmes to globalised tv-formats: the small, but diverse Flemish media market caters all tastes. The lecture focusses on newspapers, radio and television and answers such questions as: Why do the Flemish students read the papers that they do? Which radio station should you listen to for your favourite music? And what do the Flemish like to watch on tv after a hard day's work?

This lecture analyses the complex process of state reform in Belgium. Particular attention is paid to the major historical driving forces behind federalization, the functioning of the Belgian system, and ongoing debates on its future. Why was the unitary state abolished? Why was it replaced by a system of three regions and three communities? How did party politics affect the linguistic/community conflict, and vice versa? Which alternative models are on the table? And what strengthens or weakens Belgium’s chances of survival?

Flanders has contributed a great deal to the development of European culture, all the more if one considers how small Flanders as a geographical region really is.

As far as music is concerned, the contribution of Flanders to the development of European cultural life is even more evident: in spite of the short lived flourish of Flemish music (a mere two centuries: XVth and XVIth) Flanders took absolute pre-eminence in European musical life in a very short period of time. Wherever one wandered through Europe and its main courts, cities and cathedrals: everywhere Flanders and its music was predominant. Flemish musicians playing music written by Flemish composers, being taught by Flemish teachers on all levels and quite often uniting those three capacities in one and the same person. The Flemish music became very famous and richly illuminated manuscripts with Flemish music turned into a very sought after gift between princes and diplomats.

The lecture on Flemish polyphony tries to explain this sudden rise and looks for sociological, cultural but also technical (on an introductory level) reasons for this remarkable period in Flanders' musical history. Above all it aims at introducing the sound qualities and characteristics of Flemish polyphony.

Want to know more? 

Check the calendars of the following concert halls / festivals and find out if there is an online concert that seduces you.

• Amuz in Antwerp 
• De Bijloke in Ghent 
• Musica Antiqua in Bruges

This lecture gives an overview of the main characteristics of the Flemish economy today and of the institutional setting (multilayer government: the role of Flanders, Belgian and the EU) in which it takes place. Strength and weaknesses are highlighted as well as threats and opportunities. Special attention is paid to the historical development of the Flemish economy today as well as to its international orientation.

Only three countries in the world have legalised euthanasia, i.e. the active ending by a physician of the life of a patient at the latter's request: the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg. Four other states, Oregon, Washington and Montana in the USA and Switzerland, allow a terminally-ill patient to administer him- or herself lethal drugs, but stop short of euthanasia. The Low Countries thus form an island of seeming end-of-life radicalism in an ocean of nations that appear to handle life more carefully.

The lecturer explains what considerations have led these three countries to allow euthanasia and how it has become an indispensable element in a global approach to humane and dignified dying. The lecturer will also go into other bioethical "spear points" in the Low Countries. The opening of marriage and adoption to same-sex couples and some innovations and research types in reproductive medicine also single them out from large parts of the rest of the world (although less clearly and consistently than in the case of life-ending).

This lecture will deal with the history of Belgian physical anthropology in the long nineteenth century and discusses how the notion of  ‘race’ structured, not only Belgian pasts and presents, but also relations between metropole and empire. In a context of competing European nationalisms, Belgian anthropologists mainly used physical characters, like skull form and the color of hair and eyes, to delimitate ‘races’, that were believed to be permanent and existent. Their believe in a supposed racial superiority was however above all telling about their own origins and physical characters. Although it is often assumed that these ideas were subsequently transferred to the colony, the case of Belgian colonization in Congo shows that colonial administrators, at least in theory, were reluctant to use the idea of permanent ‘races’ because they needed the possibility of ‘evolution’ to legitimize their actions as part of a ‘civilizing mission’. In reality however, colonization was based on military occupation and economic exploitation with devastating effects. In this violent context, widespread racial prejudices in fact dehumanized Congolese. This not only allowed colonizers to act inhume, but also reduced Congolese, or their body parts, to objects that could be measured, photographed, casted and ‘collected’.

Based on his latest book, Witte orde. Over ras, klasse en witheid [White Order. On Race, Class and Whiteness] (2024; De Geus) Sibo will start this lecture from the two distinct terms, ‘blank’ and ‘wit’, that are used in the Dutch language to refer to those phenomena denoted by ‘whiteness’ in English. He first briefly explores the historical use of both words and their underlying tensions, and secondly proposes a comparative analysis of ‘blank’ and ‘wit’ with those terms commonly used to signify whiteness in the context of the Democratic Republic Congo, the former Belgian Congo, such as ‘mzungu’ in KiSwahili and ‘mondele’ in Lingala. Through this comprehensive linguistic examination of terminology related to whiteness and building upon the work of Charles W. Mills, Kanobana demonstrates how whiteness is interconnected with ideas of race as well as class and discusses its ongoing effects in contemporary (Belgian) society where discussions of racism are still too exclusively centred on colour.