Searching for a (New) Self-legitimation? How Three Belgian (State) Universities Celebrated Their Bicentenary in 2017

: In 2017, three universities in Belgium that had been established in 1817 by King William I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Ghent, Liège and Leuven), commemorated their bicentennial. The still existing Ghent University and University of Liège did so in a grandiose way. In Leuven, however, the celebration was limited to a modest workshop and its accompanying publication. By analysing the festivities at Ghent University in 2017 in a detailed way this contribution shows how the traditional elements of a university jubilee celebration gradually received a different interpretation. This introductory case study illustrates the aim of this contribution as a whole, namely to examine and discuss how the staging of university jubilees has changed under the pressure of social changes, how this was reflected in the use of ‘ celebratory mediality ’ , and how these different acts of performing the jubilee interacted with a process of self-le-gitimation. By reviewing the diverse output realised as part of these different celebrations (in Ghent, Liège and to a lesser extent Leuven), the chapter proves how these anniversaries have been used as an opportunity to respond to current challenges that the university is facing as an institution. The two central messages of both celebrating universities – Ghent and Liège – are reflected in most, if not all, of the initiatives that were unfolded on the occasion of the festivities: defending and protecting the university by emphasising its possible social relevance, and creating a larger (university) community by investing into the natural partnership between city and university.


Introduction
Researching and writing its history has always been one of the tasks of the university. From the late Middle Ages, rectors and ordinary professors have delivered speeches on the occasion of anniversary celebrations in which they presented the gloriousp ast of theiro wn institution. Even so, the number of jubilee celebrations increased spectacularlyi nt he second half of the nineteenth centu-ry.¹ Generally, this kind of celebrations consisted of four elements.² The central part was the academic ceremonyw herer epresentativesf rom the political,r eligious and culturale lite werew elcomed, whered elegations from universities and scientific institutions from home and abroad delivered their oftena rtfully presented congratulation addresses, and whereh onorary doctoral degrees weregranted to distinguished members of the international scientific community.A tm ost universities, the authorities seized the opportunityt or einforce relationships with their students, and with their city and its population. This resulted on the one hand in typicalstudent activities such as atorchlightprocession and drinking events, and on the other hand in events that wereo pen to the general public, like agarden party,sporting occasions or an historic procession.Finally, the standard jubilee programme included the unveiling of statues, students' concerts,visitst ot he operao ro ther culturala ctivities.
Even though the character of the official anniversary ceremonys hows ar emarkable degreeo fcontinuity during the past one and ahalf century,nevertheless important gradual shifts with regard to the origin of the invitees can be noticed. Thepursuit of aEuropean orientation around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century gave wayi nt he interwar period to ar eturn to am ore national orientation.³ After the Second World War, again more attention was paid to the international perspective,which has certainlynot completelydisappeared today, but is clearlyo vershadowed by af ocus on the local elite.
This strongere mphasis on the universities' local embedding duringt he last two or three decades seems somewhat contradictory in aglobalised world. However,atleast two arguments can help to explain this paradox. Firstly, universities are increasingly profilingthemselvesaseachother'scompetitors (both nationally and internationally), what makes it naturallyl ess obvious to honour each other with abirthdayvisit.Secondly, the university as an institution feels threatened in its existenceand increasinglyexperiences the need to defend itself. The enduringcommodification of academic research, in combination with attackson academic freedom -itself being one of the corecharacteristics of the university's identity -make the continued existenceofthe university no longer self-evident.⁴ One wayoffending this menace off is by displaying its social relevance and possible social impact.⁵ In order to conveyt his messagei nacomprehensible and convincing wayt othe public (and to possible funders), it is much easierd uring such anniversary 'ceremonies' to 'show off' with concrete examples from the local and regional environment instead of aiming to demonstrate the, often more abstract,international relevance of the research realised by the celebrated university and her scholars.
This approach was clearlya pplied during the festivities at Ghent University in 2017 on the occasion of its bicentenary,a si ss hown in the analysis of these celebrations in the first section of this contribution. This introductory case studys erves to illustrate the aim of this contribution as aw hole, namelyt oe xamine and discuss how the stagingofuniversity jubilees has changed under the pressureofsocial changes, how this was reflected in the use of 'celebratorymediality',and how these different acts of performing the jubilee interacted with a processo fs elf-legitimation. In the same year 2017,the two other universities in Belgium that had been established in 1817byKing William Iofthe United Kingdom of the Netherlands in Liègeand Leuven, commemoratedtheir bicentennial. By reviewing the diverse output realised as part of these different celebrations, the chapter proves how these anniversaries have been useda sa no pportunity to respond to the aforementioned current challenges. The second section focuses primarilyo nt he official jubilee publicationsi nG henta nd Liège, yeta lsop ays attention to ab ook which commemoratedt he state university of Leuven. The third and final section dealsw ith 21 st -centurym edialities and assesses the attempts to interact with the largerp ublic. Searching fora(New) Self-legitimation?

Festivities in Ghent: The SocialR elevance of the University at Stake
At the festive Sundaym orning book presentation on the 8 th of October 2017which kicked off 'Everyone UGent!',afreeo ne-dayc ity festival that served as the highlightofthe bicentenary celebrations at Ghent University -the organisers strivedfor amiddle waybetween emphasising the university'slocal and international relevance. The university jubilee publicationthat was presented then is titled Uit de ivoren toren. 200 jaar Universiteit Gent [Out of the ivory tower. 200y ears Ghent University] and,i ni ts own words, "showsh ow great the social involvement of scholars has always been and is".⁶ The Sundaymatinee served as the perfect moment to highlight this messaget oalargerp ublic. Three thematic pillars weres elected, each of them elaborated through as hort historicali ntroduction, followed by ac urrent interpretation of the theme and ad ebate about it; and each of them interpreting ab road and topicals ocial and/or educational question through aconcrete, local perspective.One of the themesdiscussed was the societal resistance in Europe against geneticallym odified organisms. The aim to present some concrete resultsf rom the research centreo nm icrobiology, foundedalreadyinthe 1870s, was tackled by starting from aregionally(and even nationally) well-known and highlym ediatised 'field liberation' action. Thisp rotest actionhad taken place in 2011 in the nearby commune of Wetteren. On atrial field that was coordinated by ac onsortium of research institutes,i ncludingt he university'sr esearch centre, activists had swapped the geneticallym odified potatoes with organic varieties.⁷ By referringt ot his controversy,the (local) public easilyc ould identify with the topic under discussion.
On the same 8 th of October 2017,m ore than230 activities wereo rganised at more than twenty locations spread out over the city of Ghent: street performances,c hildren'sw orkshops, interactive demonstrations, experiments, concerts, science shows, short lectures,guidedtours,exhibitions, abook market,amongst else. The tentative list indicates how the third and fourth element of the traditional jubilee celebrations were now combined into av aried offer of all kinds of cultural events and activities intended for the general public, primarilyc om- ing from Ghent.I nm anyc ases, the link with the history of the university was fairlyd ifficult to find. The university'sb irthdayw as simply used as an excuse to organise ab ig folk festival.
Thelistoforganisersofthese activities wasasdiverse as thelistofthe events itself,going from professional festival organisers,overthe university'sown jubilee committeea nd public relationsd epartment, to faculties,r esearchi nstitutes, departments, professors and, obviously, students.H owever,o ne of them ostv isible shifts in thecurrent implementationofthe four elements of thetypical jubilee celebration, as it took shapef romt he nineteenth century, is thel acko fp roper student activities.Ofcourse, students arestill involved in today′sjubileesinmanydifferent ways, butt heyn ol ongeru se them as an opportunity to profilet hemselves as as eparate group. As thea uthoro ft hisc ontributionh as observed elsewhere, from theearly modern period onwards, universitiesgradually became more established institutions, increasingly integrated into thet erritorials tate.I nr esulto f that, students became alienatedf romt heir masters( professors)a nd developed as eparatec orporatei dentity, differentf romt he universitya sawhole. They begant om anifestt hiso nt he occasion of university jubilees by organisingt heir ownand typicalstudent activities.Eveninr ecenty ears,studentsfeelencouraged to utterc riticism towards currentp ractices in societya nd towardss tate institutions, such as universities,and thus expresst he fightf or common ideals anda dherencet oadifferenti dentity, yetn ow as belongingt oaseparate ageg roup, rathert hana sb eing ac onstituent part of thec elebrating 'uni'versity.⁸ In line with this development, studentsf rom Ghent University did not play anyp rominent role in the bicentenary celebrations, but stille nthusiastically joined the 'Everyone UGent' city festival, also by organisinge vents themselves, consistent with the general messageofthe commemoration and the university's jubilee publication: Outo ft he IvoryT ower. ⁹ This leitmotif nicelyi llustrates how also todaya nniversariesa re still used as an opportunity to respond to ap articular crisis and/or to current trends,¹⁰ in this case being,f irstly, the (perceived) Searching fora(New) Self-legitimation? need to defend the university by paying more attention to its possible social impact and relevance, and,secondly,the willingness to take care of good relationships between the university,its city and the surrounding region. In this way, the Ghent jubilee functionsasanother example of how,bylooking into its own history,the university as an institution led by traditions frequentlyhas tried to provide itself with "expertise concerning its future organisation in ap eriod of change".¹¹ At the samet ime, this kind of master narrative for the volume as a whole successfullyk eepst he reader enthralled.
Immediatelyi nt he first chapter of Outo ft he IvoryT ower,which provides a broad overview of the university'st wo hundred years history,G ita Deneckere points to the original motto of the University of Ghent Inter utrumque,m eaning 'between the two': "between the pursuit of wisdom through the practice of science and the service to prince and country".¹² Obviously, this common thread is not equallyv isiblei na ll the book'st hematic chapters,yet both the selection of the themesa nd the wayi nw hich manyo ft hem are elaborated have at least partlybeen decided by it.For instance, the chapter on 'Industry and valorisation' reveals how the university throughout its history strivedt ob ea n" enterprising university paying attention to the social and economic application of its research results".¹³ Another chapter emphasises how several generations of professors at the medicalf aculty have takenu pa ne xceptional degreeo fs ocial involvement and commitment,r esulting in as trong position of discipliness uch as social medicine and psychiatry.A nd in the final chapter the worldwide leadingr ole of the university in the fields of environmental technologyand genetic engineering is dealt with and linked to the highlyt opical environmental issue.
Abb. 11: The title of the jubilee publication is nicely in line witht he message of the bicentenaryo fG hent University as aw hole: Lookingb ack into the university′sh istorys erves to prove the socialr elevanceo ft he university today.
The OfficialJ ubilee Publications of Ghent, Liège (and Leuven):S ervice to theS ociety and/or to the City One important weakness concerning the research focus in Ghentonb iotechnologyw as the lack of expertise at the universityu ntil the end of the 1990s to protect intellectual property in the form of patents, particularlyincomparison to the KULeuven. The competition between the universities of Ghent and Leuven has a long-term historical background, having its origin to alarge extent in their different inception. The old, medieval university in Leuvenw as abolishedd uringt he French revolutionary period, and onlyi n1817, when the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) werep art of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, three state universities came in its place, in Ghent,L iègeand Leuven. The latter one, at its turn, was abolishedi n1 835i nc onsequence of the comingi nto existenceo ft wo free universities duringt he year before: aC atholic University (that was founded in the small town of Malines, but moved to Leuvena fter the abolishment of the pre-existing state university), and its liberal counterpart, the free-thinkingUniversity of Brussels. From their foundation and actuallyeven up to today, these ideologicallyo pposed freeu niversities did not onlyc ompete with each other, but alsos tood in large contrast to the state universities of Ghent and Liège. Since the state universities became autonomous in 1991, there is actuallynolonger alegal differencebetween free and state universities, but it has been avery conflict-ridden process to come this far, and the previously existing tensions definitelyh aven ot yetd isappeared completely.
The last major conflict in this regard happened in the context of the socalled lawo nu niversity expansion (1965), which determined the establishment of numerous new universities (free as well as state institutions, and the division of previouslye xclusivelyF rench-speaking institutions into separate Dutch and French-speaking ones). In aE uropean perspective,t his provincialisation of the university landscape in Belgium was much less uniquet han Deneckeres uggests.¹⁴ More interesting,h owever,i sh ow she indeedc onfirms the criticism at the time, namelythat the government sacrificedthe state universities to the proliferation of the freeuniversities as aresultofthis fragmentation. But Deneckere does so in amuch more subtle and neutral waythanher colleagues from the for- See, for instance, Dhondt, Pieter and Arto Nevala: The typical dilemmab etween university expansion and rationalization: Belgium (and Finland) sincethe 1960s.In: Kasvatus&Aika, kasvatuksen historiallis-yhteiskunnallinenj ulkaisu 9:3( 2015). pp. 21-36. mer state University of Liègei nt heirb icentenary jubilee publication of 2017.I n this publication,P hilippe Raxhon and Veronica Granata comparet he financial impact of the 1965u niversity expansion lawo nt he state universities' budget with "the thrill of the ice scalpel cutting through the steel of the Titanic's hull".¹⁵ This formulation seems to echo much of the earlier frustration about the relative loss of the state universities' former privileged status. To acertain extent,the authorsprovehow difficult it can be to maintain enough distance when writing the history of one'sown institution, as occurs so ofteninthe tradition of jubilee history writing.¹⁶ As ar esultoft he ongoing communitarisation,¹⁷ the common and futile protest of the universities of Ghent and Liègea gainst this laww as actuallyt he end of their common history.Unfortunately, but not reallysurprisingly,this common history receivesvery little attentioninboth the Ghent and the Liègejubilee publications. Merelyw ith regardt ot he foundation period between 1817a nd 1830, when the Southern Netherlands werep art of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, do the publications paysome attention to the communalities between the three state universities. Both Deneckereand Raxhon and Granata bring forward, for instance,the stipulation from the 1816 regulations which ordered the city administrations to provide buildings for the universities, yetthey give quite adifferent interpretation to it.Onthe one hand, Deneckereusesitasanopportunity to include one of the book'sm anyq uips, here referringt ot he general prejudice about the stingyD utchman: "The Dutchman would not be the Dutchman if he did not calculate. Ands oi th appened."¹⁸ ForRaxhon and Granata, on the other hand, this specific clause allows them to emphasise the long-term partnership between ʽtown and gownʼ in Liège, which goes backt ot he university'sf oundation period. This tight link functions as (one of)the guiding and convincing masternarrative(s) of their volume, even if they mistakenlyclaim that the advisory commission to William Irecommended the creation of three state universities, whereas in reality the commission members wereh ighlyi nf avour of onlyo ne university,i nL euveno rB russels. This  "[Le] frisson du scalpel de glacee ntamant commeu ne caresse la découpe de l'acier de la coque du Titanic";R axhon,P hilippe in collaboration with Veronica Granata: Universitéd e Liège( 1817-2017): Mémoiree tp rospective.L iège2 017. p. 143.  Fori nstanceM üller,Winfried: Erinnern an die Gründung.Universitätsjubiläen, Universitätsgeschichteund die Entstehungder Jubiläumskultur in der Frühen Neuzeit.In: Berichtezur Wis-senschaftsgeschichte2 1( 1998). pp. 79 -102, p. 94.  In aB elgian context, communitarisation means the transfer of powers from the central administration to the Flemish,F rench and German-speakingc ommunities.  Deneckere,Uit de ivoren toren (cf. note 9), p. 14.
Searching fora(New) Self-legitimation? lapsus at least suggests amuch largerdegree of support for the King'seducational policy in the Southern Netherlands thana ctuallye xisted. It is true that William Iattempted to boost the upcomingindustrial revolution and that in this regard "the Liègem etropolis" was in fact "predisposed to benefit from the good graces of the sovereign".¹⁹ Yeti tw as far from evident up to just af ew months before the final decision on the future Liègeu niversity that this could happen through the cooperation between industry and university, which is solemnised in Raxhon'sa nd Granata'sp ortrayal.
At the samet ime, the authors provei navery convincing wayh ow the university, the industrial sector and its surrounding city and region have taken profit from the synergya si td evelopedi nt he context of different waveso fi ndustrialisation and regional economic challenges up to the late 20 th century.In1989,for instance, the universitys ervice Interface was established in order to enable the implementation of specific expertise of academics in the business world. Itsoriginal idea was "first of all to focus on difficulties encountered by businesses in the region".²⁰ In testimonyofthe successful cooperationbetween town and gown, a group of historians from the University of Liègea lso published an ew history of the city on the occasion of the university'sbicentenary.²¹ The increased attention was advantageous to both city and university in view of their public relations duringt he jubilee year.
Acrucial challenget hat the jubilee researchers and authorsf rom Liègeh ad to tackle when buildinguptheir coreargumentation on the university-city-industry trierarchyc oncerns the selection of disciplines and examples. Several other university history committees have opted for amore fragmented kind of publication per facultyo rp er discipline and thought it aw ell-considered approach in the current climate of multiversity.²² And indeedi st he integrateda pproach that Raxhon and Granata are striving for at times stretched to its limits. While there is no doubt about the expertise developed in Liège -also thanks to the university -in key industrial sectors such as electricity,chemistry and pharmacy in the 1880s, what kind of industrial strength holders emergedatthe university and in regional technology duringt he twentieth century is unfortunatelym uch less clear,a part from astrophysics being one of them. The rather ephemeral listing  Raxhon, Universitéd eL iège( cf. note 15), p. 28.  Raxhon, Universitéd eL iège( cf. note 15), p. 168.  Demoulin,B runo (ed.): Histoire de Liège. Unec ité,une capitale, une métropole. Liège2017.  Dhondt, Pieter: University History Writing: More than aHistory of Jubilees?In: Dhondt, University Jubilees (cf. note 10). pp. 1-20,p .12. of researchi nstitutes, different degrees and research figures "thats peak for themselves" risks to be at the fringeo fp romo-talk.²³ Abb. 12: The simultaneous publication of the university'st wo hundred yearsh istory and a new historical overview of the city of Liège confirms the message of as mooth cooperation between 'town and gown'.
Even though the Ghent jubilee publication equallyaims for an integrated approach, here the inevitable selection of disciplines results in amore balanced entity,asitismotivated by the willingness to focus on thosesubjects that wereexceptionallyw ell-developeda tG hentU niversity and that enable to enforce the general argumentation of the aforementioned social involvement of Ghent scholars. However,two closely related problems occur in this regard. Firstly, therei s the question whether the chosen story line has not determined the selection too much.²⁴ To make it more concrete: was there indeed as pecificallys trongt radition of international lawa mong Ghent lawp rofessors that qualified and still qualifies them to engage in international peace projects and human rights issues?²⁵ Or is this claim mainlyu sedt oa rgue for the relevance of the chapter on 'Wara nd peace'?A ctually, such ad ilemma could onlyhaveb een addressed, secondly, by comparingthe situation in Ghent with the one at other universities at home and abroad. Unfortunately, it is left up to the reader to assess the comparative degree of collaboration and resistanceduringthe World Wars, or which role Ghent Universityp layedi nt he colonial adventure of the Belgians tate (for instance, by offering atraining in colonial agriculture from 1919 or by establishing of am edicalc ampus from 1956,t he so-called Ganda-Congo project).
All chapters close with ap olemicq uestion or ap oint of contentionf or the future, also the one dealingw ith 'Colonialism and development cooperation'. HereDeneckerecriticises the lack of vision and the growingmutualcompetition regardingi nter-university cooperation with the global South. By structuring her book liket his, she deliberatelyc ontributes to the slogan of the festive year: 'Ah istory full of af uture'.Or, as she puts it herself: "Thef act that the two Belgian state universities weref oundedp reciselyi nt he time of Wilhelm vonH umboldt makes it all the more interesting to use the celebration for alook back with aview to the future."²⁶ In Deneckere'snarrative,the Humboldtian Bildungsideal is opposed to the predominant profitability thinking, in which individual self-development and the development of critical citizenship are at risk of being sacri- ficed.²⁷ Even though manyreaderscan easilyidentify with her worries about the increasingcommodification of the university,Humboldt and the ideals attributed to the so-called German model are referred to in an over-simplified way.²⁸ Faithful to the Liègej ubilee publication'ss ubtitle Mémoiree tp rospective [Memory and prospective], the authorsadopt asimilar forward-lookingperspective.A gain, the reflection on the university'sp ast is intended to give inspiration for the place and function of the university tomorrow.T he perception thatt he contemporaryu niversity is threatened in its existencei sc ountered by introducing the notion of "citizenship, the third beacon of university identity,inaddition to teachinga nd research".²⁹ The authors also recall the speech of Liège'sr ector AlbertCorhayonthe occasion of the opening of the academic year in September 2016 whereC orhayp resented his so-called 'charter of values' and evoked the "necessity: never to break the link with the city and its challenges".³⁰ It is quite remarkable indeed, that the common third task of the university,s ervice to society,inLiègeisalmost explicitlyrestricted to service to the city.The university is no longer an ivory tower,i ti ss aid here, yetasentinel, protecting us against faken ews and anyk ind of dogmatic thinking.
Just as topical, both in Ghent and Liègei st he wayi nwhich the occasion of the bicentenary has been usedtob ring up another tricky point,n amelyt he underrepresentation of women at the contemporary university. Even though at the end of the nineteenth century Belgian universities, except for the Catholic stronghold of Leuven, were less behind worldwide in terms of women'sadmission than Deneckeres uggests, when jumpingt ot oday, it is definitelyt rue that it remains extremelyd ifficult for femaler esearchers to break through the glass ceiling. Therefore, Deneckerep lainlys upports the plea of Anne De Paepe, the first female rector of her university (in 2013), for the introduction of quotas "as at emporary and necessary evil to changet he old system from within".³¹ Concerning Liège, as imilar kind of messagei se laborated in as eparate book,a lbeit in a slightlym ore subtle way.³² In this case the subject is broadened to the issue of gender studies. Througha ne xtensive number of personal stories from (former)  See Nussbaum, Martha C.:N ot for profit.Why democracy needs the humanities.P rinceton 2016.  ForinstancePaletschek, Sylvia: Die Erfindung der Humboldtschen Universitaẗ. Die Konstruktion der deutschen Universitaẗsidee in der erstenHälftedes 20.Jahrhunderts. In: Historische Anthropologie 10 (2002).p p. 183 -205.  Raxhon, Universitéd eL iège( cf. note 15), p. 187.  Raxhon, Universitéd eL iège( cf. note 15), p. 188.  Deneckere,Uit de ivoren toren (cf. note 9), p. 263.  Dor,J uliettee tal.: Où sont les femmes?L af éministation àl ' Université de Liège. Liège2017.
Searching fora(New) Self-legitimation? students, researchers,p rofessors and administrators, based on archival documents and an impressive series of interviews,t he authors discuss the position and experiences of women at the Universityo fL iège, from the acceptance of the first female student in 1881 up to today.
How will the Catholic University of Leuvencommemorate its arrears with regardtothe admission of femalestudents, which took place almost half acentury later thanatthe other Belgian universities, on the occasion of its upcoming600 th anniversary in 2025?For obvious reasons,female students and scholars werenot atopic at the small workshop that was organised in October 2017 to celebrate the bicentenary of the state university that had existed in Leuvenb etween 1817a nd 1835.I tisc ommendable thatthis small anniversary was not (entirely) forgotten. But the fact that the collective volume has onlyb een published in the spring of 2021,³³ might indicate wherec urrent priorities lie.
Also because of the focus of the workshop'sp resentations on the common history of the three state universities and on the different jubilee traditions in Leuven, Ghent and Liège, the publication presents an otable deflection from the otherj ubilee books' narrative.A sc onfirmedb yJ oT ollebeek and TomV erschaffelintheirchapter in the volume, the 2017 workshop as amore humble celebration fits nicely into the tacticsofself-representation as they weredeveloped at the University of Leuven.³⁴ The anniversary of the Catholic university,founded in 1834,was celebrated in 1859,1884 and 1909.F rom1 925o nwards,though, the foundation of the old, medieval university,f ounded in 1425 by Pope Martin V, was commemorated. The fact that the French revolutionaries had abolished the university of Leuveni n1 797, and thatb etween 1817a nd 1835 the buildings wereoccupied by astate university was gradually 'forgotten'.Continuity and tradition are generallyidentified with quality, and the KULeuveniscertainlynoexception to this rule.³⁵ From the same reasoning,R axhon and Granata even dare to claim that "the University of Liègeistogether with the University of Ghent the oldest university of Belgium".³⁶ Strictlyspeakingthis is correct,because the currentlye xisting university in Leuveno nlyd ates from 1834.I ti sh ighlyp robable, though,that in 2025 the public relations department at the KULeuvenwillc ompletelyi gnores uch as tatement.

Getting the Message Through in Different Ways
The onlyr eason to include this statement,which is somewhat confusing for the general public, for whom the Liègej ubilee book is intended, is to use it as a quality label. Nevertheless,i nm ost of the recent jubilee publications appears to be enough room for ac ritical approach. Deneckered oes not shya wayf rom such an approach to elaborate on the stormyr ector elections thats hook up Ghent Universityp reciselyi ni ts anniversary year,a nd thatw erew idelys pread in the national press too. The media clearlyl iked the feuds and intrigues that seemed to indicate that the ancient tensions between Catholics and Freemasons still live on in the former state university,which had made pluralism its trademark since the 1960s. In her epilogue, Deneckerealso formulatesrather harshly, that there was af undamental contradiction in the two hundred years history of Ghent University between being "capable of great things, but equallya ble to counteract that greatness on all levels".³⁷ During the past decades, the opportunities for ac ritical and precise historical work on the universities' past have graduallyi ncreased, at least partlyi n consequenceofthe greater importance of the third and fourth element in jubilee celebrations, namelyc ulturala ctivities open to the general public or,t op ut it negatively, due to the reduced importance that universitya uthorities attach to historical publicationsinthe jubilee context.Evenfrom abudgetary perspective are the massive rangeofactivities offered to the wider public nowadaysfar more crucial and can hardlybeseparatedfrom the fields of marketing and propaganda. Of course, this kind of cultural events on the occasion of the jubilee have always been crucial for the university'sp ropaganda, yett heirs cope has been extended drastically. Closely related to this have also the media that were mobilised to design and conveythe celebrations, and the addressed or recruited publics changed fundamentally.³⁸ The partying companyi sn ol ongerl imited to 'masters' and students, but attempts are made to reach out to alumnae, city in- Deneckere,Uit de ivoren toren (cf. note 9), p. 328. Searching for a( New) Self-legitimation? habitants and all kinds of sympathisersb ym aking use of new and different means of communication.
Adecisive instrument in order to realise this ambition in the Ghent context was UGentMemorie,awebsitel aunched alreadyi n2 010 and further developed ever since.³⁹ Functioning as the virtual memory of the university,t he platform was conceivedb ye mployees of the Institute for Public History and its common thread was and is "the interaction between university and city,s cience and society",a ccordingt ot he websitea uthors. Fort he historian Liesbet Nysf rom KU-Leuven, one of the most valuable objectives of UGentMemorie is how it strivesto involvet he broad (university) community in the project.N ot onlyd oes ag reat deal of student research, which otherwise might be immediatelys ubmerged, find its waytoawide audience via the platform. The broad publicisalsoexplicitlyencouraged to participate: visitors to the websitea re fostered to add memories from theiru niversity life or to supplement biographical entriesa bout the university'sp rofessors,b asedo nt heir own experiences.⁴⁰ In addition to this virtual exposition, alarge number of exhibitions had been organised duringthe jubilee year 2017 in bothcities. In Ghent, the major exhibition was displayedatthe city museum. Underthe title 'Stad en universiteit. Sinds 1817' [City and university.S ince 1817] the exhibits not onlyp romised to offer a retrospective into the topical interaction between city and university "over the past two hundred years",b ut also to examine "opportunities for the future",⁴¹ thereforep erfectlyinl ine with the university'sgeneral messageonthe occasion of the jubilee. The samea pplies to the situation in Liègew heret he primary exhibition was titled 'J'aurai 20 ans en 2030' [I will be 20 years old in 2030]a nd aimed to "open up debate, tickle curiosity and shed light on more than 50 essential questions for thinking about the future".⁴² Another attempt in Ghent to involvet he largerp ublic consisted in ac ampaign to reconstruct the university'sl ife story on the basiso f2 00 objects. These objects wereassembled among the university'scorea nd broader context, "in particulars tudents, staff members of the university and the city of Ghent, alumnae, owners of student housing",a sw ell as "chip shop and pub owners, community police officers and Erasmuss tudents".⁴³ The Liègec ounterpart was the exhibition 'Du poil de mammouth àl ' oeil du cyclope. 200 bizarreries scientifiques universitaires' [From mammothhair to cyclops eye. 200academic scientific quirks], organised at the initiative of various naturals cience museums and university departments. Giving an overview of the whole scope of activities in both cities would lead too far,r angingf rom ag uided city walk over publicd ebates to an international rowingr egatta. However,f rom the perspective of universityh istorians the website UGentMemorialis cannot be left unmentioned here.⁴⁴ It functionsasthe contemporaryversion of an ancientacademic tradition of presentingt he professorial corps in memorial books.
In the run-up to the 2017 jubilee, the opening of anew university museum in Ghent had been discussed, but it materialised onlyi nO ctober 2020,a sa nother lasting memoryo ft he bicentenary.T he Ghent University Museum (GUM) presents itself as a 'Forum for science, doubt &a rt'.⁴⁵ It wantst oc hallengep eople to look at science and society in an ew way. "We do not show the end result of science, we show the wayt oi t," says MarjanD oom, director of the GUM.⁴⁶ The permanent exhibition works on seven themes: chaos, doubt,m odel, measurement,i magination, knowledge and network. Unlikem ost university museums, the focus is not on the history of the university or ad iscipline. Instead, GUM tries to bring together the entireG hent academic heritagec ollection that represents ad iversityo fd isciplines. The ambition is to emphasise the diversity and versatilityo fs cience by placing objects from different disciplines simply next to each other.The clash between these objects is useda sahandle to represent the complex and oftenn on-linear scientific processt hat precedes the results.Soinstead of trying to tell audiences what science is, the museum wants to encouragei ts public to enter into the minds of scholars, to explore science together and to stimulate the critical awareness of the visitors.⁴⁷ This approach thus corresponds to the strongG hent tradition in the field of philosophyo f science.