Marnix Beyen | Universiteit Antwerpen (original) (raw)

Papers by Marnix Beyen

Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis, 1970

To Kill a Sultan, 2017

The imprisonment of Edward Joris in Istanbul engendered a form of mass-mobilization with strong r... more The imprisonment of Edward Joris in Istanbul engendered a form of mass-mobilization with strong reminiscences of—and close interconnections with—the Dreyfus affair in France. Having its roots in Joris’s hometown Antwerp, it quickly transformed into a national and even international forum by a small group of influential left wing journalists, intellectuals and politicians. While serving as a strong vehicle for the discourse of universal human rights as had been developing during former decades, this mobilization was also deeply influenced by emotional and particularistic responses. Nationalism and anti-Ottoman or Islamophobic prejudices—often verging on blatant racism—pervaded many pleas for the liberation of Joris. Apart from analyzing the actors, strategies and discourses involved in this mobilization, this chapter also situates it in the Belgian political context of the time. In so doing, it tries to understand why the Catholic government turned out to be very vulnerable to this left wing mobilization.

Living with History, 1914-1964, 2021

Clientelism and Politicization: Direct interactions between deputies and ‘ordinary citizens’ in F... more Clientelism and Politicization: Direct interactions between deputies and ‘ordinary citizens’ in France, ca. 1890-ca. 1940. This contribution contains a plea to consider the direct interactions between MPs and ‘ordinary citizens’ as an integral part of the complex phenomenon of political representation in modern democratic societies. During these interactions, the MPs and their respondents do not only defend each their personal interests, but often also articulate ideas about collective interests or even about the common good. As such, they are constitutive for the dynamic field of politics. By taking them into account, the Weberian thesis about a linear evolution from the ‘rule of notables’ to modern mass democracy should be reconsidered. The article proposes a multifaceted way of studying these interactive contacts, illustrating its method by focusing on a small group of left-wing MPs in France between 1890 and 1940. At a first stage, the letters received by the MPs are used in ord...

In dit essay willen we nagaan hoe Sinjoren en buitenstaanders, inwoners en reizigers naar het Ant... more In dit essay willen we nagaan hoe Sinjoren en buitenstaanders, inwoners en reizigers naar het Antwerpse stadhuis keken. Over de waarde ervan hielde kroniekschrijvers, (amateur-)historici, romanschrijvers en toeristen er soms verschillende meningen op na. Bovendien evolueerde de visie op de stad aan de stroom - en het stadhuis - in de loop der eeuwen ook ingrijpend, onder invloed van economische, politieke en culturele ontwikkelingen. We proberen een rode draad te ontdekken in die veelheid van opinies en beelden. Eerst wordt de visie van reizigers onder de loep genomen, om vervolgens de stadsbewoners zelf aan het woord te laten. Hoe ervoeren en beschreven ze het stadhuis? Waarin verschilde hun blik? Waren er ook overeenkomsten?

A waffle-shaped model for how realistic dimensions of the Belgian conflict structure collective m... more A waffle-shaped model for how realistic dimensions of the Belgian conflict structure collective memories and stereotypes. Memory Studies, 5(1), 16-31.

Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis, 1970

To Kill a Sultan, 2017

Living with History, 1914-1964, 2021

In historical studies, 'collective memory' is most often viewed as the product of nationalizing s... more In historical studies, 'collective memory' is most often viewed as the product of nationalizing strategies carried out by political élites in the hope to create homogeneous nation-states. In contrast, this book asserts that collective memories develop out of a never-ending, triangular negotiation between local, national and transnational actors.

Marnix Beyen and Brecht Deseure (eds.), Local Memories in a Nationalizing and Globalizing World (1750-present) (New York: Palgrave Mcmillan, 2015).

At the centenary commemoration of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, many questions with regard to... more At the centenary commemoration of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, many questions with regard to the origin, the development and the impact of this worldwide phenomenon remain largely uncharted.

Where did this virus come from?
To what degree and how were its genesis and its rapid transcontinental spread caused and/or facilitated by the war circumstances?
Which genetic features of the virus explain its unusually high pathogenicity?
How did medical and political authorities react?
Why were some age groups spared by this dreadful virus?
Is it possible to fathom the impact of the pandemic both on the everyday life of citizens and on general developments in science, culture and politics?
How far can a historical approach contribute to the understanding of current-day pandemics, and vice versa?

In order to tackle these questions, an international and interdisciplinary conference will be held in Ypres (Belgium) on 7-8 February 2019. The Scientific Committee warmly invites you to submit abstracts of original research papers related to biomedical and historical aspects of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which you would like to be considered for presentation at the conference.

Are you an undergraduate student? Then you are welcome to join and you can register using the PhD Student fee.

Organizing Committee:
Marnix Beyen (co-chair), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, BE
Xavier Saelens (co-chair), Ghent University and VIB, Ghent, BE
Peter Palese, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, US
Anne Rasmussen, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, FR
Kaat Wils, KULeuven, Leuven, BE
Marc Van Ranst, KULeuven, Leuven, BE
Dominiek Dendooven, In Flanders Fields Museum (Ieper) and University of Antwerp (Antwerp), BE

Deadline for submissions extended to May 7 --- During the last decades, political historians hav... more Deadline for submissions extended to May 7
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During the last decades, political historians have increasingly focused on the evolution of political consciousness among the "common people" during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In that process they have often made use of all-encompassing notions such as politicization, democratization and nationalization. These have in common that they suggest an increasing commitment of a growing number of citizens in the political life of the nation, but because these concepts are so general and linear, they are hard to grapple with. Do they refer to an increase in consciousness and/or agency? Apart from the difficulty of measuring these processes, one can also ask whether they necessarily occur in parallel. A more active participation in electoral processes, for example, does not necessarily entail a greater commitment to political values, and membership of political associations can be inspired as much by individual calculations as by concern for the common good.

The conference "Subaltern political knowledges" intends to take one step back and ask a question which should precede all discussion of politicization, democratization and nationalization of the masses: what did people actually know about politics? In our quest for an answer, we will primarily focus on 'subaltern' groups in society, i.e. on people that neither occupied a position of formal or informal power in society nor were able to make their voice heard in public debates. We aim at discovering the knowledge these people expressed about political institutions, personalities, values and ideologies. While doing so, we pay attention to both the temporal and the spatial framework of this knowledge. Was it situated primarily at a local or national level, or did it extend to international politics? And did people only refer to politics of their own time, or did they evoke politicians and/or political systems of the past? Did they engage in comparisons between the past and the present?

Apart from the contents of the political knowledge of the subalterns, this conference also investigates its sources. Did these subalterns refer to the newspapers and other mass media, were they informed by electoral campaigns, were they inspired by informal talk with neighbors or relatives, was membership of associations a decisive factor?

Thirdly and finally, the conference intends to address the question how people acted upon their political knowledge. Did they use it in order to further their personal interests, or to support institutional or societal change?

The challenge of this conference will be to bring together a broad range of papers in which these questions are addressed empirically, preferably on the basis of sources created by subalterns (whether or not addressing members of elite groups). The geographical scope of the conference is emphatically global, and we invite scholars to submit proposals on cases from all over the world. They should be situated, however, in contexts where some form of institutionalized democratic politics was taking shape, but where the distribution of political knowledge was not yet facilitated by a powerful mass media such as television. The focus of the conference, therefore, will be on the period between the last decades of the eighteenth century and the 1950s.

Rather than offering grand narratives about the increase or decrease of political knowledge, we aim to historicize the theme, investigating how in diverse historical contexts certain types of political knowledge correlated with categories such as gender, age, ethnicity, urbanity, profession, literacy, sociability and electoral status (voter vs. non-voter). By juxtaposing and comparing these micro-historical investigations, we hope to be able to assess the relative strength and recurrence of these correlations. In the process, we will build a strong empirical foundation for nuanced discussions of politicization, democratization and nationalization.

Keynote speakers include: Rachel Jean-Baptiste (UCDavis), Eduardo Elena (University of Miami), Maartje Janse (Universiteit Leiden), Harm Kaal (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Michaela Fenske (Humboldt-Universität Berlin) and Frédéric Monier (Université d'Avignon).

Deadline for submitting papers: 15 April Conference dates: 18-20 October

In Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres), the Turkey Studies Network in the Low Countries (TSN), Power i... more In Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres), the Turkey Studies Network in the Low Countries (TSN), Power in History: Centre for Political History (University of Antwerp), and the Hannah-Arendt-Institute (Mechelen) are jointly organizing a three-day interdisciplinary conference on the experiences and aftermath of the First World War in the Middle East. We welcome paper proposals that provide new perspectives on how this global war unfolded in the Ottoman lands and its borderlands, the cataclysmic consequences it engendered in the making of a new geopolitical order, and how its many legacies reverberate up to the present day.

Keynote speakers:
Elizabeth F. Thompson (American University, Washington D.C.)
Nazan Maksudyan (Freie Universität Berlin)

Deadline for abstracts: March 30, 2022