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CAMille (KBR-ULB)

Research centre and digital archives dedicated to the history of journalism in Belgium

 

Founded in 2020, CAMille (Centre for Archives on the Media and Information, ULB-KBR) has two key objectives. Firstly, it intends to offer a digital platform for researchers interested in the Belgian press archives and/or archives related to journalism and the media in Belgium. Secondly, CAMille is a research centre dedicated to the history of Belgian journalism. It initiates research projects and is also open to partnership in both ongoing or future individual or collaborative projects.

In collaboration with the Digital Research Lab (KBR-UGent), CAMille paves the way for studies related to Belgian journalistic production or the media sector that explore large corpora using digital humanities tools. The Centre is also open to all researchers, whatever their discipline or approach.

In order to develop its digital archival platform dedicated to the history of journalism in Belgium, CAMille works on gathering and digitising relevant archives, supports digitisation projects related the Belgian press within KBR, promotes access to digital collections and develops research tools.

Two main research projects are currently carried out within CAMille:

  • the development of a database of Belgian journalists and media since 1830;
  • writing a history of Belgian journalism from the end of the 19th century to the present day, from a specific angle: the study of critical discourses about journalism during this period.

 

The trade magazine of the Association générale de la presse belge (AGPB), published from 1920 onwards and in two languages from 1939 onwards under the title Le Journaliste / The Journalist.
Front page of the first issue of Het Handelsblad, published on 4 December 1844. For several decades, this Antwerp newspaper was the most important Dutch-language Belgian newspaper.
Émile Rossel on the editorial floor of Le Soir, the “neutral” Brussels newspaper he co-founded in December 1887. © Rossel
Editorial floor of RTL – a private broadcaster with its headquarters in Luxembourg – in 2019. (Photo: Pauline Laurent)

 

Institutional context and permanent members

CAMille is funded by Belspo through the FED-tWIN programme. It is based on a long-term cooperation between KBR and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Project supervisors are Marc D’Hoore (KBR) and Florence Le Cam (ULB).

 

Scientific committee

  • Paul Aron (researcher in literature, F.R.S.- FNRS/ULB)
  • Marc D’Hoore (curator of Newspapers and Contemporary Media Section, KBR)
  • Juliette De Maeyer (researcher in media studies, Université de Montréal)
  • Irene Di Jorio (researcher in media history, ULB)
  • Florence Le Cam (researcher in media studies, ULB)
  • Frédéric Lemmers (Head of the Digitisation Department, KBR)
  • Manon Libert (researcher in media studies, UMONS-LaPIJ)
  • Thuy-An Pham (ICT Department, KBR)
  • Pierre Van den Dungen (specialist in the history of the Belgian press, ULB)
  • Sophie Vandepontseele (Head of Contemporary Collections, KBR)

 

Contact

pbagnpg@pnzvyyr-hyo-xoe.or