Rest in Peace, Caroline Pauwels
In Memoriam Caroline Pauwels (1964-2022)
It is with great sadness that the VUB community must say goodbye to Honorary Rector Caroline Pauwels. She died on Friday 5 August 2022 at UZ Brussel from cancer of the stomach and oesophagus. She leaves behind two children.
Caroline Pauwels was a visionary and passionate rector, an inspiring and warm personality. At a time when leadership that connects us is needed more than ever, we will miss her terribly. Our thoughts go to the family and friends of Paul.
Feel free to add some words and memories below.
Breaking down the walls
In 2016, Caroline began her time as rector brandishing a metaphorical sledgehammer. âBreak down the walls,â her first academic address forcefully read. To create connections, the proverbial walls must first come down. The walls between the campus and the city, between the university and society, between scientific disciplines, and even between science and art. In the most impressive way, Caroline Pauwels succeeded in tearing down all those walls, building bridges and creating connections in their place. The results are impressive: there is weKONEKT.brussels, with the eye-catching Mindblowers event and off-campus week, there is the annual Difference Day event on World Press Freedom Day, 3 May, there is the POINcarĂ© interdisciplinary think tank, and there was the Theater Aan Zee festival in 2021 in Ostend with Caroline as curator and a large VUB contribution.
Caroline Pauwels thought intensively and deeply about VUBâs position as a pioneering Flemish university in multicultural Brussels, as an urban engaged university with an international orientation and a strong European anchoring through the EUTOPIA network.
With her policy plans as a guide, VUB positioned itself as distinctly humanist, radically diverse, radically democratic and radically sustainable. And yes, radically digital. With the Covid pandemic, that approach became brutally digital. As rector, she proved to be an excellent crisis manager who guided VUB through that oppressive and exhausting time. She did so with her team and with the student representatives, who she believed played a crucial role.
As director of the university hospital affiliated with VUB, she also had an impact on the UZ Brussel through her humanist vision and social commitment.
Possibilism and wonder
For her predecessor, Paul De Knop, who died one day before Caroline Pauwels from the consequences of melanoma, optimism was a moral duty. As rector, Caroline added a new dimension to that optimism: possibilism. The deep awareness that we can make the world a better place, that the world needs us too. She became an important source of inspiration not only for the VUB community, but also for society. Her media appearances, columns and publications have inspired many people. In 2021 she was awarded the prestigious Ark Prize of the Free Word. She is certainly among the most influential Flemish intellectuals and this has undoubtedly boosted the universityâs image. Not least because everything she said and did was authentic. Considered and deeply felt. Wonder was crucial to her too. She wrote books for a wide audience, such as Ode aan de Verwondering and â with Jean Paul Van Bendegem and Pat Donnez â Wonderlust. Ronduit: Overpeinzingen van een possibilist was published in 2021 and became a bestseller.
The way she dealt with her illness also left no one unmoved. After her premature and forced resignation as rector in February this year, she remained actively involved with the university. She was particularly concerned with ethical and reflective issues.
Studies and career
Caroline Pauwels (Sint-Niklaas, 23 juni 1964) studied Philosophy at UAntwerp and Communication Sciences at VUB. After graduating, she worked for a short time in 1989 in the cabinet of European Commissioner Karel Van Miert, after which she became a researcher at VUBâs Department of Communication Sciences. She obtained her doctorate in 1995 with research focusing on the European Unionâs audiovisual policy. In 1998, she became a professor, and she has numerous influential publications to her name in the field of communication and media.
From 2000 to 2016, she was director of SMIT, a research centre specialising in the study of information and communication technologies, which since 2004 has been part of the iMinds network. Within iMinds, Caroline Pauwels led the Digital Society department, which brings together research groups from Ghent, Leuven and Brussels. She was awarded the Francqui Chair by the University of Ghent in 2014, and between 2012 and 2016 she held the Jean Monnet Chair. In addition, she served on several boards of directors, was a government commissioner at public broadcaster VRT and a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.
Caroline Pauwels may have lost her personal battle against transience, but she taught us that something will always remain. âIt will pass, but the surplus will remainâ, as a good friend of hers once said. In her case, that âsurplusâ is an impressive legacy. For that, the VUB community is extremely grateful to Caroline Pauwels.
Carolineâs history with the IES and VeCo goes way back, as, prior to her Rectorship, she was a member of the IES Board for many years. She promoted a lot of our earlier PhDâs and had an active interest in our research. This interest always stayed, and continued when she became Rector. She initiated the Brussels School of Governance by stimulating cooperation between all âinternational actorsâ (read: mainly IES and VeCo). She guaranteed her support for VeCo over the past COVID years and saved the College by acting as financial guarantor for the losses while stimulating further investment. Above all, Caroline was a remarkable personality who radiated positivity and could stimulate you to do things you hadnât thought of before. She was the driving force behind WeKonnect â linking the university more to Brussels â but also believed that our universityâs main mission is to be international. Hence her enhanced cooperation with Warwick and others to build the European University EUTopia. Caroline has been defending both IES and VeCo over the past many years, and her support en enthusiasm will be greatly missed âŠWe are loosing a magnificent personality whose influence on todayâs university (and mutatis mutandis todayâs BSoG) cannot be overestimated. When the tears eventually will go away, weâll undoubtedly remember them with a broad smile on our faces while we continue their legacy of creating a more human, just and positive world through our insights in research and society. On behalf of the entire Brussels School, we respectfully convey our condolenses to family, friends and close colleagues.