KORTE BIOGRAFIE

Christoph De Spiegeleer (1988) studeerde in 2010 af als Master in de Geschiedenis aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel, met een (gepubliceerde) eindverhandeling over liberale netwerken in 19de-eeuws Brussel aan de hand van een intellectuele biografie van de Belgische politiek filosoof/schrijver Charles Potvin. In 2010-2011 volgde hij een bijkomende masteropleiding History of Political Culture and National Identities aan de Universiteit van Leiden. In 2015 verdedigde hij met succes aan de VUB zijn proefschrift over funeraire praktijken bij politieke en koninklijke elites in België tussen 1830 en 1940. Zijn onderzoek concentreert zich op de geschiedenis van liberalisme, vrijdenkersbewegingen, mediacultuur en de omgang met dood en herdenking. Momenteel is hij verbonden aan Liberaal Archief/Liberas (Gent) als onderzoeksverantwoordelijke. Als tijdelijk gastdocent begeleidt hij in academiejaar 2018-2019 het nieuwe opleidingsonderdeel Stage in de Master Geschiedenis.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Christoph De Spiegeleer (1988) graduated from the History Department at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2010. His (published) Master’s thesis explored liberal networks in Brussels in the 19th century, based on an intellectual biography of the Belgian writer/philosopher Charles Potvin. In 2010-2011, he obtained a second Master in the History of Political Culture and National Identities at the Universiteit van Leiden. In 2015, he obtained his PhD in modern history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His dissertation explored the death, burial and commemoration of political and royal elites in 19th- and 20th-century Belgium. His research interests relate to the history of liberalism, secularism, media and funerary culture. Currently he is a Research Fellow of Liberas/Liberaal Archief in Ghent. In 2018-2019, he is appointed guest professor to supervise a new course that offers students History the possibility to do an internship during their Master.

KERNPUBLICATIES/SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Christoph De Spiegeleer, ed., The Civilising Offensive. Social and Educational Reform in 19th-century Belgium (Berlin: De gruyter-Oldenbourg, 2019), 237 p.

• Christoph De Spiegeleer, "‘Her death is as saintly as her life’. Media representations of royal deathbeds in Belgium, 1850–1910", Mortality: Promoting the Interdisciplinary Study of Death and Dying (published online, in print in 2019)
• Christoph De Spiegeleer & Jeffrey Tyssens, "Secularizing Funerary Culture in Nineteenth-Century Belgium: A Product of Political and Religious Controversy", Death Studies, Special Issue: Death in a Broader Perspective: Historical, Anthropological and Sociological Contributions 41, 1 (2017), pp. 14-21.
• Christoph De Spiegeleer, "1834-1869-1891: The Untimely Deaths of Three Heirs to the Belgian Throne", in Heidi Mehrkens & Frank Lorenz Müller (eds.). Sons and Heirs. Succession and Political Culture in 19th-Century Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), pp. 179-196.

• Christoph De Spiegeleer, "Royal Losses, Symbolic Politics and Media Events in Interwar Europe: Responses to the Accidental Deaths of King Albert I and Queen Astrid of Belgium (1934–1935)", Contemporary European History 24, 2 (2015), pp. 155-174.

• Christoph De Spiegeleer, "'The blood of martyrs is the seed of progress'. The role of martyrdom in socialist death culture in Belgium and the Netherlands, 1880-1940", Mortality: Promoting the Interdisciplinary Study of Death and Dying. Special Issue on Martyrs and Martyrdom 19, 2(2014), pp. 184-205.
• Christoph De Spiegeleer, "Charles Potvin (1818-1902) en de progressistische politieke cultuur", in Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis 91, 2 (2013), pp. 387-425.

Please visit the Pure webpage / academia webpage for more details on publications and research.