Els, Baroness Witte (born 30 September 1941,

Borgerhout Borgerhout () is the smallest district of Antwerp, Belgium. , the district houses 45,769 inhabitants on 3,93 km². It was an independent municipality until January 1983. The postal area code for Borgerhout is 2140. Geography Borgerhout is divided ...

) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

historian. She was professor at the

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish Community, Flemish gov ...

and honorary rector of the university. Els Witte was the first female rector of a Belgian university. She was a member of the

Coudenberg group The Coudenberg group ( nl, Coudenberggroep, french: Groupe Coudenberg) was a Belgian federalist think-tank, it was named after the place where the members met, the Coudenberg, one of the seven hillocks on which the centre of Brussels has been built ...

, a Belgian federalist

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Career

She started her career as an assistant at the

University of Ghent Ghent University ( nl, Universiteit Gent, abbreviated as UGent) is a public research university located in Ghent, Belgium. Established before the state of Belgium itself, the university was founded by the Dutch King William I in 1817, when the ...

(

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

). In 1974 she joined the in 1969 newly founded

as a full-time

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. Between 1994 and 2000, she was

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the ''Vrije Universiteit Brussel''. In the course of her career, she was also President of the board of the Belgian Radio and Television (now: Flemish Radio and Television Network VRT).

Bibliography

* Els Witte, Jan Craeybeckx, Alain Meynen, ''Political History of Belgium from 1830 Onwards'', VUB Brussels University Press, July 2001 * Els Witte, ''Els Witte, Rectorale redevoeringen'', VUB Brussels University Press * Els Witte, ''Het verloren koninkrijk. Het harde verzet van de Belgische orangisten tegen de revolutie. 1828-1850'', Antwerpen, 2014

Sources

Els Witte

Els Witte
1941 births Living people Flemish historians 20th-century Belgian historians 21st-century Belgian historians Belgian women historians Vrije Universiteit Brussel alumni People from Borgerhout {{Belgium-scientist-stub