The History of ISHA Ghent
Ghent has a strong tradition of local student organisations, one of them is the ‘Vlaamse Geschiedkundige Kring’ (Flemish Historical Society), founded back in 1931 and mainly representing the History students at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Ghent. When a couple of students from V.G.K. - on one of their cultural trips to Berlin in 2014 - came into contact with ISHA Berlin, the idea sprouted to form a ISHA section in Ghent as well.
However, it didn't turn out to be easy to get the Ghentian students involved in this international project. The abundance and the strong tradition of the locally focused student organisations meant that the students didn't have enough time and people to put into this completely new organisation. With the efforts of Alex Peetermans and Anselm Logghe, local students from Ghent started participating in a whole series of international events like EUMillennialsTOUR (an industrial heritage project of the European Union) and some ISHA seminars in 2017 like the extra seminar in Lausanne and the Summer Seminar in Helsinki.
The more academic and international focus of ISHA would be a welcome addition to the existing offer of student associations in Ghent. The idea became reality and ISHA Ghent was established as the second ISHA-section in Belgium, next to ISHA Leuven, who are a former official ISHA International seat, host the ISHA Archives and organised the ISHA Annual Conference in 2013. In the academic year 2017-2018 the first council of ISHA Ghent was established: 15 enthusiastic students came together to organise local events for incoming international students and to promote the activities and seminars from ISHA International. This first year was a success and students from Ghent participated in the Maribor Regional Seminar 2017, Zagreb New Year's Seminar 2018 and Maribor/Graz Annual Conference 2018.
All these seminars were very inspiring for local students in Ghent and they decided to host their very first ISHA Seminar. To start things small, ISHA Ghent decided to host an ‘Extra seminar’ at the end of October 2018, with the main theme being the ‘Remembrance of the First World War’, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day on 11 November 2018. Approximately 40 international students travelled to Ghent to take part and the Seminar was a real succes!
Academic years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 helped to establish ISHA Ghent as a fixed value in the list of student associations in Ghent. Local activities focussed on welcoming international students and bringing them into contact with local (history) students, taking form in a series of events called ‘Locals meet internationals’. While ISHA originally was meant for history students, our local activities attracted a more diverse audience. Some of the main activities that ISHA Ghent hosts are friendship speeddating, historical city tours, quiznight, NFDP (national food and drinks party), and so on. ISHA Ghent established a very good relationship with the International Office of our Faculty and managed to be recognized as an official student association at Ghent University in 2019, meaning that we are granted some privileges and grants to organize our activities.
ISHA Ghent continues to take it to the next level and we will be hosting the ‘ISHA Annual Conference in 2020’! Yes, we mean business. This seminar will aim to bring together 80 international students from 21-27th of September to discuss the theme ‘Power Struggles, Colonialism & Imperialism throughout history’. The organizational team of this Annual Conference works in close cooperation with the department of History. Interested in joining us to organize our local activities or the Annual Conference? Contact us on facebook or [email protected] and help us write history together.
However, it didn't turn out to be easy to get the Ghentian students involved in this international project. The abundance and the strong tradition of the locally focused student organisations meant that the students didn't have enough time and people to put into this completely new organisation. With the efforts of Alex Peetermans and Anselm Logghe, local students from Ghent started participating in a whole series of international events like EUMillennialsTOUR (an industrial heritage project of the European Union) and some ISHA seminars in 2017 like the extra seminar in Lausanne and the Summer Seminar in Helsinki.
The more academic and international focus of ISHA would be a welcome addition to the existing offer of student associations in Ghent. The idea became reality and ISHA Ghent was established as the second ISHA-section in Belgium, next to ISHA Leuven, who are a former official ISHA International seat, host the ISHA Archives and organised the ISHA Annual Conference in 2013. In the academic year 2017-2018 the first council of ISHA Ghent was established: 15 enthusiastic students came together to organise local events for incoming international students and to promote the activities and seminars from ISHA International. This first year was a success and students from Ghent participated in the Maribor Regional Seminar 2017, Zagreb New Year's Seminar 2018 and Maribor/Graz Annual Conference 2018.
All these seminars were very inspiring for local students in Ghent and they decided to host their very first ISHA Seminar. To start things small, ISHA Ghent decided to host an ‘Extra seminar’ at the end of October 2018, with the main theme being the ‘Remembrance of the First World War’, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day on 11 November 2018. Approximately 40 international students travelled to Ghent to take part and the Seminar was a real succes!
Academic years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 helped to establish ISHA Ghent as a fixed value in the list of student associations in Ghent. Local activities focussed on welcoming international students and bringing them into contact with local (history) students, taking form in a series of events called ‘Locals meet internationals’. While ISHA originally was meant for history students, our local activities attracted a more diverse audience. Some of the main activities that ISHA Ghent hosts are friendship speeddating, historical city tours, quiznight, NFDP (national food and drinks party), and so on. ISHA Ghent established a very good relationship with the International Office of our Faculty and managed to be recognized as an official student association at Ghent University in 2019, meaning that we are granted some privileges and grants to organize our activities.
ISHA Ghent continues to take it to the next level and we will be hosting the ‘ISHA Annual Conference in 2020’! Yes, we mean business. This seminar will aim to bring together 80 international students from 21-27th of September to discuss the theme ‘Power Struggles, Colonialism & Imperialism throughout history’. The organizational team of this Annual Conference works in close cooperation with the department of History. Interested in joining us to organize our local activities or the Annual Conference? Contact us on facebook or [email protected] and help us write history together.