Prof. Dr. Hilde De Ridder-Symoens | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hildegarde Symoens (1943-04-19)19 April 1943 |
| Died | 5 March 2023(2023-03-05) (aged 79) |
| Board member of | Belgian Historical Institute in Rome[1] |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Athénée Royal de Léopoldville |
| Alma mater | University of Ghent |
| Thesis | De Brabantse leden van de Germaanse natie van de rechtsuniversiteit van Orleans, 1444-1555 (1969) |
| Doctoral advisor | Raoul van Caenegem |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Historian |
| Sub-discipline | prosopography of themedieval university |
| Institutions | Free University of Amsterdam,University of Ghent |
| Notable works | A History of the University in Europe |
Hilde De Ridder-Symoens (19 April 1943 - 5 March 2023[2]) was a Belgian historian. She was Professor of Medieval History at theFree University of Amsterdam (1986–2001) and Professor of Early Modern History at theUniversity of Ghent (2001–2008). Her research focuses on educational history and the history of universities. She edited the first two volumes ofCambridge University Press'sA History of the University in Europe (1992, 1996). Together with C.M. Ridderikhoff she publishedLes livres des procurateurs de la nation germanique de l'ancienne Université d'Orléans, 1444-1602 (4 volumes, Brill, Leiden, 1971-2015).
Born inMolenbeek-Saint-Jean,Brussels, on 19 April 1943, she died inGhent on 5 March 2023. Hilde Symoens grew up in theBelgian Congo.[3] After graduating secondary school from theAthénée Royal de Léopoldville she registered as a student at the University of Ghent, obtaining the licentiate in History in 1964 and then a doctorate in February 1969, under the supervision ofR. C. van Caenegem, with a dissertation on students from theDuchy of Brabant at the law faculty of theUniversity of Orléans between 1444 and 1555.[3] Her further research related to the education of office holders in the late medieval and early modernLow Countries, and more broadly to international student mobility in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times.
She was a visiting scholar at theMax Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt, theUniversity of California at Berkeley,Merton College, Oxford, andUCLA.[4]
In 2003 Symoens became a member of theRoyal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.[4] In 2004 aFestschrift in her honour, with contributions drawn from a colloquium held to mark her departure from Amsterdam in 2001, was published byBrill.[5] She became a member ofAcademia Europaea in 2009.[6]
