International Women's Day (UN), also known as "International Day of Struggle for Women's Rights" (UN Women), is celebrated every year on March 8. This day highlights the struggles for women's rights and, more broadly, for the elimination of inequalities between women and men.  

Although International Women's Day was made official by the United Nations in 1977, following on from the International Women's Year proclaimed in 1975 by the UN General Assembly, its origins date back to the social movements that emerged in North America and Europe at the turn of the 20th century. 

The fight against gender discrimination is a priority at UNamur, which is firmly committed to promoting gender equality, non-discrimination, and respect for diversity.  

UNamur's goal is to create an inclusive university community where everyone can thrive, regardless of gender. By embracing diversity and taking concrete measures, the university affirms its commitment to a more equitable society based on the values of justice, inclusion, and respect for human dignity. 

This is a thread that Jean-François Nieus has been pursuing for some twenty years, as part of research into the uses of writing, which elevates documents to objects of history in their own right. This approach, developed over several decades, sheds light on medieval society in all its dimensions: cultural, of course, but also social, political, economic, and religious. "Writing was rare in the early Middle Ages. It gradually gained importance in social practices, with a clear shift in the 12th and ^13th centuries—i.e., during the High Middle Ages—when people began to write much more and diversify the formats and functions of writing," he explains. 

Jean-François Nieus is particularly interested in documentary productions associated with the exercise of princely power and seigneurial management, within an area stretching from the Anglo-Norman world to the Southern Netherlands. Princely and noble archives are essential for understanding the relationships of domination in the so-called "feudal" age, that of territorial principalities and seigneurial lordship, but also issues of family identity and lineage, which were central concerns of the aristocracy. "After the mid^-12th century, most noble families began to keep archives, initially consisting of a few received charters, but soon enriched with their own administrative productions. Although the majority of these secular collections have now disappeared, there is evidence of their existence," he explains. The vicissitudes of the history of the great families and the French Revolution contributed to the loss of these fragile documents, so that today only a handful of archives from ^the 12th and 1^3th centuries remain.

Those studied by Jean-François Nieus nevertheless cover a wide range of types: they include "chartriers" (collections of original charters), "cartulaires" (collections of copies of charters), "formulaires " (collections of model charters and letters), "censiers" (descriptions of the property and income belonging to a seigneury), lists of vassals and fiefs, accounts, etc.

Jean-François Nieus also carries out critical editing work. He will soon publish the archives of the Béthune family (now Pas-de-Calais), as well as those of a small abbey linked to these lords, Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Chocques, whose collection, destroyed during the French Revolution, he is reconstructing.

This patient and meticulous work of discovery, deciphering, studying, and publishing sources that are sometimes very scattered helps to restore the memory of an era and enrich the documentation available to researchers.

In addition to administrative writings, Jean-François Nieus is also passionate about an auxiliary science of history: "sigillography," the study of seals. These small wax discs attached to official documents provide a unique window into the cultural representations of the time. In particular, they show how, after 1066, under the influence of William the Conqueror, a new image emerged: that of a knight on his galloping horse, weapon in hand. This motif, which was completely new at the time, quickly spread among princes and nobles, becoming a powerful symbol of chivalry.

Following this evolution, Jean-François Nieus also traces the spread of coats of arms—heraldry—which he sees emerging in the early ^12th century in northern France and the Anglo-Norman region. Equestrian seals, heraldic signs, and chivalric rites such as tournaments thus formed a cultural community that invented and asserted itself in this area.

If the Middle Ages fascinate Jean-François Nieus so much, it is undoubtedly because of their strangeness: a world very distant from our own, often distorted by stereotypes. "It's a difficult period to popularize because it's so different from our own, even though, in reality, we owe it a great deal. What's more, perceptions of it are marred by numerous clichés, and the general public still views it very negatively, as reflected in everyday language by the sinister adjective 'medieval,'" observes the researcher.

What are the reasons for this negative view? The perspective of intellectuals in subsequent eras, who saw it as the origin of all the archaisms they wanted to combat. Nineteenth-century historians, who gave the discipline its scientific foundation, also passed on erroneous interpretations, which contemporary research is gradually correcting. 

Jean-François Nieus appeared in episode 1 of season 3 of the documentary series "Batailles de légende" (Legendary Battles), which focused on the great battle of Bouvines between King Philip II Augustus of France and a coalition led by King John of England (1214).

The "Credits & Projects" call for proposals resulted in 12 grants being awarded for ambitious new projects. These include two "equipment" grants, eight "research credits (CDR)" grants, and two "research projects (PDR)" grants, one of which is in collaboration with the ULB. The FRIA call for doctoral research support will fund eleven doctoral scholarships and the FRESH call will fund three. 

Two prestigious Scientific Impulse Mandates (MIS) were also obtained. This three-year funding supports young permanent researchers who wish to develop an original and innovative research program by acquiring scientific autonomy within their department.  

We would also like to highlight the two projects funded under the "WelCHANGE" call, a funding instrument for research projects with potential societal impact, led by a principal investigator in the humanities and social sciences.

Call for Equipment  

• Xavier De Bolle, Narilis Institute, Co-promoter in collaboration with UCLouvain
• Luca Fusaro, NISM Institute 

Call for Research Grants (CDR) 

• Marc Hennequart, NARILIS Institute
• Nicolas Gillet, NARILIS Institute
• Jean-Yves Matroule, NARILIS Institute
• Patricia Renard, NARILIS Institute
• Francesco Renzi, NARILIS Institute
• Stéphane Vincent, NISM Institute
• Laurence Meurant, NaLTT Institute
• Emma-Louise Silva, NaLTT Institute  

Call for Research Projects (PDR) 

• Jérémy Dodeigne, Transitions Institute, Co-supervisor in collaboration with ULB
• Luc Henrard, NISM Institute; Co-supervisor: Yoann Olivier, NISM Institute 

Fund for Training in Research in Industry and Agriculture (FRIA)

• Emma Bongiovanni - Supervisor: Catherine Michaux, NISM Institute
• Simon Chabot - Supervisor: Carine Michiels, Narilis Institute; Co-supervisor: Anne-Catherine Heuskin, Narilis Institute
• Lee Denis - Supervisor: Muriel Lepère, ILEE Institute
• Maé Desclez - Supervisor: Johan Yans, ILEE Institute; Co-supervisor: Hamed Pourkhorsandi (University of Toulouse)
• Pierre Lombard - Supervisor: Benoît Muylkens, Narilis Institute; Co-supervisor: Damien Coupeau, Narilis Institute
• Amandine Pecquet - Supervisor: Nicolas Gillet, Narilis Institute; Co-supervisor: Damien Coupeau, Narilis Institute
• Kilian Petit - Supervisor: Henri-François Renard, Narilis Institute; Co-supervisor: Xavier De Bolle, Narilis Institute
• Simon Rouxhet - Supervisor: Catherine Michaux, NISM Institute; Co-supervisor: Nicolas Gillet, Narilis Institute
• William Soulié - Supervisor: Yoann Olivier, NISM Institute
• Elisabeth Wanlin - Supervisor: Xavier De Bolle, Narilis Institute
• Laura Willam - Supervisor: Frédérik De Laender, ILEE Institute 

Fund for Research in the Humanities (FRESH) 

• Louis Droussin - Supervisor: Arthur Borriello, Transitions Institute; Co-supervisor: Vincent Jacquet, Transitions Institute
• Nicolas Larrea Avila - Supervisor: Guilhem Cassan, DeFIPP Institute
• Victor Sluyters – Supervisor: Wafa Hammedi, NADI Institute
• Amandine Leboutte - Co-supervisor: Erika Wauthia (UMons); Co-supervisor: Cédric Vanhoolandt, IRDENa Institute.

Scientific Impulse Mandate (MIS) 

• Charlotte Beaudart, Narilis Institute
• Eli Thoré ILEE Institute 

WelCHANGE Call  

• Nathalie Burnay Transitions Institute, in collaboration with UCLouvain
• Catherine Guirkinger, DeFIPP Institute

Congratulations to all! 

"Our wish was to create a real dynamic in our teaching and offer coherence to our students by all working around the same theme. Our team was also inspired by initiatives at the Faculty of Law, which has been practicing Fil Rouge for several years," explains Laurence Mettewie, head of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. "Already last year, without it having been explicitly thought of, several of our department's activities revolved around questions of reconstruction, transmission or even resilience." This observation prompted the team to formalize this approach by choosing a common theme.

Thus, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures has chosen to extend this reflection by looking at how individuals evolve, grow and pass on, with an intergenerational dimension that is particularly close to the team's heart.

Common readings, cinéclub, didactic trips, introductory research topics... there are several educational activities that will illustrate this common thread throughout the year.

The Germa Cinéclub will offer six films, in English, Dutch and German. To inaugurate this cycle, the team has chosen a film that illustrates the theme of lifelines: " Honig im Kopf" by Til Schweiger. This humorous and moving film tells the story of a grandfather suffering from Alzheimer's disease and his granddaughter who will do anything to "save" him, and thus takes a sympathetic look at themes such as dementia, family and memory.

In Dutch, research work in linguistics will focus on the question of linguistic transmission. Students will thus explore how languages are transmitted, are present at different stages of life or how they shed light on intergenerational links, for example through the use of WhatsApp.

The traditional study trip to the Netherlands will also be part of this theme. This year, we're heading for Rotterdam and Fenix, its new museum dedicated to art and migration, where one of the exhibitions recounts stories of mobility, anchorage and passage towards lives they hope will be better. This is an opportunity for students to confront notions of memory, displacement and cultural heritage at the very heart of a museum itinerary conceived as a succession of life lines.

Other activities will enrich the program: student projects specially designed to explore life trajectories, analyses of literary works guided by the theme and meetings with authors from Northern Ireland and Flanders: Wendy Erskine, and Lara Taveirne as well as her French translator Guillaume Deneufbourg.