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Dr. Marion Huibrechts
Marion Huibrechts (°1960) studied American History and American Government during a one-year residence in the United States of America (academic year 1978-1979). Upon returning to Belgium, she studied history at the University of Ghent from 1979 until 1983. After graduating, she started a career as a government employee, working in the then brand-new media department of the Flemish government in Brussels. Feeling the need to learn more about the media and government in Belgium, she combined her job with university studies and received a bachelor’s degree in Press and Communication Sciences from the University of Brussels. In 1988, she received a master’s degree in Governmental Sciences from the Hoger Instituut voor Bestuurswetenschappen in Antwerp. Her master’s dissertation “A Bundle of Compromises: Een onderzoek naar de oorsprong en de totstandkoming van de Amerikaanse Grondwet”, was awarded a special prize with first degree honors. The dissertation was awarded with the ‘best master dissertation of the year’ prize by the Province of Antwerp.
In the meantime, Marion Huibrechts changed jobs in Brussels, and became the Treasurer of the Social Services (Openbaar Centrum voor Maatschappelijk Welzijn) in her hometown of Kapellen. Some years later, she started contemplating a new project in what she describes as her “true passion”, American History. She embarked on a more than ten year quest (during holidays and weekends) in Belgian, French, British and American archives and libraries. In May 2009, het efforts were rewarded with a Doctoral Degree by the University of Leuven, for which she defended her doctoral dissertation “Swampin’ guns and stabbing irons. The Austrian Netherlands, Liege arms and the American Revolution, (1770-1783)”.
Over the past few years, she has given a number of lectures at international conferences. At the Third Conference of the Flemish-Dutch Association of Modern History, organized by the University of Antwerp, from 31 January – 1 February 2008 on the subject “Economy and Society of the Low Countries before 1850”, Marion delivered a paper on “The influence of international tensions upon the arms transit trade of the Austrian Netherlands, 1770 – 1783”. Later that month, on 27 February 2008, she participated in the Gateways, Hinterlands and Urban Networks: Transportation, Trade and Distribution from European Gateway Cities, 1650-1900 Study Group of the ESSHC Conference held in Lisbon. The title of her paper was “Liège Arms Exports during the American Revolutionary Era (1770-1783)”. When the American and European Business History Associations organized their joint Annual Meeting on the subject “FASHIONS: Business Practices in Historical Perspective” in Milan from 11-13 June 2009, Marion Huibrechts was invited to present a key-note speech entitled “Liège-Made Sport and Hunting Guns and Their Decoration, 17th-18th Centuries”, as a member of the group working on “European Fashions and Manufacturing Strategies in Pre-Industrial Times”. During the international conference “Tales of Transit”, held in Antwerp from 9-12 June 2010, she presented a paper on “’The remarkable country available to the laboriousness of European emigrants’: Belgian emigration to the United States of America during the 1840’s and 1850’s”.
The papers presented in Lisbon and Antwerp were both confirmed for publication. In 2010 the article “Ab imperatore Josepho secundo in Americam missus erat”, Franz Josef Märter in America, was published in liber Amoricum The Quintessences of Lives. Intellectual Biographies in the Low Countries, presented to Jan Roegiers.
Since November 2009, Marion Huibrechts has held a one-day-a-week research fellowship at the University of Leuven. She is currently a teaching assistant for professor Johan Verberckmoes, and coordinates the “Oefeningen Nieuwe Tijd” sessions. She also assists in the running of the American History course. In October 2010, Marion Huibrechts was appointed chair of the Lessius American Studies Center steering committee in Antwerp.
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