Historiography

Looking back to the past has been on the core curriculum right from the University’s start as the Roman Catholic Business School in 1927. Out of the first four professors, Thomas Goossens, the first Rector Magnificus, was Professor of Economic History of the Middle Ages. Founding father Cobbenhagen was Professor of General Theory and History of Economics.

Three parts

It is all the more remarkable that the University was not to launch its official historiography until fifty years later. Part I, on the years 1927-1954, appeared in 1978; the closing year was Cobbenhagen’s year of death. Its author was Hans Bornewasser (1924-2010), who was Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the Faculty of Theology from 1967-1989. Part II, on the years 1954 1977, appeared in 1981. Its author was Hans de Vries (1927), who was Professor of History of Economics at the then Catholic College of Tilburg between 1967-1981. In anticipation of the 75th anniversary of what was then the Catholic University of Brabant, Karel Veragtert (1944), Professor of History of Economics (1982-2004) and Social History (1995-2004), was commissioned to cover the 1977-2002 period. In 2002, historical sociologist Ad van den Oord and Arnoud-Jan Bijsterveld, Professor of Culture in Brabant, were involved in this project.

Limitations

As the time they could devote to it was limited, thorough scholarly research was impossible, and these two confined themselves to a documentary approach. In the spring of 2003, six months after the actual anniversary itself, Part III of the historiography appeared. Parts I and II were reprinted with the anniversary motto “75 years of valuable University.” In Part III, developments in the individual faculties and in the University’s primary processes ‒ education and research ‒ remained underexposed. This was partly due to time pressure but mainly because the central archive was only accessible in part and the faculty archives were often fragmented or lacking altogether. Just like in the two previous parts, therefore, it is the University’s administrative history that is the main topic. The Tilburg College Journal and its successor, Univers, served as the virtually exclusive sources for interpreting the social significance of the College and the University.

Faculty histories

Two faculty histories appeared after 2003. The anniversary book in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Tilburg School of Law was written by Beatrix van Erp-Jacobs, Professor of Dutch Legal History, in 2013. Commissioned by the Tilburg School of Humanities, program director Tessa Leesen wrote the history of the Tilburg Faculty of Theology from its inception in 1967 up to the revolutionary years 2004-2007.