Karel Velle - Biography#

Karel Velle (born in Ghent in 1959 – married – three children) studied history at the Rijksuniversiteit Gent (State University of Ghent). He holds various certificates, including: one of historical demography at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (1984), several of intensive courses in archival sciences at Paris (Archives Nationales 1993) and Amsterdam (Archiefschool 1991-1993 and 1999) and one of an intensive Public Management Programme (PUMP) at the Public Management Institute (KU Leuven 2003), organized by the Belgian government. Velle was awarded a PhD in history at the University of Ghent in March 1988 for a study on the medicalisation of the Belgian society since the 19th century. He currently holds the positions of director-general of the National Archives and the State Archives in the Provinces, of National Archivist of Belgium and of part-time associate professor at the Department of History of the University of Ghent where he teaches two subjects: heuristics of modern and contemporary history, and archival law, the latter being taught within the framework of the inter-university course in archival sciences (at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

He was chairman of the Audit Commission and member of the executive committee of the International Council on Archives (2006-2010) and is member of the Royal Historical Commission since 2008. In 2010 he has been elected as member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Class of the Humanities.

As an archivist – he entered into service at the State Archives in late 1989 – he mainly consecrated himself to the selection and intellectual control of archives of the judiciary and to different aspects of archival and information law.

As a historian he published about the social, cultural and political history of medicine and society since the late 18th century, about the social and political history of law and justice in the same period and about the history of institutions and the public sector in the 19th and 20th centuries. The commercial edition of his dissertation, De nieuwe biechtvaders [The new confessors]] (1991) was awarded the Prijs voor Medische Cultuur [Award for medical culture]] of the University of Ghent in 1998 and for his commendable work in the field of the history of science he was awarded the Sarton-medaille in the same year.

Complete bibliography