ADVN | archief voor nationale bewegingen

The ADVN was founded in 1984 in Flanders (Belgium), as a private independent scientific institute. It is recognized by decree and funded by the Flemish Community. The institute has an archival, documentation and research assignment concerning nationalism and national movements in general, and Flemish nationalism and the Flemish movement in particular. It collects, preserves and describes on those subjects all sorts of historical sources (archives, books, periodicals, photographs, films, tapes etc.). These are made available, general and specific regulations permitting, for research in its reading-room. They are also used for publications and exhibitions and for media purposes (newspapers, periodicals, television, radio). The institute does scientific research on all theoretical, general and specialized topics in the field of nationalism. It also partakes in a number of state-funded database-projects, like ODIS ( a database on Flemish intermediary structures: www.odis.be) and Archiefbank Vlaanderen (the archival database for private archives in Flanders: www.archiefbank.be). The ADVN publishes the results of its research through conferences, exhibitions and publications. It also produces Wetenschappelijke tijdingen (Wt), the leading scientific journal on the history of the Flemish movement. The ADVN will enable comparative studies on national movements in Europe by setting up NISE, an international research, heuristic and archival project.