KDC Fund
The Catholic Documentation Centre (KDC) is a special department of the Nijmegen University Library. The KDC preserves, organises, and provides access to archives, books, brochures, magazines, and image and audio recordings from Catholic individuals and organisations in the Netherlands. All collections pertain to Catholic life from 1800 up to the present. The KDC provides access to these collections for research purposes and provides information to individuals and organisations who request it. Countless researchers, professionals and non-professionals alike, have utilised this service over the past few decades.
The KDC Fund supports the KDC by financing meaningful projects that cannot be realised within the regular budget. Below are a few examples. Would you like to contribute? You can do this easily by using the donate button on this page.
Shared Heritage Indonesia
Since its foundation, missionary history has been one of the KDC’s focal points. The momentum to make the collections of shared Catholic Dutch-Indonesian history accessible is growing rapidly. Many archival documents, including a large amount of visual material, were left behind in Indonesia following decolonisation. There is urgency on both sides because the Dutch language is quickly losing ground in Indonesia. Researchers want to catalogue and digitise Dutch-Indonesian mission collections and use them for joint research. This secures their preservation in the future and makes them accessible from any location. The estimated costs are €100,000. Over 70% has already been raised.
Maaike Derksen obtained her PhD for her dissertation titled “Embodied Encounters: Colonial Governmentality and Missionary Practices in Java and South Dutch New Guinea, 1856-1942” at Radboud University on 15 June 2021.
Catholics in the Binnenhof
Catholics were involved in the administration of the country for two centuries and were at the centre of power for decades. However, this powerful faction was far less monolithic than it appeared. What were considered “Catholic politics” changed profoundly, as did the related workforce and the political strategies. Five renowned historians are analysing this development for the first time. The KDC Fund finances research assistants who analyse the voting behaviour in the Dutch House of Representatives, party minutes, the social backgrounds of the representatives, and so on. €15,000 is needed for this project. The book will be published at the end of 2022.
The KVP (Catholic People’s Party) in the House of Representatives (1968)
International Diversity in the Catholic Netherlands
According to the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, there are an estimated 600,000 Catholics in the Netherlands with roots in other countries, but there is little insight into the size and development of this group. These communities are also part of the larger history of the Catholic Netherlands, but so far little is known about their past. There is an urgent need to create and maintain a register of these communities of immigrants and refugees, expats, those who adhere to Eastern Catholicism, as well as their civil society organisations. 2020 revealed just how badly researchers need the database that the KDC is creating about these communities. Funding is required to help these communities to describe and preserve their heritage and to keep the information about these mobile groups up to date. An amount of €15,000 will help to secure this material.
Background Information
The foundation ‘Stichting Vrienden van het KDC’ was established in 2007 to fund projects and activities that fall outside the KDC's regular budget. In order to improve the professional level of its fundraising, Stichting Vrienden van het KDC joined the Radboud Fund in 2019 and established the KDC Fund under that umbrella, a fund earmarked for the financial support of KDC activities.
You can read more information about the KDC on the KDC website.
If you have any questions about the KDC Fund, please contact Lisette Pals, lisette.pals@ru.nl, fundraiser of the Radboud Fund, or Hans Krabbendam, hans.krabbendam@ru.nl, director of the KDC.
