Projects
(In)visible crime: Dealing with conflict-related sexual violence in international and national contexts. A case-study of Ukraine Ghent University
Conflict-related sexual violence is a complex phenomenon affecting lives of millions of people around the world, who either became its direct victims or whose communities suffered from its consequences. However, unlike many other international crimes, as of now conflict-related sexual violence did not receive proper recognition at the international level, be it a special international treaty or comprehensive caselaw of international courts ...
Psychological coping with the legacies of collective violence: A multi-site qualitative exploration on the interacting role of coping within social, community and family relationships after political violence in Perú KU Leuven
In the aftermath of a prolonged internal armed conflict (1980-2000), Perú continues to face complex challenges in addressing the legacy of human rights abuses. Nearly 4 decades after, scholars continue documenting the transgenerational sequelae that still pervades the life of the victims, their relatives, and their communities. However, victims have initiated coping strategies and mobilized communal trajectories in searching for justice. This ...
Urban youth gangs in Goma and Kisangani: the role of violence in subject formation Ghent University
Globally violent conflict becomes increasingly urban. This makes a deep and grounded understanding of urban violence a pressing concern. The present project aims to contribute to this endeavour, focussing upon gang violence in Goma and Kisangani (DR Congo). To complement and go beyond the ‘bad governance leads to urban crime and violence’ perspective, the current project aims to analyse gang violence within larger postcolonial relations of ...
Plus que ça change, plus que ça reste la même chose? State-formation, post-colonial violence, and the local from a long-term perspective in the eastern Congo (c. 1850-today)' Ghent University
North and South Kivu, provinces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been the locus of much violent conflict since the 1990s. This has reiterated colonial imaginations of the Congo as a U+2018heart of darknessU+2019, plagued by irrationality, barbarism, and violence, and in need of U+2018civilisationU+2019. While many authors have plumbed the complexity of this violence, and articulated the need for a thorough understanding of ...
Stolen, shattered, demolished. Physical violence towards materialised ‘sacred’ in late antique inner-Christian conflicts KU Leuven
This innovative project is situated at the intersection of two prominent phenomena of late Antiquity: sacred violence and the rise of the ‘holy’. It seeks to explore specific signatures of physical violence (destruction, theft, etc.) against the ‘materialised sacred’, such as ‘holy objects’ (relics, venerated images) and ‘sacred space’ (churches, shrines) in inner-Christian conflicts. It presses forward to the ‘very heart’ of religious ...
Breaking or making trust through violence? An analysis of the impact of the Boko Haram insurgency on inter-group trust and relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria KU Leuven
How does terrorism affect citizens’ social and political attitudes? And how can we explain differences in attitudinal reactions between individuals and across societies? Scholars, policymakers, and the public alike often assume that terrorism is effective to the extent it is able to influence the electorate. As a result, an impressive body of literature has accumulated—especially since the 9/11 attacks—on citizens’ attitudinal responses to ...
Rebels in Space Fragmented authority, non–conventional logistics & networks of violence in Central Africa Ghent University
The study of violent conflict in the post-colonial world has burgeoned in recent decades and finds increasing interdisciplinary traction. This triggered new literature conceptualising contemporary conflict and focusing on an array of case studies and themes. What is missing in this literature, though, is attention to intersecting dynamics of space and authority in conflict. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I bridge this gap and ...
Lived Religion and intimate partner violence: A qualitative empirical study of the practice of spirituality and connected world views of partners in relation to intimate partner violence against Thai women in Belgium. KU Leuven
Horizontal Inequalities and Food Riots in Africa. KU Leuven
In recent years, protest events in a range of African countries have attracted widespread interest and public debate. The sharp increase in world food prices in 2007 and 2008, for example, was associated with the occurrence of a wave of food riots on the continent. In a number of countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, protests erupted against high costs of living and frequently escalated into ...