Projects
Extremist Discourse and Sectarian Incitement in the Digital Era KU Leuven
Amid the extensive use of digital media platforms by extremist groups operating in war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, the discourse of such organizations is believed to have incited sectarian confrontations among diverse components of the society and to have contributed to the escalation of violence and the deterioration of living conditions at the heart of the Middle East. Major extremist religious organizations that emerged in the ...
Piety, Poverty, and Politics: The Dynamics of Vincentian Charity in Modern Belgium (1830-1945) KU Leuven
The act of voluntary giving to those in need has been an enduring facet of human history. In the Catholic tradition, benevolence is intrinsically associated with the virtue of charity, prescribing not only the dispensation of alms but also the internalization of love for the other out of love for God within the believer’s disposition. Charity moreover served as an important source of social assistance for those facing poverty, preserving this ...
Spaces of politics: conflict and the city in the late medieval Low Countries KU Leuven
This dissertation studies the spatiality of citizens’ political practice in late medieval cities (1300-1500). It builds on research that has extended late medieval urban politics beyond the practice of government to encompass acts of protest and resistance and to include people who had no formal access to government. It builds, also, on theories that view space as a social product and, at times, even a social actor, that has a profound role ...
Representation of female activists. The female body and resistance in the MENA region University of Antwerp
Christianity, the Oriental Religions and the Mystery Cults in the thought of Franz Cumont, and his work within the context of Liberal Theology and Modernism (Alfred Loisy) Ghent University
This project aims to study Cumont's view on Christianity by studying his published works, his unpublished correspondence with other scholars, especially Loisy and his reviews. Aims: Cumont's theoretical views on the comparative study of religion theories about Christianity as a mystery religion, influences on Christianity by paganism, and Christianity versus the Eastern Religions within Roman cultural and political universalism.
Ecclesiastical Assemblies and the Transformation of Post-Carolingian Society. Councils and Synods as a Forum of Negotiation between Kings, Church Leaders and Secular Magnates (Francia, c. 875 - c. 1050 ) KU Leuven
This project will investigate the functioning of councils and assemblies during the 'long tenth century', a period of crucial transformation in society. In traditional scholarship early medieval ecclesiastical gatherings have essentially been considered as a practical tool for the administration of the Church, and as such, they have been disregarded in recent scholarship on political assemblies. This project proposes a shift from an almost ...
Ecclesiastical Assemblies and the Transformation of Post-CarolingianSociety. Councils and synods as a Forum for Negotiation betweenKings, Church Leaders and Secular Magnates (Francia, c. 875-c. 1075) KU Leuven
The authority of the bishop in the Post-Carolingian and Pre-Reform Age (c.900-c.1050). An inquiry into the lives and deeds of episcopal leaders in Western Francia and into the nature of their authority (Church province of Rheims). KU Leuven
The Virgin and the Rose: Dispossession as Feminine Political Theology in Simone Weil and Gillian Rose KU Leuven
This project is a critical comparative analysis of the political theology of French Catholic philosopher Simone Weil (1909–1943) and English Jewish philosopher Gillian Rose (1947–1995). I invert the criticism that Weil and Rose’s controversial relation to themselves as women as well their silence concerning the political status of women compromises their work. I do this by demonstrating that their thought contains a ‘feminine’ dimension. This ...