Faculty: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
Engy Sawah
I am an interdisciplinary PhD researcher in Social Work and Social Welfare Studies and Health Sciences at Ghent University and a visiting fellow at the Institute for Migration Studies at the Lebanese American University. My PhD research examines the intersection of psychosocial and reproductive health in migrant domestic workers facing labour exploitation in Lebanon. I hold a Master of Science in Public Health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM). I have worked as a researcher with operational and multilateral actors before returning to the ITM as a research fellow. My research focuses on the intersection of migration, health and violence, examining how structural and socioeconomic conditions shape women’s access to care and wellbeing. Before engaging in research, I obtained a degree in Physiotherapy, specialising in the rehabilitation of migrant survivors of sexual violence and torture. I have over nine years of experience as a clinician, six of which with migrants.
Hannah Grondelaers
Hannah Grondelaers is an FWO PhD Fellow at Ghent University’s Social Work and Social Pedagogy Department and is affiliated to the UNU-CRIS Migration and Social Policy cluster in Bruges. She conducts research on Ukrainian women’s return trajectories between Belgium and Ukraine, using multi-scalar ethnography to study how gendered and geopolitical imaginaries on different scales (EU, Belgian/Ukrainian, social work and personal scale) shape the women’s trajectories. Hannah holds a Bachelor and Master in History from KU Leuven. She graduated from her second Master in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. For her master’s thesis, Hannah studied the context-specific solidarity and support practices emerging between Ukrainian mothers living at an emergency reception centre.
Brent Theys
I am Brent Theys. After earning my educational bachelor’s degree in English and Catholic Religion at Thomas More (2020) and my master’s in Educational Sciences at the University of Antwerp (2022), including an FSW Honours programme on educational inequality, I worked as a guest lecturer in an educational bachelor’s programme and as a secondary school teacher in English and Catholic Religion. From October 2023 to February 2024, I worked as a temporary teaching and research assistant at the Department of Educational Studies (UGent) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ruben Vanderlinde, followed by a position as scientific staff member for the organization of the upcoming Master in Primary Education (March–September 2024). Since November 1, 2024, I have been a doctoral researcher on an FWO mandate for fundamental research, with Prof. Dr. Ruben Vanderlinde (UGent) as primary supervisor and Prof. Dr. Noel Clycq (UAntwerpen) as co-supervisor.
Kim Dierckx
Kim Dierckx works as a doctoral assistant at the Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University) and is also affiliated with the interdisciplinary Center for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) as a researcher. As part of his PhD, he examined the “super-diverse” society. Specifically, he investigated how social institutions can achieve social harmony in diverse societies through the application of procedural justice. His current research focuses on the mutual relationships between ethnic-cultural minorities and the factors that can positively influence these relationships.
Aimee Kelley
Aimee Kelley is a PhD student at Ghent University and has a background in creative writing, law, and public health. She studies how secondary schools in Denmark and England support the wellbeing of newcomer adolescents in the context of lanague learning and the role of care and social inclusion in the classroom. In addition to her PhD research, Aimee also runs art and writing workshops for displaced children and collaborates on photo/video projects withrefugees in Brussels.
Robin Vandevoordt
Robin Vandevoordt is an Associate Professor in Migration studies at CESSMIR. He leads ethnographic research on two topics: social movements in solidarity with people on the move, and the role of different actors entangled in migration and integration policies. Before joining Ghent University, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre and at the University of Antwerp’s Centre for Research on Ecological and Social Change (CRESC).
Rossella Marino
Rossella Marino has obtained her PhD in Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in September 2023, being also a PhD fellow at UNU-CRIS since 2019. Her research has revolved around European migration governance in The Gambia. For that, she has spent extended fieldwork visits in the West African country. This research has been published in top-tier migration-related journals, such as the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and the Journal of Refugee Studies. Rossella has presented at relevant migration- and Africa-related academic conferences, including IMISCOE and ECAS. She currently teaches Social Work and Social Pedagogical literature at Ghent university. Prior to her PhD, Rossella was research intern at UNU-CRIS and VUB’s Institute for European Studies (IES).
Melissa Ceuterick
Melissa Ceuterick is a postdoctoral researcher at Hedera UGent. In her PhD she focused on the impact of migration on traditional medicine use among people of Andean descent in the UK (Bradford University, 2009). Her research is situated at the intersections between 1) medication use and identity and 2) migration and health. She coordinates and supervises qualitative research in these areas, i.e. Belspo BENZONET, BENZOCARE, REMEDI; IBOF Opioid-related Stigma and FWO Red Noses Culture-Sensitive Stigma Survey, STAMINA. Since 2017 she is a lecturer-in-charge of the Health Sociology and Social Demography Seminar (UGent), where students develop a Community Service Learning project on health or migration, and of various health sociology courses (UGent-VUB). As of 2023 she is a member of the Advisory Board of the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology.
Ine Lietaert
Ine Lietaert holds a PhD in Social Work and works as an associate professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy where she teaches International Social Work and Mobility Justice. She combines this with a professorship in Migration Governance and Regional Integration Studies at the United Nations University- CRIS, where she coordinates the Migration and Social Policy research cluster. Her research focuses on the governance of ‘welfare’ and ‘mobility’. More specifically, she focusses on the impact of geopolitics, political economy and knowledge production – both globally and locally – on social work and social support, with particular attention for refugees, returnees, unaccompanied minors and (internally) displaced persons. She centralises the impact of im/material bordering processes and imaginaries on people’s lives, paying attention to their sense of belonging, their survival strategies and their access to social support, through a socio-spatial research approach.
Marlies Casier
Marlies Casier is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Work, where she conducts research on solidarity with people on the move. She obtained her PhD in Political Science at Ghent University, with a thesis on the transnational political activism of Kurds from Turkey. She has published extensively on her research in academic journals and books. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, a Master’s degree in Moral Sciences and a Master’s degree in Conflict and Development Studies. After completing her PhD, Marlies worked for 12 years as international policy officer at Sensoa, the Flemish centre of expertise on sexual health, which she combined with a position as a guest lecturer at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies, where she taught in the Master of Science in Conflict and Development Studies, the Master of Sociology and the Erasmus Mundus Master in Global Studies.
Giacomo Orsini
Dr. Giacomo Orsini concluded his doctoral studies at the Department of Sociology of the University of Essex in 2016. Before joining Ghent University, he worked as postdoctoral researcher both at Essex and the Université Catholique de Louvain. Since 2015, he also teaches courses on migration, race, ethnicity and the politics of diversity at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. While Orsini’s most recent research is concerned with unaccompanied minors’ migration into Europe and the structural violence they face along their trajectories, he previously conducted research on institutional racism within family reunification in Belgium, and a series of field investigations in key locations of Europe’s migration regime. His studies concentrate on the (coloniality of the) everyday governance of migration and the multiplication of tangible and intangible borders of (racist) exclusion and inclusion. At CESSMIR, he coordinates both the ChildMove and the REFUFAM projects.
Ilse Derluyn
Ilse Derluyn is full professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University (Belgium). Her main research topics concern the wellbeing of young refugees and migrants, unaccompanied refugee minors, victims of trafficking and war-affected children, both in the Global North and South. She has widely published and is also active in training and support for practitioners and policymakers. Ilse also gives counselling to refugees. She is also actively involved in UGent-policy, including the ’12th ZAP-member’ in the Board of Governors, and previously as member of the Research Council. Ilse was ERC-grant holder of the research project ChildMove (www.childmove.eu) and coordinated the H2020-project RefugeesWellSchool (www.refugeeswellschool.org). She is director of the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) at Ghent University, and co-director of CCVS (www.ccvsinternational.org).
Fazilet Canbolat
Fazilet Canbolat is a visiting researcher in the Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting Department at Ghent University. Her post-doctoral project, titled “A Fieldwork on Addiction within the Scope of Intersubjectivity: Ambiguous Symbolic Structures”, has been granted funding for one year by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). This project employs a qualitative methodology with an intersubjective perspective to study drug addiction among Turkish immigrants living in Belgium.
Floor Verhaeghe
I am the coordinator of CESSMIR. In this role, I foster collaborations between the various disciplines within CESSMIR and with partners outside of academia. My goal is to achieve societal impact as a result of these collaborations. I have a master’s degree in orthopedagogy and wrote my PhD in educational sciences at the department of social work and social pedagogy. My doctoral research dealt with integration and belonging in a multi- and intergenerational perspective. I also took a critical look at the concept of integration. After completing my PhD, I coordinated the research project ‘Childmove’, which focused on the impact of flight experiences on the psychosocial well-being of unaccompanied refugee minors. My research interests are inter- and multigenerational aspects of families with a migration background, psychosocial well-being of unaccompanied minors and integration.
Eva Derous
Eva Derous earned her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Leuven University. She worked at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and is currently employed as a full professor personnel psychology/HRM at the Vocational and Personnel Psychology Lab of the Department of Work, Organisation and Society at Ghent University. Her research focuses -among other topics- on recruitment and personnel selection procedures, with specific attention for diversity, inclusion and discrimination-related issues (ethnicity, age, and gender). She received a Fulbright research grant from the KNAW/Fulbright Center Amsterdam to stay at Michigan State University (USA), serves on editorial boards of several international journals, and has published in journals such as Personnel Psychology, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Human Resource Management Review. From an evidence-based perspective, she provides consultancy for companies and local business partners.
Soline Ballet
Soline Ballet (they/she) is a PhD researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy and is also affiliated to the Migration Law Research Group. Soline obtained a Master in Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. Their research interests include processes of illegalisation of migrants, solidarity, activism and other forms of support. Soline has also been involved in grassroots initiatives for migrants in both Brussels and Athens. Their current research project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt, Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet and Prof. Dr. Ine Lietaert, focuses on practices of structural, future-oriented socio-legal and psycho-social support for illegalised migrants in Belgium.
Leni Linthout
Graduated as a Master in Social Work and Social Pedagogy, I aspire the ambition to advocate for equal rights for people in vulnerable situations – with a particular focus on migrants and refugees. Between November 2019 and October 2021, I contributed to the implementation of a European project INHeRE. As from November 2021, I am doing a Joint PhD in Health Sciences (UGent) and Psychology (ULille). I am affiliated to the Gender and Violence research team within the International Centre for Reproductive Health. My doctoral study focusses on forms of violence and its impact on well-being, health and identities of male migrants in French and Belgian transit zones. I apply a mixed-methods study design combining ethnographic fieldwork and quantitative research methods over a longitudinal timespan. To broaden my knowledge on European policy-making, I am involved in an Master programme on European Integration and Development with a special focus on “Migration” and “Climate governance”.
Julija Kekstaite
Julija Kekstaite is doctoraatsonderzoeker Sociologie aan de Universiteit Gent en lid van het interfacultair Centrum voor de Sociale Studie van Migratie en Vluchten (CESSMIR). Haar werk onderzoekt migratiebeheer, solidariteit en verzet tegen verschillende vormen van racisme die in hedendaags Europa door de staat gesanctioneerd worden. Met behulp van etnografische methoden onderzoekt ze momenteel de grassrootsmobilisatie voor/met geïllegaliseerde migranten aan de grens tussen Litouwen en Wit-Rusland en de raciale dynamieken van migratiebeheer in Litouwen.
Maud Martens
Maud Martens is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy and the Migration Law Research Group. She has a broad interest in socio-legal research on forced migration, with particular attention to migrants in transit. In this context, she explores various forms of support, solidarity and activism for and with migrants. In her current research project, supervised by Prof. Dr. Robin Vandevoordt and Prof. Dr. Ellen Desmet, Maud examines the organisation and implications of socio-legal support for migrants in Northern France. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Sciences, a Master’s degree in Political Sciences, and a Master’s degree in Conflict and Development Studies.
Lotte Morel
Lotte Morel obtained a Master of Science in Psychology (Clinical Psychology) in 2021, and a Master of Science in Conflict and Development Studies in 2023, both at Ghent University.In her PhD she combines her interests in both these domains by researching the role of structural-institutional and cultural racism within mental health care institutions in Flanders. Using a qualitative methodology and grounding the project in a psychoanalytical theoretical framework based on the work of Fanon, she aims to investigate these dimensions of racism as well as how it impacts the mental wellbeing of patients with a migration background.
Elsemieke van Osch
Elsemieke van Osch is a PhD researcher affiliated with CESSMIR, Ghent University, and with the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, KU Leuven. She obtained an interdisciplinary Master of Arts in International Migration and Human Rights Law (Distinction) from the University of Kent. She was granted the MacGregor Award for her master thesis, for which she conducted ethnographic fieldwork with undocumented families in Brussels. Between 2016 and 2019, she worked in the field of asylum/migration. Drawing on these experiences, she is committed to building bridges between policy/practice, and academia. Her PhD-research consists of a longitudinal ethnography of families’ experiences in the Belgian asylum regime. Taking as a starting point the process of applying for asylum, she follows families within and beyond the multiple stages of the asylum trajectory, capturing their experiences through participant observation, in-depth interviewing, home visits and storytelling.
Duha Ceylan
Duha is currently pursuing a joint interdisciplinary doctoral track as an FWO fellow in the Sociology department at VUB and the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. Her research focuses on inequalities and racism within childcare among newcomer migrants and refugees. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent, where she gained practical experience in applying observation skills and analyzing societal challenges from the perspectives of political science, communication studies, and sociology. She furthered her studies by obtaining a Master of Science in Sociology from the University of Gent, with a minor in Conflict and Development. To ensure a comprehensive training, she specifically chose methodological courses in both qualitative and quantitative methodologies during her Bachelor’s and Master’s programs.
Hilde Depauw
Hilde Depauw obtained her Master of Science in Psychology (Clinical Psychology) at Ghent University in 2020. In 2025, she obtained a joint PhD in Psychology and Sociology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Alain Van Hiel, Prof. Dr. Bart Van de Putte, and Prof. Dr. Piet Bracke. Her research interests include health inequities, culturally responsive mental health care, intersectionality, and the social determinants of mental health. Currently, Hilde is working as a postdoctoral researcher, studying how meaningful conversations about cultural identity are incorporated into psychotherapy and their effects on psychotherapy process and outcome variables.
Gaëlle Le Pavic
Gaëlle is a PhD Fellow at the Ghent University and the United Nations University CRIS. Her research documents and analyses the social consequences of not (fully) internationally recognised borders in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She examines the accessibility of social welfare services in Transnistria and Abkhazia as well as in Samegrelo, with a focus on the role of civil society organiations (CSOs). Prior, Gaëlle has worked in project management and international cooperation in Belgium, Croatia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. She was also a researcher on EU funded projects related to the social aspects of migrations. Gaëlle has presented her work in international conferences, including CEEISA, BASEES and EUIA for which she was also the academic coordinator. She has lectured in at Ghent University, Université Libre de Brussels, Tbilisi State University, Georgia, and the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Argentina.
Delphine Van Muylem
Delphine’s research is focused on (ethnic) diversity in the organizational context. She has obtained her masters’ degree in Theoretical and Experimental Psychology at Ghent University in 2022 and started as a PhD student in the VoPP lab in December 2022. Her PhD project aims to study metastereotypes in job ads. As job seekers might be mindful of others’ beliefs about the group they identify with, these metastereotypes might refrain (ethnic) minorities from applying. Delphine investigates what the impact of these metastereotypes is on ethnic minority applicants. In this project, different research methods are used, ranging from qualititive methods, to surveys or eye-tracking. This project is a collaboration with the Department of Experimental Psychology of the FPPW and financed by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO).
A. Tancrède Pagès
A. Tancrède Pagès is a Ph.D. fellow at the Department of Social Work and Pedagogy and the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at University of Ghent. He received his ReMa in the Modern History and International Relations program from the University of Groningen. His research interests include solidarity and resistance politics at the urban level, contentious solidarity and humanitarianism, direct/horizontal democracy, and political theory. His current project investigates squats as spaces of solidarity with illegalized migrants and refugees and intersectional identity formation in heterogeneous collectives.
Aline Pouille
My PhD research at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Ghent University focused on recovery from problem substance use through the eyes and lived experiences of persons with a migration background and ethnic minorities. I obtained my PhD in 2023 and have since been involved in several European and Belgian/Flemish research projects, which focus on the intersectional lived or living experiences of migration, ethnic, religious, or cultural minorities, addiction, mental health, precarious living situations, forensic involvement, and those working with these populations. To better align research, practice, and policy with the needs of the people they are intended to serve, I am a strong proponent of qualitative and participatory research methods.
Amar El-Omari
I graduated as a clinical psychologist in 2005 (UGent) and started working as a psychotherapist in Brussels. I’ve always been interested in the way migration, religion and identity influence each other. I’ve wrote multiple publications and often organized trainings on this matter (from the perspective of health care and psychosocial well-being). In 2015 I started questionning how we can understand what drives someone towards radicalization. As of 2021 I’m working on a PhD that thrives to study radicalization and deradicalization by the way of a qualitative study. I’m conducting this study from a psychoanalytical perspective by the use of the notion of identity
