Department: Department of Conflict and Development Studies

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • Wai Chu Starry Chung

    Starry Chung is a researcher at the Department of Conflict and Development, specialising in transnational diaspora politics, resistance, and social movements. Her research examines how diasporic communities engage in transnational activism, shaping global debates on migration, identity, and policy-making. She focuses on grassroots mobilisation, systemic change, and the role of identity and solidarity in diaspora politics. She holds a B.S.Sc. in Global Studies from CUHK and an Erasmus Mundus Double Master’s in Global Studies from the University of Vienna and Ghent University. Her interdisciplinary training provides expertise in critical theory, historical analysis, and qualitative research. She has contributed to graduate-level teaching, supporting students in developing critical perspectives and research methodologies. Fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, she brings a global perspective to her research and actively engages with diverse academic communities.

  • Jolien Tegenbos

    Junior researcher with 8 years of experience in the fields of conflict, displacement, humanitarianism and university development cooperation. I have a master’s degree in History and in Conflict and Development Studies. My doctoral research focuses on conflict mobility dynamics and history from within a refugee camp-setting in Uganda. During my doctoral studies, I conducted archival research and 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Uganda, and in eastern and northeast DR Congo. I worked more closely on issues related to land, humanitarian authority, return and repatriation, and the logics of historicity in the camp.

  • 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.