Peter Vermeersch is a professor of politics at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the KU Leuven.
He has an MA in Slavic languages and a PhD in political science. As a postdoctoral researcher he worked, among others, at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University. At the Faculty of Social Sciences in Leuven he currently leads the research group LINES (Leuven International and European Studies) and coordinates the MA International Politics (MIP). His teaching includes courses on "Political Developments in East-Central Europe," "Nationalism and Political Mobilization," and "Russia in the Global Political Context."
His research focuses on minority politics, nationalism, democratization, and, most recently, restorative justice. His work has appeared in a range of academic journals, and he has published several academic books, among others, The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe (Berghahn Books, 2006).
He also writes essays and literary non-fiction. In 2014, he published Ex, Over een land dat zoek is (Ex. About a Country that is Gone, De Bezige Bij), a book of reportage in and about the former Yugoslavia, which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Bob den Uyl Prize, the Golden Owl, the E. du Perron Prize, and won, in 2016, the Literature Prize of the Province of West Flanders.
In 2019, he published, Aantekeningen bij een moord (Notes on a Murder, De Bezige Bij), a non-fiction novel that investigates a murder trial in Brussels and raises wider questions about violence, punishment, and the justice system.
[NL]
He has an MA in Slavic languages and a PhD in political science. As a postdoctoral researcher he worked, among others, at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University. At the Faculty of Social Sciences in Leuven he currently leads the research group LINES (Leuven International and European Studies) and coordinates the MA International Politics (MIP). His teaching includes courses on "Political Developments in East-Central Europe," "Nationalism and Political Mobilization," and "Russia in the Global Political Context."
His research focuses on minority politics, nationalism, democratization, and, most recently, restorative justice. His work has appeared in a range of academic journals, and he has published several academic books, among others, The Romani Movement: Minority Politics and Ethnic Mobilization in Contemporary Central Europe (Berghahn Books, 2006).
He also writes essays and literary non-fiction. In 2014, he published Ex, Over een land dat zoek is (Ex. About a Country that is Gone, De Bezige Bij), a book of reportage in and about the former Yugoslavia, which was nominated for the AKO Literature Prize, the Bob den Uyl Prize, the Golden Owl, the E. du Perron Prize, and won, in 2016, the Literature Prize of the Province of West Flanders.
In 2019, he published, Aantekeningen bij een moord (Notes on a Murder, De Bezige Bij), a non-fiction novel that investigates a murder trial in Brussels and raises wider questions about violence, punishment, and the justice system.
[NL]
Recent academic articles
|
Nationalism with a Human Face? European Human Rights Judgments and the Reinvention of Nationalist Politics. Nationalities Papers. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2020, pp. 1-17.
K. Henrard & P. Vermeersch Victimhood as victory: the role of memory politics in the process of de-Europeanization in East Central Europe. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs. 9 (1), 2019, pp. 113-130. Peter Vermeersch |
Ongoing research projects
|
Masculinity, vulnerability and victimhood: male victims of conflict-related sexual violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia (2018-2020)
Researcher: Heleen Touquet Neo-Ottomanism? New strategies of Turkey and the impact of foreign aid to post-war cultural reconstruction in the Balkans (2018-2020) Researcher: Ana Devic Invisible edges of citizenship: re-addressing the position of Romani minorities in Europe (2017-2019) Researcher: Julija Sardelic The geopolitical effects of a global renewable energy transition on regime stability in Russia (2018-2019) Researcher: Niels Smeets |
Supervised Phd dissertations
|
Escaping ethnopolis: postethnic mobilization in Bosnia-Herzegovina
Heleen Touquet (2012) Turkey entangled with Europe? A qualitative exploration of mobility and citizenship accounts of highly educated migrants from Turkey Zynep Yanasmayan (2013) Unnation Ivan Grubanov (2016) The Green Challenge: Exploring Explanations of Russia’s Renewable Energy Policies Niels Smeets (2018) Signaling values: Europeanisation and Memory Politics in Croatia and Serbia Ana Milosevic (2019) Recovering truth, transforming conflict: an exploration of ways in which truth recovery can contribute to conflict transformation in conditions where the prospect for justice for grave violations is problematical Tyrone James Savage (2020) |