Sharing expertise in Conflict, Governance and Development
- Strengthening networking and exchange amongst partners both in terms of research and teaching
- Promoting innovative interdisciplinary research
- Enhancing the valorization of research
- Facilitating capacity building
- Bolstering interaction with policy circles.
The Governance in Conflict Network starts from the nexus between conflict and development. This linkage is now recognized as one of the most crucial contemporary global challenges: for the first time promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies has been integrated as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG16).
Understanding everyday governance and development in fragile and conflict-affected situations remains a challenge for both policy makers and development practitioners. Increasingly we start to understand that governance and development in such places is regulated by continuous changing coalitions of state, private and societal actors on the local, national, regional and international level. Too often current policy frameworks are unable to capture and adjust to the everyday realities of governance, which are often neglected or badly understood. Therefore, the Governance in Conflict Network wants to bridge the existing knowledge and policy gap on governance, conflict and development.
GIC Network is an international research network led by the Department of Conflict and Development Studies at Ghent University. It brings together all relevant disciplinary knowledge at Ghent University in a thematic interdisciplinary approach. Through cooperation with 28 academic partners from 16 countries a diversified regional andinternational expertise is integrated in the network. Bundling our strengths together creates valuable opportunities in research and education.
The network’s aim is to push the debate one step further by bringing together academic excellence that reflects on critical and alternative understandings of governance and development in conflict situations. The network will do this by combining an empirical field perspective with a thematic multi-disciplinary approach that will bring together research on several governance fields (health, justice, security, poverty reduction, economic development, ...).
GIC network partners
Ugent partners
Koen Vlassenroot – Political and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict and Development Studies / CRG - His area of expertise includes conflict dynamics in Central Africa, with a specific focus on public authority, armed groups, resource governance and land issues. He currently conducts research on networks of conflict, politics of resistance and armed groups in eastern DRC. He is also a visiting professor at the LSE and investigator of a number of international research projects. Keywords: Civil war, armed groups, resources, governance.
Sami Zemni – Political and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict and Development Studies / MENARG - His area of expertise is politics within the Middle East and North Africa region, with special reference to political Islam. He focuses mainly on developments in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, democratization in the Arab World as well as conflict in the Arab world. He also writes on issues of migration, integration, racism and Islamophobia. Keywords: political change (Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco,...), conflict and contentious politics in the Arab world,social movements, Islamophobia , multiculturalism and racism, political theory & philosophy.
Jan Orbie – Political and Social Sciences – CEUS - Prof. Dr. J. Orbie is the Director of the Centre for EU Studies. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University in Belgium, where he lectures several courses in the Master for EU Studies at Ghent University, including Theories of European Integration, European External Policies, and EU Trade Politics. His research focuses on the international policies of the EU, in particular EU trade and development policies. He is the author of numerous chapters, articles and edited books on EU trade politics and development, the EU͛s global social policy, and EU democracy promotion. He is also supervising several research projects in the field of EU external relations. Prof. Jan Orbie is Erasmus coordinator of the Department of Political Science, and a member of the Research Council of Ghent University.
Eva Brems – Faculty of Law – Human Rights Centre - Prof. Dr. Eva Brems joined the Ghent University Law Faculty in September 2000 as the first holder of the then newly created chair of Human Rights Law. Before that, she studied law at the University of Namur (Bachelor, 1989), the University of Leuven (Master, 1992) and Harvard University (LL.M., 1995). She was a PhD Researcher at the University of Leuven (1995 – 1999) and a Lecturer at Maastricht University (1999 – 2000). At Ghent University, she founded the Human Rights Centre. Eva’s research interests cover most areas of human rights law in European and international law as well as in Belgian and comparative law, with a particular emphasis on the protection of the rights of non-dominant groups and individuals. She has a keen interest in multi- and interdisciplinary research. Eva has been an activist in the board of several Belgian human rights NGOs, including as the Chair of the Flemish section Amnesty International (2006 – 2010), and she was briefly active in politics as a Member of the Belgian Federal Chamber of Representatives (2010 – 2014).
Tom Vander Beken – Faculty of Law – IRCP - Tom Vander Beken is professor at the department of Criminology, Criminal law and Social law of the faculty of Law and director of the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy. His research focuses primarily on the reaction (of the criminal justice system) to serious forms of crime with a special focus on the impact on vulnerable groups (mentally disordered persons, people without legal residence...)
Glenn Rayp – Economics and Business Administration – SHERPA
Eric Vanhaute – Arts and Humanities – History – CCC
Felicitas Becker – Arts and Humanities – History –CCC
Marijke D’Haese – Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Ilse Derluyn – Psychology and Educational Sciences – CCVS - Eva Brems Prof. Dr. Eva Brems joined the Ghent University Law Faculty in September 2000 as the first holder of the then newly created chair of Human Rights Law. Before that, she studied law at the University of Namur (Bachelor, 1989), the University of Leuven (Master, 1992) and Harvard University (LL.M., 1995). She was a PhD Researcher at the University of Leuven (1995 – 1999) and a Lecturer at Maastricht University (1999 – 2000). At Ghent University, she founded the Human Rights Centre. Eva’s research interests cover most areas of human rights law in European and international law as well as in Belgian and comparative law, with a particular emphasis on the protection of the rights of non-dominant groups and individuals. She has a keen interest in multi- and interdisciplinary research. Eva has been an activist in the board of several Belgian human rights NGOs, including as the Chair of the Flemish section Amnesty International (2006 – 2010), and she was briefly active in politics as a Member of the Belgian Federal Chamber of Representatives (2010 – 2014). Tom Vander Beken Tom Vander Beken is professor at the department of Criminology, Criminal law and Social law of the faculty of Law and director of the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy. His research focuses primarily on the reaction (of the criminal justice system) to serious forms of crime with a special focus on the impact on vulnerable groups (mentally disordered persons, people without legal residence...) Ilse Derluyn Ilse Derluyn obtained her PhD in Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium) and is currently affiliated as lecturer to the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy (Ghent University), where she teaches courses in migration and refugee studies. Ilse's main research topics concern the psychosocial wellbeing of unaccompanied refugee minors, migrant and refugee children, war-affected children, victims of trafficking and child soldiers. She is also actively involved in supporting refugees and practitioners working with refugees and migrants, in policy research and policy-influence. Ilse published over 40 international publications and several books. Prof. Derluyn is heading the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR) and is co-director of the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations (CCVS).
International partners
Ameziane Lahcen – University of Mohammed V – Faculty of arts and Humans Sciences, Sociology, Morocco
An Ansoms – Catholic University Leuven – L’Institut d’analyse du changement dans l’histoire et les sociétés contemporaines (IACCHOS), Belgium
Andrea Nightingale – Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) – Dept. of Urban and Rural Development, Sweden
Aynul Islam – Dhaka University – Department of Political Science, Bangladesh
Benedikt Korf – University of Zurich – Department of Geography, Switzerland
Christian Lund – University of Copenhagen – Department of Food and Resource Economics, Denmark
Deborah Delgado Pugley – Pontificia Universidad Catlolica del Peru – Social Science, Peru
Emmanuel Klimis – Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles – CReSPo (Research Centre for Politics), Belgium
Godefroid Muzalia – Institut supérieur pédagogique de Bukavu – Centre d'études sur le tiers monde, DRC
Gonzalo Rojas-Ortuste, J. – Universidad Mayor de San Andres – Postgrado en Ciencias del Desarrollo (CIDES), Bolivia
Ifdal Elsaket – Netherlands-Flemish Institute Cairo – Arabic and Islamic Studies , Egypt
Joe Jr. Ariate – University of the Philippines – Third World Studies Center, The Philippines
Jozé Bazonzi – Université de Kinshasa – Centre d’Etudes Politiques, DRC
Linda Tabar – Birzeit University – Center for Development Studies, Palestine
Sarah Maddison – University of Melbourne – School of Social and Political Sciences, Australia
Tatiana Carayannis – Social Science Research Council – Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, USA
Tenywa Aloysius Malagala – Gulu University – Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, Uganda
Tim Allen – London School of Economics (LSE) – International Development, UK