News & Events

On 23 October 2025, Bryan Boyle successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled "Labour of Distinction: Notebooks of an Apprentice Butler".

An interview by ACV Puls with Professor Christophe Vanroelen [in Dutch].

Our colleague Marloes Hagenaars is one of the eight finalists of the Flemish PhD Cup 2025 – and now the public can vote for their favourite presentation!

This year, 13% of all awarded FWO PhD fellowships have been granted to researchers at the VUB.

New study found no discrimination in the CV-screening phase for governmental vacancies, except for a significant gender bias.

Marloes obtained her PhD in Sociology at Ghent University, and now she works as a post-doc researcher at BRISPO. Congratulations!

The article "The impact of in-work poverty on mental health: A cohort study of the Swedish population" has been published in Psychiatry Research.

Lobke Van Ryckeghem discusses in her brief write-up the social construction of (male) infertility.

A new article co-authored by Lobke Van Ryckeghem, BRISPO Junior Researcher, was published in SSM – Qualitative Research in Health.

The research project Vroeg Geleerd has just launched its website and LinkedIn page where you can follow insights, updates and results from research on relational well-being and bullying in school.

Marloes obtained her PhD in Sociology at Ghent University, and now she works as a post-doc researcher at BRISPO. Congratulations!

The article titled "Multidimensional frailty as a predictor of older adults’ internet use: moving beyond the use/non-use dichotomy " was published in 'Exploration of Digital Health Technologies'.

BRISPO sociologist formulates several solutions for dealing with illness in the workplace.

Wanru's thesis, "Escaping the System? Chinese Middle-Class Parents Negotiating Educational Privilege in Alternative Schools", was supervised by Prof. Bram Spruyt.

The article titled "Beyond Economic and Educated: Reconceptualising Skill in EU Migration Policy Through Contextual Adaptability" by Anton Neronov and Tuba Bircan was published in "International Migration".

The opinion piece is based on a recent literature study conducted by Petrus te Braak and Theun Pieter van Tienoven.

A new blog post, written by our colleagues Iris Egea Quijada, Shabnam Khezri, Anton Neronov, and Fatıma Silpagar, has just been published.

A Reflection from Tulya Su Guven and Fatima Silpagar from the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology in Rabat.

We are looking for a PhD student for a project on the demographic behaviour of migrant communities in Belgium.

The article "Preferences and challenges regarding medical decision-making among patients with a migration background in Belgium: a focus group study" by, among others, Amina Yakhlaf and Veerle Buffel, was published in "Archives of Public Health".

The article "Employment Quality as a Framework to Understand Precarious Employment and Beyond in Cross-National Contexts: Conceptual, Methodological, and Practical Recommendations" was published in Sociology Compass.

Anaïs's thesis is titled "Pitfalls and Progress: Exploring the complexities and forces shaping the PhD journey”. 

BRISPO was present at the very first Citizen Science Fair, organised by Scivil, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and the European Citizen Science project. It was a great success, even picked up for discussion in the European Parliament.

The paper, authored by Kim Bosmans, Mattias Vos, Christophe Vanroelen and their co-authors, explores the mediating role of psychological experience of work precarity.

New article in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications explores why environmental messages resonate differently across groups.

The article by, inter alia, Mariska Bauwelinck, has just been published in "Environment International".

The PhD thesis is titled “Rather Christophe than Mustapha: Understanding and Responding to Ethnic Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market”.

Find out in the latest episode of the Culture & Inequality Podcast with a guest-hosted Bryan Boyl from BRISPO.

New forms of employment like platform gigs, freelance, and on-call jobs are reshaping the concept of ‘job quality’. Are we ready to measure job quality in this new era of hyper-flexibilisation?

A recent publication “Viability of Web-Based Respondent-Driven Sampling of Belgian Men Who Have Sex With Men: Process Evaluation” co-authored by, among others, Veerle Buffel and Philippe Bos in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

We nodigen je uit om te luisteren naar de podcast met prof. Eva Van Belle.

The project supervised by prof. Tuba Bircan (BRISPO) and prof. Ile Adam (BIRMM) is titled “Displacement Urbanism: Analyzing the relationship between international and urban forms of displacement”.

BRISPO en METICES (ULB) ontwikkelden voor FOD WASO drie reflectiechecklists en een caseboek met praktijkinzichten uit Belgische organisaties.

Join an international research project on education-based social identities, co-led by VUB and the University of Groningen.

Each ambassador, after a year of engagement, appoints another woman whose profile and story they believe should be heard next.

We are looking for talented researchers to apply for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship 2025 grant.

The article " The Schooled Society Index: Measuring the Centrality of Schooling in the Twenty-First Century from a Global Perspective" by Leandros Kavadias, Bram Spruyt and Toon Kuppens was published in “Socius”.

New article published by Jessie Gevaert (BRISPO) and colleagues (Karolinska Institute) titled "Precarious Employment in Self-Employment: A Typology and Impact on Cardiovascular Health Conditions in Sweden".

A recently published report from the VMC2024 features prof. Tuba Bircan's contribution to the discussion on new technologies and migration.

Iris Egea Quijada PhD project has been featured in the "Western People" for her fieldwork in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland.

New article published by Terhi Kangas, Sara-Lynn Milis, Katrien Vanthomme, and Hadewijch Vandenheede in "Quality of Life Research".

BRISPO researchers published a systematic literature review in Cities on the factors shaping women’s perceived safety in urban public spaces.

The article "Employment and work ability in individuals living with rare diseases: a systematic literature review" by, among others, T. Kangas, K. Vanthomme and H. Vandenheede, was published in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.

A new article titled "Taking it slower: how Chinese middle-class parents negotiate a new time perspective in alternative education" by Wanru Xu and Bram Spruyt.

A new article titled "How Older Adults Experience the Digitalisation of Their Everyday Life: The Case of E-Reading" by Werner Schirmer, Anina Vercruyssen, Nelly Geerts, and Ignace Glorieux.

Jeugdonderzoeksplatform publicatie "Facts & Figures: De evolutie van homofobie bij jongeren tussen 2018 en 2023" door Fien Pauwels van BRISPO.

The article "Both a Blessing and a Curse: A Qualitative Study of the Experiences and Challenges of Autonomy During the Doctoral Trajectory in Belgium" by Anaïs Glorieux, Bram Spruyt and Theun Pieter van Tienoven.

An article "Employment quality and mental health in Germany: The mismatch of low employment quality with work and family values by gender" authored by D. De Moortel, R. Balogh, M. Engels, and J. Vanderleyden was published in "Social Science & Medicine".

The award supports doctoral research with societal relevance in the humanities. Congratulations!

The article titled "The association between out-of-home mobility and internet use patterns among people aged 60 and older" has been published in "Behaviour & Information Technology".

A book chapter "Dissecting the effects of workload and work intensification on teacher job satisfaction. A time-diary approach to teachers' working time allocation" by Petrus te Braak, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, Joeri Minnen, and Theun Pieter van Tienoven.

Paper by Joachim Gotink and Sylvie Gadeyne "Perception of the Residential Living Environment: The Relationship Between Objective and Subjective Indicators of the Residential Living Environment and Health".

Professor Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe wrote an open letter to Rob Beenders: "Fight for your competences".

The article published online on Knack critically analyzes the pension reforms planned by the De Wever government in Belgium.

An interview with Bryan Boyle, a guest professor and a PhD candidate from BRISPO.

Belgische werknemers missen opvallend vaak medische zorg omdat ze geen vrijaf kunnen nemen op werk, schrijft Maarten Hermans.

Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe pleit vóór een Airbnb dat trouw blijft aan haar oorspronkelijke deelfilosofie.

The award supports doctoral research with societal relevance in the humanities. Congratulations!

Among the authors of the article "Trust in Scientists and Their Role in Society Across 68 Countries" are Bram Spruyt and Johem van Noord from BRISPO who were working on the project led by Viktoria Cologna and Niels Mede.

The article authored by, inter alia, Tuba Bircan, was published in the Journal of Computational Social Science.

The article "Navigating diabetes care inequities: an observational study linking chronic care model’s structural elements to process and outcomes of type 2 diabetes care in Belgium" by, among others, Philippe Bos and Veerle Buffel.

The papers were developed as part of the project "The manifestation of non-standard employment arrangements in a comparative global perspective".

The article by Veerle Buffel and her co-authors was published in the "International Journal of Qualitative Methods".

The paper "Contexts of reception and refugee health: Experiences of foreign-born people in the United States and Belgium" by Solveig A. Cunningham, Hadewijch Vandenheede and Rebecca Jones-Antwi has been just published in the "Journal of Migration and Health".

The papers, authored by the members of the Interface Demography Research Unit, focus on social inequalities in cancer mortality and excess deaths during the first three waves.

The interview (in Dutch and French) focused on the challenges and assets of the New World of Work for quality of work and employment.

The article "The Labor of Distinction: Butlers, Service Work, and the Production of Elite Lifestyles" marks the first time doctoral research from a PhD candidate at a Flemish university is published in the ASR.

The publication is a part of the project SUSHY: Towards sustainable hybrid work: the study of hybrid work effects on well-being, productivity and environment, funded by BELSPO.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, KU Leuven, UGent en IDEWE nodigen organisaties uit om deel te nemen aan het VIONA-onderzoek: ‘Kwaliteit van het werk. Focus op het Vlaamse arbeidsmarktbeleid’.

The interview concerns Deborah's latest article titled "Psychological Capital and Social Class: A Capital Approach to Understanding Positive Psychological States and Their Role in Explaining Social Inequalities".

This new publication by Martiniello B. & Verhaeghe PP. investigates how local governments respond to discrimination, proposing a temporal framework of anti-discrimination policy useful to researchers and policymakers.

On 9 December, the eve of Human Rights Day, Dr Abuelaish attended the pre-release screening of I Shall Not Hate at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

You can submit your application until December 18, 2024, COB.

The papers present the results of the INEQKILL project on the historical and contemporary patterns of mortality in Belgium.

This achievement will enable him to investigate the "class-race nexus" at the macro-level, analyzing how countries differ in the extent to which life opportunities are shaped by ethno-racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

Joachim Gotink and Sylvie Gadeyne, together with their co-authors, investigate if educational level impacts breast cancer incidence, mortality, and survival, and if so, how.

In this study, Elias Kruithof and Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe analyzed the evolution of social inequalities in tertiary educational attainment in Belgium from the post-World War II era to the early 2000s.

We invite students and alumni to participate in our survey on the quality of work among job students and recent graduates.

The book was edited by Sylke V. Schnepf, Béatrice d'Hombres, and Caterina Mauri who also co-authored four chapters.

The paper was published in the "European Journal of Public Health" Supplement dedicated to the 17th European Public Health Conference 2024.

A paper titled "A multi-indicator distributive justice approach to assess school-related green infrastructure benefits in Brussels" has been published in "Ecosystem Services".

This report was developed through a collaboration between researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Paper by Rebeka Balogh, Sylvie Gadeyne, Christophe Vanroelen and Christopher Warhurst (IER) published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health.

In their article, K. Dederichs and P.-P. Verhaeghe visualize how implicit racial bias at the collective level varies across European countries.

The article "Is it the Past or the Present? Employment Quality, Unemployment History, Psychological Distress and Mental Wellbeing in the United Kingdom" was published in "International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services".

Startdatum: Tussen 15 december 2024 en 1 februari 2025; Sollicitatiedeadline: 11 november 2024.

Work as a researcher for the EqualStrength Horizon project on cumulative discrimination; deadline for applications: 6/11/2024.

The article appreciated by the SAGE Prize for Innovation/Excellence jury is "The Extent of Résumé Whitening" published in 2023 in 'Sociological Research Online'.

PhD on Cross-national Differences in Structural Racism; deadline for application 15/11/2024.

This year 3 out of 7 PhD mandates in social sciences awarded to VUB went to BRISPO!

The thesis is titled "Balancing Acts: A Study on How Older Adults Experience the Digital Shift".

Lees hier het eindrapport van het EdisTools project.

The thesis is titled "Skills as Borders, Skills as Routes: Rethinking Migration Categories Through Lived Experience".

The special issue on comparing and explaining discrimination across different regions and settings is out now. In this issue, Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe and others facilitated the dialogue between the different research traditions of studying discrimination.

The deadline for both onsite and online registration for TARGETED-MPI final conference has been extended until 11th October.

Summary of the training Prof. Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe delivered for Equinet - the European Network of Equality Bodies.

Fatıma Silpağar shares her impressions of the 3rd Annual workshop of IMISCOE Research Network's Standing Committee Methodological Approaches and Tools in Migration Research.

A paper on school withdrawal by Elias Kruithof and Gil Keppens has been just published in Educational Studies.

The position is related to the project of the Sciensano Health Indicator Unit and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, on Health Inequality Impact Assessment for tobacco prevention.

Last week the Belgian Hoge Raad voor de Justitie published the results of the 5th edition of the Justitiebarometer, which involved two BRISPO researchers: Maarten Hermans and Elias Herman Kruithof.