Tine Destrooper becomes co-chair of human rights network that aims for societal impact
The Research Council at Ghent University recently selected for funding 6 ‘interdisciplinary research consortia aimed at realizing societal impact’. One of these is the Human Rights Research Network. The network brings together over 70 Ghent University professors from 10 faculties and 22 departments. Tine Destrooper and Ellen Desmet became the co-chairs of the network when co-founding chair Eva Brems stepped down earlier this year.
What are the network’s objectives?
With this line of funding, Ghent University wants to achieve two objectives: the first is to increase interdisciplinary research collaboration, and the second is to increase the societal impact of research.
The network aims to tune into the new trend towards interdisciplinarity in human rights research, and to gradually build up capacity to become a major player in that field. This will include the organization of a medium-sized international conference in a few years’ time. The network has its strongest bases in the faculty of law and criminology and in the arts faculty, in addition to many committed members in other faculties who are experts in fields such as social work, healthcare, political science, economics, and even engineering!
The network wants to realize societal impact in co-creation with societal actors. These include civil society actors working in the broad field of human rights, as well as numerous cultural actors.
