Tine Destrooper becomes co-chair of human rights network at Ghent University 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 UGent Human Rights Research Network. Professor Eva Brems, who is the initiator and spokesperson of the network, that brings together 61 Ghent University professors from 10 faculties, and within these, 22 departments, stepped down from her role as chair in the Spring of 2023, and Prof. Tine Destrooper and Prof. Ellen Desmet became the co-chairs of the network.

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.