For a complete overview of all research projects linked to members of the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, please visit the VUB research portal PURE. On this page, we provide an overview of urban research projects directly funded by the Centre.
BCUS projects
From 2020 until 2024, the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies funded several projects led by VUB research groups and researchers. Awarded projects engaged with the broad field of urban studies and with concepts linked to (i) inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on cities and ‘the urban’, (ii) comparative urbanism and (iii) engaged research connecting academia with other actors and networks, such as NGOs, civil society, government administrations and businesses.
Projects selected for funding in the 2024 call:
Mapping female politicians in Belgium and Brussels, 1949-1991 (FOST/FUTURE - Nel de Mûelenaere & Silvia Erzeel)
Building capitals: Untold histories of construction workers in Brussels and Kinshasa (1985-1973) (ARCH - Robby Fivez & Simon De Nys-Ketels)
Beyond boundaries: Queer mobilities and spatial practices in Brussels (mobilise - Charlotte van Vessem)
Importance of unprotected urban green spaces in the Brussels Capital Region (HYDR - Boud Verbeiren & Maïa De Ridder)
Projects selected for funding in the 2023 call:
BeBrit - Extreme Heat Risk Knowledge and Innovation: Learning, Comparisons and Exchange (VUB contact: Andrea ARMSTRONG, COSM)
Brussels Urban Transit Lab (BUTL) (VUB contact: Imre KESERÜ, mobilise)
Urban Serendipity Stories (VUB contact: Annelien SMETS, SMIT)
Projects selected for funding in the 2022 call:
Exclusion - The Urban Topography of Exclusion under National Socialism in Literature and the Arts: Representing Clandestinity in Metropolitan contexts (VUB contact: Arvi SEPP, CLIC)
Lost in translation. Setting up a dialogue between (non)expert builders from an urban comparative perspective in Cairo and Brussels (VUB contacts: Dalila GHODBANE, CEDEJ • Stephanie VAN DE VOORDE, ARCH)
Playing the green field (VUB contacts: Nora VAN CAUWENBERGH, HYDR • Nahad REZAZADEH HELMI, HYDR • Boud VERBEIREN, HYDR • Ann VAN GRIENSVEN, HYDR • Dimitri CRESPIN, HYDR)
Projects selected for funding in the 2021 call:
Climate Stories (VUB contact: Carina VEECKMAN, SMIT)
The impact of finance on housing in Brussels (VUB contact: David BASSENS, Cosmopolis)
Black Europe in Brussels (VUB contacts: Elisabeth BEKERS, Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings (CLIC) • Susan DIERICKX, Research Centre on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA) • Lena IMERAJ, Brussels Centre for Urban Studies (BCUS))
Future Master Critical Ethnic/Liberation Studies (VUB contacts: Ilke ADAM, Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Migration & Minorities (BIRMM) & BSoG • Karen CELIS, SRP Evaluating Democratic Governance in Europe (EDGE) • Iman LECHKAR, Research Centre on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA) & Fatima Mernissi Chair)
Summer school: exploring the potential of in-between spaces/places for (re)shaping our urban futures (VUB contacts: Minne Huysmans • Linde Moriau)
Projects selected for funding in the 2020 call:
Winter school: co-creating knowledge for the society of tomorrow (VUB contact: Nicola da Schio, Cosmopolis)
Permanent Brussels: calling on the arts to build common infrastructures (VUB contacts: Bas van Heur, VUB; Lynn Tytgat, weKONEKT)
Urban farming: how to irrigate? (VUB contacts: Margaret Chen, Boud Verbeiren, Charlotte Wirion, and Kim Tondeur, HYDR)
Repair café for digital rights (VUB contacts: Gloria González Fuster, René Mahieu, and Joris Van Hoboken, LSTS; Ruben De Smet, ETRO)
Borderland Brussels (VUB contacts: Fabio Vanin, Cosmopolis; Lucas Melgaço, CRiS)
visiting research fellows
From 2015 to 2019, the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies operated with a yearly call for visiting research fellows to attract international scholars to Brussels. The fellowships were non-stipendiary, but covered travel and accommodation costs. Selected fellows were expected to actively participate in events organized by the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies and the relevant VUB research groups. Fellows were encouraged to organize workshops, develop research projects, contribute to teaching or engage in other activities in line with the aims of the Centre.
The Brussels Centre for Urban Studies hosted the following fellows in this period:
2019
- Deniz Ay (Ohio State university and University of Bern) [PDF]
- Astrid Bjørgen (NTNU, Trondheim) [PDF]
- Anna Di Ronco (University of Essex)
- Amy Foerster (Pace University, New York City) [PDF]
- Alejandra Trejo (El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City) [PDF]
2018
- Raquel Lázaro Gutiérrez (Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid) [PDF]
- Anne Tjønndal (Nord University, Bodø)
- Haifa Tlili ((Paris Descartes University)
- Aleksandra Zubrzycka-Czarnecka (University of Warsaw) [PDF]
2017
- Bill Addis (independent scholar) [PDF]
- Andrew Barnfield (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) [PDF]
- A.J. Jacobs (East Carolina University) [PDF]
- Christina Pech (KTH Stockholm)
2016
- Igor Calzada (University of Oxford) [PDF]
- Enrico Gualini (Technische Universität Berlin) [PDF]
- Andrew Karvonen (University of Manchester) [PDF]
- Sara Wermiel (Boston University and MIT) [PDF]
2015
- Simon Batterbury (University of Melbourne) [PDF]
- Clotilde Bonfiglioli (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) [PDF]
- Isabelle Doucet (University of Manchester)
- Tassilo Herrschel (University of Westminster) [PDF]
- Martin Müller (University of Zurich) [PDF]
civil society fellows
The 2016 and 2017 civil society fellowship programme supported research collaborations between VUB research groups and civil society organisations and professionals in Brussels. Individuals with extensive experience in civil society organisations possess invaluable expertise to tackle urban challenges and this fellowship scheme allowed for funding work that leads to increased cooperation between civil society professionals and university researchers. Above all, the aim was to support activities that develop sustainable academic–civic research relationships that go beyond the boundaries of established university practice and that contribute to addressing key urban problems in Brussels.
The following civil society fellows were supported through this scheme:
2017
- Guillaume Servonnat (Espaces-Mobilités)
- Nicolas Van Puymbroeck and Eva Samyn (Ferment) [PDF]
2016
- Leen De Spiegelaere and Sophie Alexandre (Brussels Kunstenoverleg (BKO) / Réseau des Arts à Bruxelles (RAB)) [publication in Dutch / publication in French]
- Joost Vandenbroele (Brusselse Raad voor het Leefmilieu (BRAL))
- Marianne Scheppers (Brussel Onthaal vzw) [PDF]
- Pieter Smets (Demos)