Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe

Biography

My two research passions are the study of racism on the one hand and the field of social stratification and inequalities on the other. These two topics are not only academically interesting, but are also related to my deep concern about racial and social injustice in the world. My research focuses on racism, social mobility and inequality, housing and urban dynamics. As a researcher I love to use field experiments, such as correspondence tests and mystery calling, to examine social inequalities and discrimination.

I am recently very interested in how racism and social inequalities differ according to the organizational, local or national context, because this gives insight in how we can change these contexts in order to tackle these problems. In the same vein, I like to study evidence-based policy interventions. Therefore, I worked already a lot together with civil society organizations and governments in the past. In that context, I have been invited as an academic expert member for two official governmental committees in Belgium to provide policy advise about tackling discrimination on the housing and labour markets.

I am privileged to be currently the promotor of several PhD students and post-doctoral researchers. In addition, I am teaching several courses about social inequality, migration, diversity and statistics. During my classes, I love to discuss with students about these topics and their policy implications.

Finally, I am a founding member of the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Migration (BIRMM) and a member of the scientific board of Hannah Arendt Institute in Belgium.