Critical junior scholar network (edition 1)

On Thursday March 5, 2026, the Critical Junior Scholar Network is hosting another session. The CJS Network is an interdisciplinary and interuniversity network for young researchers who are (interested in) using critical theory or methodology in their work. It offers researchers the opportunity to discuss their work with like-minded others.
During this session, two junior researchers will present their work. 
Every junior researcher who is interested in the topics of this session or who generally wants to join the network is welcome!

Programme:
At the start of the session, the network will provide a vegetarian/vegan lunch. Afterwards, at 13:00, we will start with the presentations:

1)    Beyond victims and perpetrators: other actors involved in discrimination - Raoul Rombouts (UGent)
Raoul Rombouts (he/him) is a doctoral researcher at the Law & Diversity Research Group, and a member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) at Ghent University. Combining sociolegal and traditional legal methods, his doctoral research seeks to clarify the position of bystanders to instances of employment discrimination vis-á-vis Belgian and  EU law. To this end, he scrutinizes their role in cases through equality bodies. He conducts his research under the supervision of prof. dr. Pieter Cannoot and dr. Cathérine Van de Graaf. Furthermore, he has published on the right to protest in the context of pro-Palestine student encampments, and on the application of headscarf bans in Belgian secondary schools. He is also a board member of the VSR (Dutch-Flemish association for sociolegal research). Finally, Raoul has a heart for teaching.
Beyond victims and perpetrators: other actors involved in discrimination
Law has a difficult relationship with systems of oppression, such as capitalism, racism, imperialism, patriarchy. On the one hand, law more often serves as an instrument of oppression and conservation of the status quo rather than one of liberation. On the other hand, legal initiatives to enhance protection for individuals and transform society are both necessary and widely inadequate.
This contradiction is particularly visible in discrimination law, where individualised legal categories obscure the collective and structural conditions through which racialised and other forms of subordination are reproduced.
One problem with discrimination law, which is the core of this ongoing PhD research project, is that it is commonly framed around an individual harm inflicted by a perpetrator onto a victim, yet in reality, a discrimination typically unfolds within a broader constellation of actors, such as bystanders and institutional gatekeepers, who may enable, resist, or transform discriminatory dynamics.
From a liberal, formal equality perspective, these other actors are mainly instrumental to enforce discrimination legislation, and to strengthen victims in their search for redress. In a substantive equality, collectivist or critical perspective, bystanders and enablers are actors both embedded in entrenched power dynamics and structures of oppression, as well as agents capable of disrupting these systems of subordination at the micro-level.
Drawing on both critical literature and (ongoing) empirical research of discrimination complaints handled by equality body UNIA, this presentation seeks to explore the disconnect between real-life discriminatory situations, and a legal framework that obscures collective responsibility while individualizing both the occurrence of discrimination, and the persons partaking in it.

2)    Digitizationin the cleaning industry - Sara Van Bruyssel (UGent)
Sara Van Bruyssel is a post-doctoral researcher at Ghent University, working at the Communication Sciences department. She has just started her research project on the digitization of the professional cleaning industry. More specifically, she focuses on the embeddedness of digital media and technologies in the paid and unpaid care work that professional cleaners do in- and outside their working hours. This includes, for instance, the digital care work that goes into maintaining relationships at home or abroad, to arranging dinner plans, or to the surveillance technologies and practices that shape working conditions.
To try and understand the role technologies are playing in the lives of professional cleaners, as well as the notoriously undervalued industry, Sara is planning and designing ethnographic fieldwork in Brussels. She will present her methodological approach, as well as its theoretical and contextual frameworks, which, among others, include social reproduction theory, science and technology studies, and critical data studies. She hopes to receive feedback and critical input to fine-tune (or overthrow) her fieldwork plans.

After the session, there will be an opportunity to join for drinks. This will give us the chance to get to know each other more informally.

For whom?

• PhD students & postdocs who use or want to learn more about critical theories and methodologies in their research.

When?

• The activity will take place on March 5, 2026 - 13:00-16:00.

Where?

• The session will take place at Campus VUB, Pleinlaan 5, Elsene.
• You will receive the exact location upon registration.

Registration?

• Through confirmation mail to co-organizer Charlotte Vermeijen (charlotte.vermeijen@uhasselt.be)
• As places are limited, registering does not automatically imply that you will be able to participate. You will be notified by email in due time.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cfr. cancellation & no-show policy).

Acknowledged as?

• DS BSH: session on advanced discipline-specific knowledge - passive participation