Associate Professor in Gender Studies
Director Centre for Research on Culture and Gender
Director Inter University Master Programme in Gender and Diversity
Office: Campus Boekentoren, Blandijn, 4th floor, room 015.
Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Tel.: +32 (0)9 264 38 18, Fax: +32 (0)9 264 41 80
chia.longman@ugent.be
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Biography
MA Comparative Science of Culture 1996;
PhD Comparative Science of Culture 2002, Ghent University, Belgium;
Coordinator ella Expertise Centre Gender & Ethnicity, Brussels, 2012-2013
Visiting scholar:
Women's Studies in Religion Programme, Harvard University (2002); Gender & Religions Research Centre, School for Oriental & African Studies, University of London (2006); Institute for Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp (2009)
Visiting professor:
University of Hull (2015); Zentrum für Transdisziplinäre Geschlechterstudien, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2016-2017); Institut für Diversitätsforschung, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (2017)
Research:
My main research interest is the relationship between gender equality and cultural diversity and how this relationship (tensions and creativity) is played out in different inter-personal, societal and discursive domains. I supervise projects from gender-critical and qualitative research perspectives in the areas of kinship and parenting/mothering, migration and multiculturalism; cultural bodily practices; feminist and LGBTQ+ identities and activism; and secularism, religion and spirituality.
I have previously conducted ethnographic research on women's agency and identity in the Orthodox Jewish community of Antwerp, and am currently working on a project entitled 'Post-secular femininities' that looks at the way femininity is being redefined among women active in the growing area of spirituality and wellbeing practices including women's coaching, circles and festivals across Europe.
Publications include Interrogating Harmful Cultural Practices: Gender, Culture and Coercion, Routledge, 2015 (with T. Bradley); Féminisme et multiculturalisme. Les paradoxes du débat, Peter Lang, 2010 (with G. Coene) and various book chapters and articles in journals such as Citizenship Studies; Ethnicities; European Journal of Women's Studies; Religion & Gender; Religions; Social Anthropology; Social Compass, Women's Studies International Forum.
Research Areas
anthropology of gender & ethnicity; comparative religion; gender and religion; feminist theory; intersectional theory and methodology; women and fundamentalism; social scientific study of Orthodox Jewry, Islam and Christianity; multiculturalism and citizenship in Europe; theory and methodology in religious studies; kinship & mothering; harmful cultural practices; modesty practices, veiling & hijab; holistic and secular spiritualities and mental well-being.
Promoter PhD students
Golnesa Rezanezhad Pishkani
Amal Miri
Dr. Ladan Rahbari
Susan Dierickx
Lieke Schrijvers
Eline Huygens
Christof Bex
Ellen Decoo
Former PhD students:
Dr. Maria Judite Chipenembe (thesis defended in 2018)
Dr. An van Raemdonck (thesis defended in 2016)
Dr. Lydia Namatende (thesis defended in 2016)
Dr. Elif Simsek (thesis defended in 2016)
Dr. Nella Van Den Brandt (thesis defended in 2014)
Dr. Tine Brouckaert (thesis defended in 2013)
Dr. Katrien De Graeve (thesis defended in 2012)
Board Member of the International Association for the Study of Religion and Gender (IARG).
Advisory Board Religion and Gender: see http://www.religionandgender.org
International Advisory Board Tijdschrift voor genderstudies (Dutch journal for gender studies)
International Advisory Board of The Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religion
Awards/Fellowships
2018: Core Fellowship at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Research Director (declined)
2017: Prize awarded by the Belgian Institute for Equality between Women and Men for initiating and directing the Master of Arts Programme in Gender and Diversity.
2010: Laureate of the Dr. Schamelhout Prize for Anthropology, 2005-2009, Royal Academy for Medicine of Belgium
The 2005 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award for the project 'Life Stories of Orthodox Jewish Women in Antwerp: Negotiating Identity, Autonomy and Belonging' (Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.)
