Dr. Eline Mestdagh is a social historian working at the intersections of memory studies, post- and decolonial theory, and public history. Her PhD research at Ghent University examined how memory is mobilised for racial justice during Belgium’s recent “decolonial moment” (2010-2021). She is currently an FWO-funded postdoctoral researcher in the Department of History at Ghent University, where she investigates the social and intellectual history of African student activism in Belgium between 1960 and 1990. In her previous ERC-funded postdoctoral position at KU Leuven, she researched memories of violent conflict and displacement in the African Great Lakes region, with a particular focus on visual arts as mnemonic practices.
Her broader research interests include the many ways societies engage with the past, ranging from memory activism to populist politics of history. She is co-editor of Claiming the People’s Past: Populist Politics of History in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2024), together with Berber Bevernage, Walderez Ramalho, and Marie-Gabrielle Verbergt. She serves as co-chair of the Memory and Activism Working Group of the Memory Studies Association (MSA), and is an active member of the Ghent-based Cultural Memory Studies Initiative (CMSI), the Centre for Meta- and Public History, and the International Network for Theory of History (INTH).
Between 2017 and 2023, Eline Mestdagh served as co-coordinator of the interdisciplinary research forum TAPAS/Thinking About the PASt. In this role, she organised lecture and reading group series, ad-hoc seminars, and curated an international conference in 2019 on the restitution of colonial collections in Europe.
Since 2024, she has been co-chair of the Memory and Activism Working Group (MAWG) of the Memory Studies Association. With MAWG, she coordinates online research seminars and monthly reading groups exploring the diverse intersections between memory and activism.
Additionally, Eline Mestdagh is member of the Ghent-based Cultural Memory Studies Initiative (CMSI).
Between 2020 and 2022, Eline Mestdagh served as an elected representative for AAP staff (doctoral and postdoctoral researchers) in the Faculty Council of Arts and Philosophy. In this role, she also represented AAP staff in the Faculty’s Ethics Commission as well as in the Doctoral Schools for Arts, Humanities, and Law. Together with fellow representatives, she initiated a survey and focus groups on the mental well-being of PhD researchers and postdoctoral fellows during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were summarized in 2021 in the report "Rapportering enquête & focusgesprekken invloed van COVID-19 op welzijn, onderwijs en onderzoek bij OAP-geleding".
