Jonas Roelens (1990) is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Department of History at Ghent University. He teaches courses such as gender history and the history of crime. His research focuses on forbidden sexuality in the late Middle Ages. His dissertation on sodomy in the Southern Netherlands was awarded the Erik Duverger Prize in 2019 (granted by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts). That same year, he won both the jury prize and the audience award of the Flemish PhD Cup.
After completing his doctorate, Roelens worked as a guest professor at KU Leuven, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and Radboud University Nijmegen. He has published extensively in international scholarly journals such as The Journal of Women's History, Renaissance Studies, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and others.
Jonas Roelens attaches great importance to science communication. He has therefore authored several books for a general audience, including Verzwegen verlangen. Een geschiedenis van homoseksualiteit in België (Vrijdag, 2017), Middeleeuwse medemensen. De clichés over de donkere eeuwen voorbij (Ertsberg, 2023). De onuitspreekbare zonde. Sodomie in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden, 1400-1700 (Sterck & De Vreese, 2024),
On behalf of the City of Ghent, he led historical research into the witch trials in the city, resulting in a commemorative plaque unveiled by the city council in 2022 to honor the victims of the city’s witch craze. Currently, he is working as a curator on an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent about queer art in the Low Countries (1450-1950) and an accompanying book on the same theme.
