ReROOT Research Team

The ReROOT project brings together excellence in migration research and practice from six universities, two research institutes, and two NGOS. We also benefit from the field expertise of our Advisory Board. Learn more about our dynamic team below.
Leadership
  • Karel Arnaut
    Principal Investigator + Project Coordinator | KU Leuven
    I am Principal Investigator (PI) of the ReROOT project. In the horizontal organisation that ReROOT aspires to be, I see myself in an inspirational, enthusing and supporting role, in relation to the project manager, work packages leaders, researchers, and supporting staff at KU Leuven and other partner organisations.
  • Prof. Paschalis Arvanitidis
    Co-Investigator | Thessaly University
    Leader of the University of Thessaly team
  • Luce Beeckmans
    Co-Investigator & WP5 Leader | KU Leuven
    I am an Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urbanism related to Migration and Diversity, and a Project Partner in ReROOT. I am the leader of Work Package 5 ‘Mapping toolkits & platform prototypes’. My research concerns the intersection of migration and the city, with a particular focus on housing.
  • Kristen Biehl
    Co-Investigator | Sabanci University
    Kristen Biehl is an Assistant Professor at Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and a researcher at Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender). Kristen is Co-Investigator for the Re-ROOT project in Turkey and is co-leader of Work Package 2 on Site Research together with Susanne Wessendorf.
  • Gideon Bolt
    PhD Supervisor | Utrecht University
    Associate Professor Urban Geography with expertise in housing and diversity.
  • György Csepeli
    Academic supervision of the site research to be carried out in Hungary
  • Katrijn De Brucker
    I am an International project advisor at the technology transfer office of KU Leuven (LRD) and I support the KU Leuven team regarding the financial, legal and administrative tasks of ReROOT.
  • Tina Gudrun Jensen
    Co-Investigator | Malmö University
    Anthropologist and researcher at the Malmö Institute for Studies of Migration, Diversity and Welfare at Malmö University and coordinator of WP3 on Arrival infrastructure integration research. 
  • Mary Hogan
    Project Manager + Communication Lead
  • András Kováts
    Co-Investigator | Menedek
  • Aïssatou Mbodj
    Co-Investigator | Paris
    I am Researcher in anthropology at the French CNRS, based at the Institut des mondes africains. I have been working in Mali for the past twenty years, on popular culture, literacy practices and vernacular uses of media and technology. I have also developed a long-term research project with West African residents of migrants’ hostels in Paris. For ReROOT, I’ll supervise the Paris team.
  • Prof. Dr. Reiner Staubach
    Research Supervision Planerladen | Nordstadt
    Reiner Staubach (Dr. rer. pol.) is spatial planner and professor of Planning-oriented Sociology, Planning Methods & Theory, at the Faculty of Architecture, Interior Design and City-Planning, Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe, University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Detmold.
  • Cornelia Tippel
    Co-Investigator and Site Researcher | Dortmund-Nordstadt
    I am postdoc researcher at ILS and site researcher within the ReROOT project for the German site Dortmund-Nordstadt.
  • Ilse van Liempt
    Co-Investigator & supervisor | Utrecht University
    I am supervising two PhD projects in the ReROOT project. One research focuses on arrival infrastructures for agricultural workers in the Netherlands and Belgium and one on transit migrants in the same countries. I am also involved in thinking about methodology and ethics.
  • Susanne Wessendorf
    Co-Investigator | Coventry University
    Professor of Social Anthropology and the Co-Investigator for ReROOT. Susanne Wessendorf completed her DPhil at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford.
  • Dennis Zilske
    Co-Investigator | Planerladen, Dortmund
    Dennis Zilske is a spatial planner (TU Dortmund University) with more than 12 years of experience working for Planerladen in a broad variety of projects, most of them with the aim to involve people from the more vulnerable and in traditional forms of participation often times neglected groups.
Meet the Site Researchers
  • Shila Hadji Heydari Anaraki
    Site Researcher: Brussels | KU Leuven
  • Martina Bovo
    Trans-site Researcher | KU Leuven
  • Márton Bisztrai
    Site Researcher: Istanbul | Menedek
  • Stefan Le Courant
    Site Researcher: Paris | CNRS
  • Athina Zoe Desli
    Site Researcher : Katerini & Karditsa (Thessaly region) | University of Thessaly
  • Laura Guérin
    Site Researcher: Paris | CNRS
  • Emma Krasznahorkai
    Site Researcher: Budapest
  • Carolien Lubberhuizen
    Site Researcher: Haspengouw/Westland
    | Utrecht University
  • Sarah Makar
    Site Researcher: Hungary | Menedek
  • Tamlyn Monson
    Site Researcher: Barking and Dagenham | Coventry University
  • George Papagiannitsis
    Site Researcher: Katerini & Karditsa (Thessaly region) | University of Thessaly
  • Lucie Revilla
    Site Researcher: Paris | CNRS
  • Marhabo Saparova
    Site Researcher: Istanbul | Sabanci University
  • Dounia Salamé
    Trans-site Researcher | KU Leuven
  • Adél Sarolta Szabó
    Research Coordination & Communication | Menedek (Hungary)
  • Cornelia Tippel
    Site Researcher & Co-Investigator: Dortmund-Nordstadt | ILS
  • Charalampos Tsavdaroglou
    Site Researcher: Thessaloniki | Thessaly University
  • Penelope Vergou
    Site Researcher: Katerini & Karditsa (Thessaly region) | University of Thessaly
  • Aimilia (Emily) Voulvouli
    Site Researcher: Katerini & Karditsa (Thessaly region) | University of Thessaly
Advisory Board
  • Michel Agier
    EHESS
    Migration & city making
  • Paolo Boccagni
    University of Trento
    Housing, homemaking
  • Ayse Çaglar
    Vienna University
    Migration & city making
  • Céline Cantat
    Science Po, Paris
    Balkans
  • Thomas Hyland Ericksen
    Oslo University
    Globalisation
  • Karen Fog Olwig
    Copenhagen University
    Migration, mobility, integration
  • Ruth McAreavey
    Newcastle University
    Sociology & Rural development
  • Senay Özden
    Hamish, Turkey
    Support Syrian transnational civil society
  • Gie Goris | Media Advisor
    Freelance journalist - Former editor in chief Mo-magazine
  • Heike Hanhörster
    TU Berlin, Germany
    Urban Planning, Migration & Diversity (former Co-Investigator via ILS)
  • Bruno Meeus
    Hogeschool Utrecht
    From 2021-2023, Bruno spearheaded the scientific and administrative management of the research project in close collaboration with Karel Arnaut. He is also co-supervising the research in the Brussels-Amsterdam-North-Sea Coast site of Shila Anaraki and the transversal research of Dounia Salamé.
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