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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260505T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260505T180000
DTSTAMP:20260420T115457Z
CREATED:20251204T091258Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T115457Z
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SUMMARY:Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Tània Verge
DESCRIPTION:Register here\nWhen We Are Not in the Room:  Designing Feminist Institutional Change for Resilience and Reactivation \nFeminist institutionalism has long shown that feminist institutional change is rarely one-shot\, given the “genderedness” of organisations/institutions (Benschop & Verloo\, 2006)\, the “nested newness” of reform efforts (Mackay\, 2014)\, and multiple forms of resistance (Tildesley\, Lombardo & Verge\, 2022). Recent work argues that inclusive reforms tend to follow cycles of repetition through which change is sedimented (Cianetti\, 2024). This resonates with Benschop & Verloo’s metaphor of “Sisyphus’ sisters” – organising so each restart begins from a slightly stronger position –\, with Mackay’s (2014) memory-keepers who periodically force recollection\, and with Sara Ahmed’s (2017: 12) insight that “repetition is the scene of a feminist instruction.”  \nThe Catalan case offers unusually clear evidence that while feminist insider activists in executive office can rewrite the gendered rules of the game and effectively implement transformative state feminism\, much feminist change remains deeply embodied – dependent on insider feminist activists’ presence at veto and coordination nodes\, with sufficient expertise and overlapping membership in the feminist movement. Nearly two years on\, following a change of administration\, drift is very visible: new formal and informal gendered rules thin out or are abandoned\, coordination venues are downgraded\, veto power is not exercised\, and technocratic “add-women-and-stir” mainstreaming is back.   \nFrom a dual practitioner-academic perspective as former Minister of Equality and Feminisms\, Government of Catalonia (2021–2024) and feminist institutionalist scholar\, this paper reflects on the extent to which feminist governance can be designed to endure in the absence of feminist insider activists or be relaunched swiftly when they are back in the room. In doing so\, I discuss the gendered legacies seeded\, including: entrenchment across venues and duplicated authority to counter “remembering the old”; memory infrastructures to counter “forgetting the new”; and broadened legitimacy coalitions/audiences to ease the “liability of newness” and embed new feminist logics of appropriateness. This reflection is particularly relevant amid the global dismantling\, backsliding\, and watering-down of feminist policies across governments – whether far-right or centre-left executives – as well as universities and other institutional arenas.  \nBio\nTània Verge is a Full Professor of Politics and Gender at the Department of Political and Social Sciences\, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF\, Barcelona)\, where she led the Equality Unit between 2014 and 2021 and coordinated the Minor in Gender Studies. Between May 2021 and August 2024\, she served as Minister of Equality and Feminisms of the Government of Catalonia\, and between May 2024 and February 2026 she was an MP in the Parliament of Catalonia. Her main area of research is gender and politics\, with a focus on how political parties and parliaments are shaped by gender dynamics and on resistance to the adoption and implementation of equalities policies. Her consultancy and governmental practice have also given her new insights into the possibilities and limitations of feminist institutional redesign.
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-tania-verge/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260506T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260506T150000
DTSTAMP:20260504T083231Z
CREATED:20251209T082747Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260504T083231Z
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SUMMARY:Lunchtime Seminars by Mark Brandt
DESCRIPTION:The unintended consequences of depolarization treatments (in the US)\nAbstract\nMany interventions exist for reducing toxic polarization. However\, a possibility is that these interventions that aim to help political opponents get along have unintended side effects. For example\, they may increase other forms of intolerance\, reduce civic engagement\, or reduce people’s willingness to confront prejudices or misinformation. We tested these possibilities in a preregistered experiment with a large sample of US Americans (data collection ongoing\, current N > 1500). Participants are randomly assigned to one of two intervention conditions known to reduce polarization or a control condition. After answering questions related to polarization\, anti-democratic attitudes\, and support for violence (the primary outcomes)\, participants answered questions bout their prejudices towards a variety of social groups\, their willingness to confront prejudice and misinformation\, and their willingness to engage in politics (the possible side effects). Because data collection is ongoing\, I do not yet know the results. I look forward to sharing them with you all.  \nBio\nMark Brandt is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University and is currently a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. His research goal is to understand the causes and consequences of political\, religious\, and moral beliefs that can ultimately be leveraged to reduce conflict and promote a more fair\, just\, and free society.    \n 
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminars-by-mark-brandt/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260511T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260511T130000
DTSTAMP:20260427T091517Z
CREATED:20260115T114539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T091517Z
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SUMMARY:Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Petra Ahrens
DESCRIPTION:Register here\nThe international norm of Gender-Sensitive Parliaments: Navigating Inequality and Inclusion in Democracies under Pressure\nBio\nPetra Ahrens is Academy of Finland Research Fellow at Tampere University\, Finland. Her research focuses on gender policies and politics in the European Union and its institutions\, gender equality in Germany\, gender-sensitive parliaments\, and transnational civil society. Alongside articles\, she is the author of Actors\, Institutions\, and the Making of EU Gender Equality Programs (Palgrave Macmillan\, 2018)\, co-editor\, with Lise Rolandsen Agustín\, of Gendering the European Parliament. Structures\, Policies\, and Practices (Rowman & Littlefield / ECPR Press\, 2019)\, and co-editor\, with Anna Elomäki and Johanna Kantola\, of European Parliament’s Political Groups in Turbulent Times (Palgrave Macmillan\, 2022).  \nThis event will also feature a roundtable discussion with politicians: \n\nKathleen Depoorter (N-VA)\nHannelore Goeman (Vooruit)\nNadia Naji (Groen)\nVincent Van Peteghem (cd&v)\nEva De Bleeker (Anders.)\nLine De Witte (PVDA)
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-petra-ahrens/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260521T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260521T150000
DTSTAMP:20260420T090853Z
CREATED:20251209T082825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T090853Z
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SUMMARY:Thursday Seminars by Jakob Ohme
DESCRIPTION:How to study platform influences on digital democracies\nAbstract\nDigital platforms do not merely host democratic debate — they structure visibility\, shape information flows\, and influence how political opinions are formed. To understand these effects\, we need theory-driven and longitudinal approaches that trace communicative processes over time\, combining digital trace data\, sequence-based analyses\, and innovative data access methods. This talk presents a theoretical perspective on how to study the influence of digital platforms by using data donation exposure trajectories gathered around the 2025 German federal election.  \nBio\nJakob Ohme leads the interdisciplinary Digital News Dynamics research group at Weizenbaum Institute\, which explores the impact and dissemination of professional journalism on digital platforms versus other sources such as influencers or artificial intelligence. Jakob’s work emphasizes the changes digital and mobile communications bring to news consumption and political engagement\, particularly across different generations. He is dedicated to advancing digital methodologies in political communication and journalism research\, notably through the innovative use of digital trace data. Jakob is also a co-principal investigator in the #DSA40 Collaboratory\, focusing on collaborative access to platform data under the EU’s Digital Services Act. He previously held positions at the University of Amsterdam’s ASCoR and at the University of Southern Denmark\, where he earned his PhD.  \n 
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminars-by-jakob-ohme/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260526T160000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260526T180000
DTSTAMP:20260420T101814Z
CREATED:20251204T091346Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T101814Z
UID:2493-1779811200-1779818400@brias.be
SUMMARY:Public Lecture – Big Ideas for Democracy: Péter Krekó
DESCRIPTION:Register here\nInformational Autocracies and State-Sponsored Disinformation – On the Possibilities and Limits of Institutionalized Brainwashing\nAbstract\nIn today’s information landscape\, the rise of “spin dictatorships” or informational autocracies shows how state actors\, economic elites\, and digital platforms cooperate to sustain mass persuasion. Instead of relying mainly on repression\, these regimes manage information\, engineer public discourse\, and cultivate perceived legitimacy while preserving a façade of democratic competition. Using advanced digital tools\, they influence public opinion through sophisticated media control and polarization. Despite institutional differences\, the psychological and communicative dynamics of persuasion often converge in different political systems: fragmented media\, partisan echo chambers\, and identity-based mobilization create fertile ground for disinformation.\nGoing beyond a supply-side view of propaganda\, the presentation highlights the demand for deceit. Citizens are not merely passive recipients; many actively embrace narratives that affirm group identities and grievances. In polarized contexts\, information is filtered through loyalty more than accuracy\, reinforcing motivated reasoning. This perspective challenges the democracy-autocracy divide. Informational autocraces emerge fromk democracies when political actors normalize disinformation and erode epistemic standards. Hungary illustrates how media capture and centralized resources can turn political competition into a persuasion machine\, while the United States shows how polarization and market-driven media logics can produce similar distortions without centralized control.\nThe presentation concludes by arguing for a reconceptualization of dictatorship and democracy in the digital age and discussing the general possible cpounterstrategies.   As technological infrastructures increasingly mediate political reality\, the key question is not whether a regime represses dissent\, but how it structures the informational environment in which citizens form beliefs and how much democracies can survive in such an environment.\n\nBio\nPéter Krekó is a behavioral scientist and disinformation expert whose research examines the psychological drivers of belief in disinformation\, its political and institutional consequences\, the dynamics of state-sponsored disinformation\, and effective counterstrategies. He holds a PhD from Eötvös Loránd University\, where he is an Associate Professor and leads the Disinformation and Artificial Intelligence Research Lab. His doctoral dissertation focused on the psychological underpinnings of conspiracy theories.\nHe is a Research Affiliate at the CEU Democracy Institute and a Senior Fellow at the CEU Institute for Advanced Study. He has also been an Engaging Central Europe Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Previously\, he was a PopBack Fellow at the University of Cambridge\, a guest researcher at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna\, a Fellow at iASK Kőszeg\, and an Associate Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Bologna Center. He has served as a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Indiana University and as a Policy Leader Fellow at the European University Institute.\nKrekó is the owner and director of the Political Capital Institute and leads Hungary’s disinformation hub (HDMO-Lakmusz)\, supported by the European Commission under the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) hosted at the European University Institute.
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-lecture-big-ideas-for-democracy-peter-krako/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260526T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260526T190000
DTSTAMP:20260420T115728Z
CREATED:20260310T171724Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T115728Z
UID:3177-1779818400-1779822000@brias.be
SUMMARY:Book presentation: The Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics
DESCRIPTION:Register here\nBook launch of The Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics\, a new volume co-edited by Prof. Min Reuchamps (UCLouvain)\, Prof. Marleen Brans (KULeuven)\, Prof. Petra Meier\, (Uantwerpen) and Prof. Emilie van Haute (ULB). \nThe Book launch will bring together members of the diplomatic community\, policymakers\, media representatives\, some of the 97 contributors to the volume\, and guests for an evening of discussion and reflection on the themes explored in the book. \nMore about the Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics: \nBelgium is a paradoxical case: a country that some argue should not exist\, yet one that has been a model of both democratic innovation and political fragmentation. The Oxford Handbook of Belgian Politics dissects Belgium’s unique institutional architecture\, its complex linguistic and community divides\, and its evolving federal structure. Despite its small size and historically precarious existence\, Belgium has played an outsized role in both political practice and political science scholarship. This volume brings together leading Belgian and international scholars to provide a comprehensive examination of Belgian politics\, offering insights that extend far beyond its borders. \nStructured into five thematic sections\, the Handbook explores key dimensions of Belgian polity\, politics\, and policies. In forty meticulously crafted chapters\, contributors analyze how Belgian politics serves as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale. The country has pioneered electoral reforms\, social policies\, and LGBTQI+ rights\, positioning itself as a laboratory of democratic experimentation. At the same time\, it has experienced extreme governmental instability\, record-breaking coalition negotiations\, and a deeply entrenched partitocracy. Whether viewed as a beacon of democratic resilience or an emblem of institutional gridlock\, Belgium remains a compelling case for understanding the broader dynamics of governance in divided and multilingual societies worldwide.
URL:https://brias.be/event/book-presentation-the-oxford-handbook-of-belgian-politics/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Other Events,Programme Events
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260529T130000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260529T190000
DTSTAMP:20260506T113541Z
CREATED:20260427T161715Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T113541Z
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SUMMARY:Public Forum: The Right to the City + BrIAS 26 Closing ceremony
DESCRIPTION:Important notice: The Forum and the Closing Ceremony have separate registration links. Click on the images for their respective registration links.\n\nThe Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies (BrIAS) invites you to a forum on The Right to the City: making Brussels culture a space of freedom\, inclusion and democratic resistance.\n\nAbout the Event\nEnglish\nAt a time when democracies are facing increasing fragility\, the role of art and culture in their preservation and reinvention appears more essential than ever. In Brussels\, a global city with remarkable cultural vitality\, this question is particularly pressing: while artistic wealth abounds\, it remains unequally accessible\, and the balances that sustain it are now being tested. \nHow can the cultural sector remain a space of freedom\, inclusion\, and democratic resistance? \nThis forum brings together researchers\, cultural practitioners\, policymakers\, and public administrators to reflect on the links between artistic practices\, cultural policies\, and democratic life. It explores culture both as a mirror of social tensions and as a driver of transformation. \nThe forum focuses on two key dimensions: (1) equality of access to culture as a driver of democratic engagement and social cohesion; (2) artistic autonomy as a driver of democratic freedom and resistance. \nFrançais\nÀ l’heure où les démocraties sont confrontées à des dynamiques de fragilisation\, le rôle de l’art et de la culture apparaît plus essentiel que jamais. À Bruxelles\, cette question est particulièrement vive : la richesse artistique est réelle mais inégalement accessible. \nComment le secteur culturel peut-il rester un espace de liberté\, d’inclusion et de résistance démocratique ? \nLe forum réunit chercheur·euses\, acteur·rices culturels et décideur·euses autour des liens entre pratiques artistiques\, politiques culturelles et vie démocratique. \nNederlands\nNu democratieën steeds meer onder druk staan\, is de rol van kunst en cultuur belangrijker dan ooit. In Brussel is dit bijzonder zichtbaar: de artistieke rijkdom is groot\, maar de toegang blijft ongelijk verdeeld. \nHoe kan de culturele sector een vrijhaven blijven voor inclusiviteit en democratisch verzet? \nHet forum brengt onderzoekers\, cultuurmakers en beleidsmakers samen rond de relatie tussen kunst\, beleid en democratie. \nDate: Friday 29 May 2026\nLocation: Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, 1050 Brussels\nRegistration: https://tally.so/r/NpJ97Q \n\nProgramme\nAgenda\n\n\n13:00 Welcome / Accueil / Onthaal\n13:30 – 14:45 Forum – Part 1\n15:00 – 16:15 Forum – Part 2\n16:30 – 17:30 BrIAS Closing Ceremony with Keynote speech by Carlotta Scioldo\n17:30 Drink\n\n\n\nForum Sessions\nPart 1 – Access to culture as a fundamental right\nDespite mediation efforts\, large segments of the Brussels population remain excluded from cultural participation. This session highlights grassroots initiatives working to make cultural access a civic reality rather than a privilege. \nPart 2 – Artistic autonomy and democratic resistance\nThis session addresses growing pressures on the cultural sector\, including funding constraints and ideological challenges\, and reflects on how to safeguard artistic independence as a pillar of democracy. \n\nClosing Ceremony\n\nWelcome speeches\nProf. Marius Gilbert (ULB)\nProf. Em. Frank Deconinck (BrIAS)\nProf. Serge Jaumain (BrIAS)\nKeynote\nCarlotta Scioldo\nClosing remarks\nProf. Silvia Erzeel (VUB)\nProf. Emilie van Haute (ULB)\n\n\nPartners\nForum organized by BrIAS in collaboration with RABKO\, OHME\, and GRESAC.
URL:https://brias.be/event/public-forum-the-right-to-the-city-brias-26-closing-ceremony/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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