Former Contributor

Biography

Liesbeth Descheemaeker obtained her professional bachelor as a social worker at Arteveldehogeschool Gent in 2002. Then she followed cultural anthropology at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she achieved her Masters degree Cultural Anthropology and Sociology of the non-Western societies in 2006. Her thesis is based on a 6-month anthropological field research which deals with the use of social networking as a survival strategy by nomad migrants in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Immediately after her studies, she joined the East Flemish Diversity Centre and was responsible for people living in trailer parks in the province of East Flanders. Encouraging local governments to implement their policy concerning trailer parks was one of her main tasks. She visited the various legal and tolerated caravan sites in East Flanders every week.
From 2008 she worked at the Centre for Migration and Intercultural Studies (CEMIS) of the University of Antwerp. In her first study there she analyzed the choice for marriage partner by Moroccan, Turkish and Sikh men. Next she participated a study on socio-ethnic segregation in elementary school and also an examination of the school careers of youngsters. In this last research, there was a particular focus on Moroccan, Turkish, Polish and Chinese youth in the second stage of secondary education.
From October 2010 she is a researcher at the Hogeschool Gent. She examines the background of riots, conflicts, collective violence and collective manifestations of disturbances in so-called deprived areas. She does this mainly through case studies. In a similar manner this subject is analyzed by a researcher in the Netherlands. This allows us to compare differences in policing by both countries.