Valerie De Craene

Valerie De Craene is a member of the research group of the Policy Research Center for Housing in which she conducts research on the territoriality of housing. Throughout her research career, Valerie has worked on several applied research projects commissioned by governments and civil society organizations. Her doctoral research is situated within geographies of sexualities, and investigates the performances of gender and sexualities in student nightlife in Flanders. As an activist and scholar, Valerie engages in analyzing contemporary politics of science and is an active member of Slow Science in Belgium. She is also a member of AGORA, the Dutch-Flemish magazine for social-spatial matters. Her research interests lie in four broad areas:

1)     Gender, sexuality, and manifestations of difference and inequality in the organization of space more broadly
2)     Territoriality of housing, social exclusion in rural and urban landscapes
3)     The neoliberal university, slow science, political economy of higher education, publish or perish, gender, mental health, …
4)     Epistemological, methodological and ethical dimensions of doing embodied research in relation to production of knowledges within and beyond academia (rigour, reflexivity, positionality, …)

Previous Positions/Employment

2017-2018: Researcher in Applied Anthropology, Expeditions vzw

2015: Visiting scholar at University of Amsterdam (UvA), Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies

2010-2016: Teaching Assistant, Division of Geography, KU Leuven

2010: Researcher, Institute for Social and Economic Geography, KU Leuven

2009-2010: Geography teacher, Pius X Institute Zele

Educational background

2014: Pedagogical degree (Specifieke Lerarenopleiding), Avondschool Panta Rhei

2009: Master in geography (Social, political en spatial economical geography and planning), University of Ghent

2007: Bachelor in geography, University of Ghent

Key publications

Bogaert, K., De Craene, V., Froeyman, A., Stroobants, K., Vertommen, S. (2017) “The Academic Manifesto: the Situation in Flanders”. Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective, 54-57.

De Craene, V. (2017) “Fucking geographers! Or the epistemological consequences of neglecting the lusty researcher’s body”. Gender, Place & Culture, 24 (3): 449-464

De Craene, V. (2017) “Geographies of Sexualities: Bodies, Spatial Encounters and Emotions”. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 108 (3): 261-274.

De Craene, V., Wasserbauer, M., Eds. (2016) Academia & Identity – when Research meets Activism. Experiences, Opinions, Insights and Outlooks. Gent & Antwerpen. ISBN: 978-1-36-795174-7
Freely available as pdf http://academiaandidentity.strikingly.com/#the-magazine or ebook http://www.blurb.com/ebooks/573781-academia-and-identity-when-research-meets-activism

De Craene, V., Loopmans, M. (2013) “Seksualiteit en uitgaansleven”. Agora, Utrecht 2013-1, p 30-33.

De Craene, V. & Loopmans, M. (2011) “De Westhoek: een integrale geografische analyse”.
Final report available through https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5095420/data%20sociaal_geografische%20analyse/sociaalgeografische%20analyse%20westhoek.pdf

Loopmans, M., Van Hecke, E., De Craene, V., Martens, M., Schreurs, J., Oosterlynck, S. (2010) “Selectie van kleinstedelijke gebieden in Vlaanderen”. Final report available through http://www2.vlaanderen.be/ruimtelijk/docs/Studie_kleinstedelijkegebieden.pdf