Heidi Deneweth studied history at the University of Ghent. In 2008, she obtained her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with the dissertation Huizen en mensen. Wonen, verbouwen, investeren en lenen in drie Brugse wijken van de late middeleeuwen tot de negentiende eeuw (Houses and People. Living, building, investing and borrowing in three neighbourhoods of Bruges from the Late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century). She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the interaction between labour markets, migration and social policy (VUB, 2008), on household finance in the Low Countries (Utrecht University, 2009-2012 / VUB 2012-2013), and on labour and entrepreneurship in construction (FWO - VUB, 2013-2019). Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at research team HOST (Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes) where she investigates labour, poverty, social inequality and housing in 18th- and 19th-century Bruges and Brussels. She combines this with a 10% ZAP on Urban housing, labour and migration in a historical perspective. She is a member of the research groups BCUS (Brussels Center on Urban Studies) and CHsB (Brussels Research Centre for Construction Histories).

Urban development; neighbourhoods; construction; (co-)housing; real estate; labour; inequality; poverty