Interdisciplinary Research Programme: Centre of Expertise in Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality

The VUB Centre for Women's Studies was the first of its kind to be established within a Flemish university in 1987. RHEA took a new start in October 2014 as a VUB-funded Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Interstectionality. Over the past 4 years, RHEA established itself as an interdisciplinary, interfaculty and internationally networked research group committed to scientific research and the valorisation of knowledge in education, external and internal policy-making and public debates.

Building on a variety of theoretical perspectives and epistemologies, and applying a multitude of qualitative, quantitative and theoretical research approaches and methodologies, RHEA contributes to knowledge production on gender, diversity and intersectionality in multiple academic disciplines. RHEA members perform and collaborate on research in multiple disciplinary areas and various topics that can be clustered around the following research lines:

- Harmful cultural practices and gender-based violence
- Equality policies and political representation
- Intersectionality and feminist theory
- Gender, religion and secularism
- Bio-ethics and sexual and reproductive rights
- Migration, anti-discrimination policies and citizenship
- Decolonization and epistemic diversity
- Gender, diversity and education
- Agency, identity and subjectivity