Koen Slootmaeckers is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in International Politics at City, University of London. He has a background in sociology (BSc and MSc from Ghent University [Belgium]) and holds PhD in Political Science from Queen Mary University of London. Koen is a former co-chair and current executive board member of the Council of European Studies' Gender and Sexuality Research Network; and an executive committee member for UACES.
His research deals with the promotion of and resistance to LGBT equality in international politics. More specifically, Koen has studied the EU accession of Serbia and how this process affects LGBT politics and activism. More generally, Koen’s research interest is the power relations within transnational politics and the de-construction of core-periphery hierarchical relations, with a specific interest in topics dealing with masculinities and LGBT issues. He is the author of Coming In: Sexual politics and EU accession in Serbia (Manchester University Press), and his work has been widely published, including a (co-)edited volume ‘EU Enlargement and Gay Politics’ (Palgrave 2016; with Heleen Touquet and Peter Vermeersch), and articles in, amongst others, International Political Sociology, Theory & Society, East European Politics, Sociologos, Politics, Contemporary Southeastern Europe, Journal of Homosexuality, Social Problems and Europe-Asia Studies. Koen is the recipient of the 2018 UACES prize for best PhD in Contemporary European Studies. |
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Koen was awarded the 2018 UACES Prize for Best PhD Thesis in Contemporary European Politics for his dissertation entitled: From ‘Strategic Accession’ to ‘Tactical Europeanisation’? The Promotion of and Resistance to LGBT Equality in Serbia’s European Integration Process.
"The judges praised the great care given to pay attention to details of the argument, triangulate findings and present these in a easily accessible way that is duely attentive to the complexity of information conveyed. They considered the thesis a highly valuable and forward-looking contribution to debate in the area of Europeanisation, as well as in the case study area of Western Balkans." (UACES, 2018) Koen's PhD was also shortlisted for the ECPR Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize in Gender and Politics. The selection committee commented: "We have particularly appreciated the tremendous fieldwork you have done in Serbia, and we were fascinated by the contribution your dissertation makes to advancing knowledge in sexuality studies and political science about a country that has remained unfortunately neglected in mainstream research. The committee also particularly liked the topicality of your empirical research both regarding the advancement of LGBT rights and regarding the Europeanisation process.” |