Keep Your Distance: Erika Vlieghe and Lindsy Desmet look back on the coronavirus crisis

What remains of the lessons learned during the COVID period? With that question, UCSIA opened the lecture series U-turn: 5 years later. During the first evening, infectious disease specialist Erika Vlieghe and researcher Lindsy Desmet reflected on a tension many people felt during the pandemic: how do we protect human lives without losing sight of humanity and human connection?

You can watch the full recording of the evening below.

Solidarity in the Making: Negotiating Migration in Co-Creation

In February, 21 participants from Europe and beyond – mainly master’s and doctoral students from various disciplines, as well as professionals from the sector – gathered in Antwerp for the second edition of the UCSIA Winter School. The weeklong programme focused on migration within the context of European solidarity.

SLIDE Recognized as Epos Success Story

The Erasmus+ project SLIDE – Service-Learning as a Pedagogy to Promote Inclusion, Diversity and Digital Empowerment has officially been recognized as an Epos Success Story. With this distinction, Epos highlights outstanding Erasmus+ projects that demonstrate excellence in quality, impact and innovation. Projects scoring above 90% receive this highest quality label.

Looking back at our New Year’s Event

What happens when research, commitment, and encounter come together?

Our New Year’s event focused on sustainable partnerships. In conversation with partners from the SOLIGION project and through the photo exhibition Connected in Care, we illustrated what solidarity looks like in practice.

The evening highlighted our shared ambition: to cherish and strengthen partnerships in order to continue building a warm, supportive society together.

This photo report shows moments from the speeches, the panel discussion with Antwerp partners, images from the photo exhibition Connected in Care, and the many encounters that brought the evening to life.

Solidarity in practice: working with newcomers and learning about international migration

International migration is one of the major social issues of our time. In Europe, the debate on asylum, integration and solidarity often provokes strong opinions, but behind the figures and policy choices there are always human stories.

With the UCSIA Winter School on Solidarity and International Migration in Europe, UCSIA aims to give Master’s and PhD students the opportunity to approach this complex topic from both an academic and practical perspective.

How the COVID Crisis Changed the Way We Think About the Future

In the third – and for now final – episode of Solidarity Speaks, journalist Linda De Win, historian Bert De Munck (University of Antwerp), and physician-crisis coordinator Jorgen Stassijns (Sciensano) review the handling of the COVID-19 crisis and draw lessons for the future.

The discussion exposes the tensions between security, freedom, scientific expertise, and social trust. A critical reflection and an urgent question: how do we prepare for the future without losing sight of democracy?

Find out in episode 3 of Solidarity Speaks!

Our Fellows: Makram Elabed and Rachid Adam

Two young researchers have recently joined UCSIA through the Fund Bruyns Scholarship and the Global South Fellowship: Makram Elabed, from Tunisia, and Rachid Adam, from Morocco. Both are spending this academic year in Antwerp, where they contribute to UCSIA’s projects and research networks connecting Europe and the Global South.

Our peace flag is flying at the Temple of Peace in Mechelen

Have you spotted the UCSIA peace flag at the Temple of Peace in Mechelen’s Botanical Garden?

The peace festival is an initiative of our fellow resident and partner Pax Christi Flanders and runs until Sunday, November 2, with a rich programme of lectures, theatre, music, film, and workshops.

In times of war and rearmament, we often forget that peace is something we build together – by engaging in open dialogue about what peace means today and how we can work towards it together.

Since June, Pax Christi has organized over fifty Peace Labs throughout Flanders and Brussels: creative meetings where people from all walks of life came together to reflect on peace. In schools, social organizations, prisons and associations, people drew, sewed and talked. Because to imagine peace, you first have to learn to name it – and that begins in dialogue, even with people who think differently.

Sustainability and Social Justice Five Years after the COVID Crisis

The second episode of the podcast series Solidarity Speaks is finally online! Join Linda De Win, Cathy Macharis (VUB), and Eva Smets (Oxfam Belgium) as they explore what the COVID crisis has meant for sustainability, social inequality, and the just transition.

Five years ago, the outbreak of the pandemic offered a unique opportunity to steer our society towards greater justice and sustainability. Did we manage to change course? What have we learned—and what steps still lie ahead?

Call for Projects: Service-Learning Networking Event

Will you present your service-learning course or project at the networking event of the Flemish Network for Service-Learning in Higher Education on 20 March 2026?

We are looking for inspiring practical examples that focus on collaboration between higher education institutions/programmes and societal organizations and actors.

FUCE Summer School on European humanism and populism

The 6th FUCE Summer School reclaims the public space from a humanist perspective in response to rising populism.

The summer school of 2025 (June 30 – July 4) in Lille, France, investigated the wicked problems populism engenders.

Solidarity after COVID-19: Lessons, Inequality and International Cooperation

In the first episode of Solidarity Speaks, the podcast of the UCSIA Solidarity Academy, we address the question: has the COVID crisis sustainably strengthened our solidarity, or has it rather put it under pressure?

Host Linda De Win talks with Stijn Oosterlynck, professor of urban sociology at the University of Antwerp, and Naima Charkaoui, policy director at 11.11.11, the umbrella organization for international solidarity in Belgium. Together, they explore how solidarity manifested itself during the pandemic at local, national and international levels, and what mechanisms lie behind it.