The sociologist Prof. Bea Cantillon was appointed to Erasmus University’s Prof. J.A.A. van Doorn Chair. At the same time, she was appointed a Van Doorn Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS-KNAW). The chair is an homage to the founder of the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). In June 2020, Cantillon will present the fourth edition of the Van Doorn Lecture.
Bea Cantillon is a Full Professor of Social Policy at the University of Antwerp, as well as a member of that university’s Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy. Cantillon conducts research on contemporary issues such as poverty, social policy and social security and advises the Belgian government on subjects such as social security and pensions system reform. “Cantillon is a successful and prolific researcher who draws an explicit connection between academic research and societal issues,” said Prof. Romke van der Veen (EUR) of the Van Doorn Chair’s board of governors. “Which means her work is in line with Van Doorn’s style and methods.”
At NIAS-KNAW Cantillon will conduct research on food banks and the position they hold within European welfare states. Food banks and other private, localised initiatives designed to combat poverty receive financial support from the European Commission. Cantillon will examine in which way this support contributes to, or undermines, the EU’s shared social policy.
At ESSB Cantillon will teach a few master classes and seminars and work with PhD students conducting research at the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities. She will hold the chair from 1 February to 1 July 2020.
About the chair
The Prof. J.A.A. van Doorn Chair is an homage to Prof. Jacques van Doorn, who founded Rotterdam’s Department of Sociology in 1963 and was the first dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, now called ESSB. The chair constitutes a collaborative partnership between the ESSB and NIAS-KNAW, which seeks to promote the societal importance of sociology in this way. The holder of the chair is appointed as a Van Doorn Fellowship at NIAS-KNAW. The fellow/holder of the chair is expected to study the relationship between social processes on the one hand and policy and governance on the other. Previous appointees to the chair were Prof. Mark Bovens, Prof. Kees Schuyt and Prof. Evelyn Ruppert. Candidates are selected by the board of trustees of the Van Doorn Chair, chaired by Prof. Romke van der Veen.
About Bea Cantillon
Prof. Cantillon is a Professor of Social Policy at the University of Antwerp and a member of that university’s Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy. She studied Political and Social Sciences at the Universities of Antwerp and Leuven. She is a prolific author with many international publications. Bea Cantillon has been a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts since 2003. Prof. Cantillon is Secretary-General of the Foundation for International Studies on Social Security. She holds an honorary doctorate from the Université Saint-Louis Bruxelles. Between 2004 and 2008 she was the Vice-Rector of the University of Antwerp.
Prof. Cantillon regularly acts as a consultant to the Belgian government. She was a senator in Belgium between 1995 and 1999, and chair of the Cantillon Committee for Social Security Reform for Self-Employed Persons between 2000 and 2002. She is a member of the High Council for Employment and has been a member of the Expert Committee on Pensions System Reform 2020-2040 since 2013. She chairs 11.11.11 , the umbrella organisation for development aid in Flanders, as well as the Antwerp Saint Ignatius Academic Centre (UCSIA). UCSIA’s mission is to preserve and promote the intellectual, social, material and spiritual legacy of the Jesuits in Antwerp and the Low Countries.
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Marjolein Kooistra, press officer ESSB | + 31 (0) 10 408 2135 | kooistra@essb.eur.nl
