BIO

Dirk Jacobs (°1971) is full professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is affiliated to the Group for Research on Ethnic Relations, Migration and Equality (GERME) at the Institut de Sociologie. His main research topics are sociology of education and migration and integration policies.  

Jacobs is president of the Brussels Studies Institute, the inter-university coordination platform for academic research on Brussels. He is the former director of GERME and of EBxl, the research network for Brussels Studies at ULB. 

Jacobs studied sociology at Ghent University and obtained his PhD in social sciences at Utrecht University in 1998. He is affiliated to ULB since 2004 and was appointed full professor in 2012. He has been an invited professor at Amsterdam University (UvA), Leibniz Universität Hannover, Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Vesalius College (VUB).

In 2011 he received an ERC Grant for the project “Equal opportunities for migrant youth in educational systems with high levels of social and ethnic segregation – assessing the impact of school team resources”.

He was one of the founding members of the G1000. He is a board member of asbl Pouvoir Organisateur Pluriel (les écoles plurielles) and of Foyer in Molenbeek. Jacobs is also board member of Leerpunt and member of the general assembly of Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen. Jacobs is also substitute member of the boards of Unia and Myria.