Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality

Supervising team

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Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck 

Centre for Urban History 

Institute of Development Policy​

Get to know our promotors

​​Ive Marx (Spokesperson)


Prof. Marx is Professor of Socio-Economic Policy and Director of the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck at Antwerp University. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn and an Associated Researcher at the GC Wealth Project at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality in New York. He leads the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform on Inequality Research (AIPRIL). He is chair of the Socio-Economic Sciences Program at the University of Antwerp.


Sarah Marchal



Sarah Marchal looks into the design, accessibility and effectiveness of targeted social policy provisions, from a cross-national comparative perspective. She uses micro- and hypothetical household simulations in order to understand the impact of social policy on vulnerable target groups. Importantly, in her research, she takes account of the impact administrative implementation decisions have on the experiences of target groups with limited and spotty labour market attachment. She has collaborated on various international research projects on social policy, poverty reduction and inequality.


Bruno Blondé

Bruno Blondé (°1964) is a Full Professor of the History Department at the University of Antwerp (Centre for Urban History and Urban Studies Institute). From 2003 to 2010 Bruno Blondé was the founder and first Director of the Centre for Urban History. He also is engaged in Aipril (the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality). - His major research interests include the history of economic growth and social inequality, urbanisation, material culture and consumption of the early modern Low Countries.


Tim Soens


Environmental History is always social history. My research is focused on moments of crisis and friction in the relationship between society and nature. Why are some people vulnerable and others not? This question is guiding my research on storm surges, floods, pandemics and food shortages in history. As member of AIPRIL - Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality - I am coordinating EPIBEL - Epidemics and Inequality in Belgium from the Plague to COVID-19 (www.epibel.be) and Food from Somewhere on urban farming and alternative food entitlements in the later Middle Ages


Oscar Gelderblom


Oscar Gelderblom (1971) is a professor of economic and social history at Antwerp University since 2021. He has a special interest in the history of trade and finance. He has published on the organization of long-distance trade in early modern Europe, on financial markets, entrepreneurship, migration and political economy. He currently works on historical household finance in the 19th and 20th century, on the early history of the Dutch East India Company, and on the financial development of the Low Countries before the Industrial Revolution.​


Tom De Herdt


He studied political and social sciences and economics. His research has explored poverty alleviation, capabilities, local governance, and practical norms (see his recent book with Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan). He has published mainly on poverty, regress, and development in Congo-Kinshasa, while also conducting occasional work on Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Cameroon. His current research and policy advisory work focus on local aspects of public action in the DRC, a focus that connects him to the IOB's Great Lakes of Africa Centre. He also coordinated a consultancy project on primary education in the DRC on behalf of UNICEF. Before joining the University of Antwerp, he worked at the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, Nicaragua. He served as chair of IOB from 2012 to 2018.


Sara Geenen


She is Associate Professor in International Development, Globalization, and Poverty at the Institute of Development Policy. She is also Codirector of the Centre d’Expertise en Gestion Minière (CEGEMI) at the Université Catholique de Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Her current research interests focus on the global and local development dimensions of extractivist projects, exploring questions related to more socially responsible and inclusive forms of globalization.
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