Greet De Block

Greet De Block

Contact

Stadscampus
Tel.
+3232654820
Sint-Jacobsmarkt 13
2000 Antwerpen, BEL

Greet De Block is trained as engineer-architect and urban planner. In 2011 she obtained her PhD, summa cum laude with congratulations of the Board of Examiners, 'Engineering the territory. Technology, space and society in 19th and 20th century Belgium' (University of Leuven) tracing the spatial schemes inscribed in network design. During her postdoc (FWO), she invested in teaching and internationalization by research collaborations with, and lecturing and research stays at, Harvard University, University of New Hampshire, TU Eindhoven and Rijkswaterstaat. In 2015, she started at the University of Antwerp (UA), as hub between the Centre for Urban History (CSG) and the Urban Studies Institute (USI).

Writing and teaching focus on infrastructure as driving force of urbanization, advancing an interdisciplinary approach linking urbanism with urban history, Science Technology and Society studies (STS), political geography, and landscape studies. In addition to historical research on 19th and 20th century infrastructure-urbanization mechanisms, De Block’s research mobilizes history to provide insight in, and reflection on, the current urban condition and related urban theories and practices. Recent work mirrors current resilient design with earlier sociospatial schemes dealing with uncertainty and risk in a context of rapid urban transformations.