Ghaliya Djelloul
About
Biography
Ghaliya Djelloul has been Professor of Sociology of Vulnerabilities at the University of Namur since 2026. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from UCLouvain and has pursued her academic career across Belgium and Switzerland, conducting fieldwork in Europe and North Africa.
Her early research focused on Islam in Europe, Muslim feminisms, and forms of mobilisation among minoritised groups, before expanding to explore the relationships between gender, space, and everyday forms of resistance through ethnographic research conducted in Algiers. Her current research builds on this trajectory by examining processes of racialisation and the production of vulnerabilities within families, institutions, and across the life course.
Before joining the University of Namur, she was Senior Teaching and Research Assistant at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Lausanne. She also worked as a Research Fellow for the Contemporary Islams Chair at UCLouvain and was a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge in 2025. Her academic career combines research, teaching, and service to society, notably through sustained involvement in academic networks and civil society organisations.
Faculties/Departments/Services
Domains of expertise
Ghaliya Djelloul’s areas of expertise include political sociology, the sociology of vulnerabilities, gender studies, and intersectional, postcolonial, and decolonial approaches. Her research focuses in particular on Islam in Europe and Belgium, Muslim feminisms, social movements and forms of politicisation among minoritised groups; the relationships between gender, space, and mobility in North Africa; and processes of racialisation and racism and their effects on families, institutions, and life trajectories.
Her current research develops a sociology of vulnerabilities with a particular focus on processes of racialisation within multiracial families, care institutions, and the effects of racism on work and mental health. She also specialises in qualitative research methods, including ethnography, in-depth interviews, life histories, focus groups, visual methods, and documentary and textual analysis.
Keywords: Political sociology; gender studies and intersectional approaches; postcolonial and decolonial theories; racialisation and racism; vulnerabilities and life course; families and socialisation; mobility and space; social movements; sociology of law and institutions; qualitative methods (ethnography, interviews, life histories, focus groups, visual methods, and documentary analysis).
External responsibilities
Member of the Editorial Board of Cahiers du Genre since 2023.
Degrees
PhD in Political and Social Sciences, UCLouvain (2013–2020)
Master’s degree in Sociology, UCLouvain (2009–2011)
Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, University of Geneva (2005–2008)
Degree in International Relations, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IUHEID) (2003–2007)
Prizes
- Suzanne Tassier Prize — Royal Academy of Belgium, 2023
- Prize for the Best Francophone Doctoral Thesis (Maghreb) on the Middle East and Muslim Worlds — GIS MOMM, 2021
- Tremplin Fellowship — Equal Opportunities Office, University of Lausanne
2026-2027
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Acteurs, structures et réseaux à l’heure du numérique [EINCB213]
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Sociologie [ECGEB140]