Curriculum Vitae
Education
2015
PhD in Law, KU Leuven, Belgium
Dissertation title: Faith, identity and participation in the workplace. A comparative legal study on the role of religion and beliefs in individual labour relations and unemployment benefits litigation.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Foblets
2005
LL.M., Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
2004
Diploma ‘Orientation in US Law’ program, UC Berkeley-UC Davis, Berkeley-Davis, California, USA
2004
Master in Laws, KU Leuven, Belgium
2001
Candidate in Laws, KU Leuven, Belgium
Professional Activities/Teaching
2015-
Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Department 'Law & Anthropology', Halle/Saale, Germany.
2010-2013
Doctoral researcher, Institute for Migration Law & Legal Anthropology/Institute for Human Rights and Critical Studies, Leuven, Belgium
Leading project researcher European Commission-funded FP7 RELIGARE project (Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe- Innovative Approaches to Law and Policy)
Guest lecturer various courses at the KU Leuven (Discrimination Law course (Prof. Stefan Sottiaux); Foundations of Law (Prof. Marie-Claire Foblets))
Guest lecturer human rights summer school programs:
- Sexual Minority Rights Course, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, 16-20 April 2012, Pretoria, South Africa
- A New Era for Human Rights? Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, Venice School of Human Rights, European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC), 27 June-6 July 2013, Venice, Italy
2009
Jurist, Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, Department of Migrations, Brussels, Belgium
2007-2009
Staff Attorney, Public Counsel Law Center, Early Care & Education Law Project, Los Angeles, California, USA
2007
General Assignment Reporter (intern), Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, USA
2006
Visiting Researcher, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
2005-2006
Associate, Clifford Chance LLP, Corporate and General practice, Brussels, Belgium
2003
Summer Associate, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP, Belgian and European practice Brussels, Belgium
2002
English teacher, Educational volunteer project, Olmalyk (Tashkent), Uzbekistan
Grants/Scholarships
Fulbright scholarship; Frank Boas scholarship; Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF) fellowship
Awards
2013
Research excellence award at KU Leuven for RELIGARE project in 2013 (awarded to four outstanding examples of FP7 projects out of more than 500 projects; only award for social sciences and humanities)
2013
Ius Commune Prize
2005
Addison Brown Prize (best paper in the field of conflict of laws at Haward Law School in 2005)
Organisation of Conferences and Workshops
2012
RELIGARE Conference ‘Secularism and Religious Diversity in Europe: Opportunities and Perspectives’, 4-5 December 2012, Leuven and Brussels, Belgium
2011
International Symposium ‘Religious Diversity in the European Workplace’, KU Leuven, School of Law, 13 January 2011, Leuven, Belgium
Presentations at Conferences and Workshops (selection)
2015
‘On Reasonable accommodations for religion or belief: Charting perspectives, positions and recommendations in four ‘managing diversity' Commission reports’, Annual Conference Department ‘Law & Anthropology’ Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology ‘Religious and Cultural Diversity in Four National Contexts’, 26-27 June 2015, Halle/Saale, Germany
2015
The ‘integrative function’ of labour law in ebb? Reasonable Accommodation for religion or belief and company ‘neutrality policies’ in the Belgian case, International Association of Labour Law Journals Seminar ‘Reasonable Accommodation in the Modern Workplace: Potential and Limits of the Integrative Logics of Labour Law’, 24 June 2015, KULeuven, Leuven, Belgium
2015
‘Reasonable Accommodations and the Workplace’, panel keynote during one-day workshop ‘Religious Pluralism and Secularism in Europe’, 16 January 2015, Luxembourg, jointly organized by the Max Planck Institute of Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural law and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale, Germany
2014
Panelist at conference sponsored by the UK mission to the UN at the occasion of the delivery of the interim report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, to the General Assembly (‘Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance, with a special focus on tackling religious intolerance and discrimination in the workplace’), 24 October 2014, New York, U.S.A.
2013
‘Religion and Antidiscrimination Norms’ (panelist), ICLARS (International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies) third Annual conference, ‘Religion, Democracy and Equality’, 21-23 August 2013, Richmond, VA, USA, http://www.iclars.org/event.php?event=12.
2013
‘Crisis and Contingency: States of (In)stability’, 20th International Conference of Europeanists, Council for European Studies (CES), panel presenter on ‘Letting go of formal equal treatment? Discourses and practices on religious accommodation in European workplace’, University of Amsterdam, 27 June 2013, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. http://www.councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/2013-ces-conference.
2012
‘Equality legislation as driver for integration of religious/philosophical minorities in the European workplace: contributions from the RELIGARE project’, presentation during bi-annual Equality Summit ‘Equality for growth’, organized by the Cyprus Presidency of the European Union, 22-23 November 2012, Nicosia, Cyprus.
2012
‘Accommodating religious diversity in the European workplace: the RELIGARE project’, presentation during Good Practices exchange seminar ‘Public policies on combating discrimination on the ground of religion or belief’, organized by Human European Consultancy/European Commission, 18 October 2012, Brussels, Belgium. Seminar Report, available at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/sem_religion_brussels2012_en.pdf.
2011
‘Human Rights as a Tool for the Management of Religious Diversity: a Remedy for All Troubles?’ paper presentation Seminar ‘Framing multicultural issues in terms of human rights: solution or problem?’ organized by Utrecht University, School of Law (department of Legal Theory), 14 November 2011, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Membership in Professional Associations
New York State Bar (since 2006); California State Bar (since 2007)
Peer reviewer for international law and social science journals (e.g. Oñati Socio-Legal Series; Theory, Culture and Society (Sage))
Languages
English, Dutch, French and Farsi