Soumia Akachar

Soumia is a Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Political Science and part of the joint research programme "Evaluating Democratic Governance in Europe" (EDGE) and RHEA (VUB's Center for Gender and Diversity in Flanders). She obtained a BA in Political Sciences with specialization in Public Administration and Public Policies, and a MSc in Sociology and Political Sciences from the University of Amsterdam (UvA). During her Bachelor, Soumia spent a semester in Lyon (France) studying International Relations at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po Lyon) and interned as a research assistant at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid). Her doctoral thesis focuses on the political representation of Muslims in Flanders (supervised by Karen Celis and Eline Severs). Through focus groups, her research includes the assessments of young Muslim citizens vis-a-vis their political representation to identify the variety of actors, modes, and sites linked to the group’s process of representation.