PHD DEFENSE: Wouter DE RYCKE, "Justifying Utopia. A Legal History of the International Peace Movement (1815-1873)" (Brussels: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 14 SEP 2023)

Drs. Wouter De Rycke (PhD-researcher on FWO Junior Fundamental Research Project G015420N The Legal Construction of Peace, 1815-1870. Networks and Arguments) will publicly defend his PhD-dissertation Justifying Utopia. A Legal History of the International Peace Movement (1815-1873) (576 p., submitted with the permission of the Board of the Faculty of Law and Criminology on 29 June 2023 and approved for public defense by the jury on 4 September 2023) on Thursday 14 September 2023 at 15:00. 

Wouter holds a Bachelor of Arts in Language and Literature (UGent, 2012), and a Bachelor and a Master of Laws (UGent, 2015 and 2017). Early in the Spring of 2020, he was a visiting researcher (Gast) at the Max Planck Institute for Legal Theory and Legal History (Frankfurt am Main). Wouter has disseminated and published work in progress as well as research results at national and international fora, and managed to generate press attention. He is a member of CORE since 1 October 2017, and taught three years as a fulltime academic assistant prior to working on the above-mentioned FWO project.

(Prize essays of the American Friends of Peace, 1840; image source: British Library)

(the Genevan pacifist Jean-Jacques de Sellon, 1835; image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Jury:

•           Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Tilburg University) (president)
•           Prof. em. dr. dr. h.c. mult. Martti Koskenniemi FBA (University of Helsinki)
•           Prof. dr. dr. Stella Ghervas (University of California, Los Angeles)
•           Prof. dr. Miroslav Šedivý (University of Pardubice)
•           Prof. dr. Nel De Mûelenaere (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
•           Prof. dr. Stefaan Smis (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

Supervisors:

•           Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) (supervisor-spokesperson)
•           dr. Raphaël Cahen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Justus Liebig Universität Gießen) (supervisor)

The public defense will take place in the Promotion Room (Building D, level 2) on the Campus of Humanities, Sciences and Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (see Google maps below or the list of access modes). 

Registration with Wouter dot de dot rycke at vub dot be (a hybrid Teams-link will be available).