Dries Bosschaert

Dries Bosschaert is Assistant Professor (ZAP) of the Research Unit History of Church and Theology at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, KU Leuven. He defended his doctoral dissertation (2017) as a recipient of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and subsequently obtained an FWO junior postdoctoral fellowship. He is a proud alumni of the Roger Dillemans scholarship and his dissertation was awarded the 2017 Mgr. Charles De Clercq Prize of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, and a special mention in the 2018 Giuseppe Alberigo Junior Prize Award. The results of his research have been published widely in national and international journals, including Theological Studies and Church History and Religious Culture. His research focuses on the history of European Christianity and identity debates in the long 20th century. More particularly, he studies how individuals, networks, and institutes deal with concepts (terms, images,…) stemming from the own tradition or the world outside the own comfort zone; how these concepts shaped religious identities and were being shaped by them; and how this process of giving meaning was constantly negotiated at the boundary of orthodoxy and heterodoxy.  Moments of crisis or compaction (e.g. the First and Second Vatican Council) and interaction in cultures, religions, and worldviews play herein a crucial role. Building on classic archival history and textual research, he is committed to exploring new avenues by looking for inspiration in the other SSH disciplines and seeking to integrate insights from the Digital Humanities. He leads a vibrant research group, including Dr. Natalia Núñez Bargueño, Lilly Arputha Antony, Maite De Beukeleer, Leen Deflem, Chidiebere Nnabugwu, Lieneke Timpers, Daniel Vörös, Sinoj Mathew, Giorgio Millesimi, and Matt Whiffen, united by a commitment to advancing the history of Contemporary Religious Identities and IDeas (CRIID research group). By embracing bottom-up approaches, fostering methodological innovation, and actively creating opportunities, this research group catalyzes the dynamic integration of multilayered discourses and practices, working towards the goal of creating an inclusive and dynamic field of theology and religious studies. Dries serves as KU Leuven’s PI in RESILIENCE.EU: the European REligious Studies Infrastructure: tooLs, Experts, CoNections and Centers. Previously he was an active member of the Horizon 2020 Research Infrastructure on Religious Studies (ReIReS). He is the coordinator of the KU Leuven Centre for the Study of the Second Vatican Council and involved in its digitization projects (e.g. the Johannes Cardinal Willebrands archives). He is a member of the international Vatican II: Legacy and Mandate project leading up to a twelve-volume history and commentary of the Second Vatican Council’s documents. He is co-chair of the American Academy of Religion Vatican II Studies Unit and member of the editorial board of the Brepols Vatican II Studies Series and the Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique. Dries constantly seeks to explore new horizons as he previously did as co-coordinator of the interdisciplinary Academische Stichting IdeaLab ‘The Catholic Church as Social Service Provider’, the Godless Music Club, or as Secretary General of the European Society for Catholic Theology (2018-2022).