About

Koen Slootmaeckers is a Reader (Associate Professor) in International Politics at City, University of London. He has a background in sociology (BSc and MSc from Ghent University [Belgium]) and holds PhD in Political Science from Queen Mary University of London. Koen is a former co-chair and current executive board member of the Council of European Studies' Gender and Sexuality Research Network; and an executive committee member for UACES. His research deals with the promotion of and resistance to LGBT equality in international politics. More specifically, Koen has studied the EU accession of Serbia and how this process affects LGBT politics and activism. His new research focusses on the place of Pride events within the LGBTI movement. Through his work, Koen questions concepts like progress as well as the power relations within transnational politics and builds towards de-constructing core-periphery hierarchical relations. He is the author of Coming In: Sexual politics and EU accession in Serbia (Manchester University Press), and his work has been widely published, including a (co-)edited volume ‘EU Enlargement and Gay Politics’ (Palgrave 2016; with Heleen Touquet and Peter Vermeersch), and articles in, amongst others, International Political Sociology, Theory & Society, East European Politics, Sociologos, Politics, Contemporary Southeastern Europe, Journal of Homosexuality, Social Problems and Europe-Asia Studies.

Research Interests

Europe (Central and Eastern), Civil Society, European Politics, European Union, Gender, Human Rights, Social Movements, LGBTQI

Current/Upcoming Events

Standing Groups and Research Networks

• Gender and Politics
• European Union
• Political Sociology