Since 1998, the Chaire Aung San Suu Kyi de l’Université de Louvain Democracy, Cultures, and Action’s founders have been mobilized, more or less intensively depending on the period, within the Louvain community in its attempt to extend support to those struggling within Burmese civil society – inspired and represented by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – to maintain nonviolent opposition to the junta’s oppression.
Philippe Coppens holds a Ph.D. in law and a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Louvain. Before devoting himself to full-time academic work, he worked as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar. Coppens is a research director at Belgium’s FNRS (the National Science Foundation), a professor (professeur extraordinaire) at the University of Louvain, and a member of the JUR-I Institute’s Center for Philosophy of Law; additionally, he visited and taught at numerous universities around the world (e.g. Tübingen, Graz, Oxford, Szeged, Roma-Sapienza, Firenze, Oslo, Beyrout, Tilburg, Amsterdam, Zürich, Montevideo, Brussels, Leuven, Liège). His publications examine the links between law and the economy as well as between law and philosophy. More specifically, his current research examines the role of the law in the globalized economy, and the analysis of practical norms rooted in a theory of action. Email : philippe.coppens@uclouvain.be
Marc Verdussen holds a Ph.D. in law and a B.A. in criminal studies from the University of Louvain. He is a full professor at the University of Louvain where he is a member of the Center for Research on the State and Constitution (CRECO) at the JUR-I Institute. Verdussen’s research and teaching focuses on constitutional law, both Belgian and comparative, and on constitutional justice. He has been a visiting and taught at various universities around the world (e.g. Berkeley, Ottawa, Szeged, Aix-Marseille, Lille, Liège). Moreover, Verdussen serves as an expert to many Belgian public institutions (parliaments, ministerial cabinets, administrative agencies, etc.) and is a regular contributor to the Belgian press. His latest book is Justice constitutionnelle (Brussels: Larcier, 2012). Email : verdussen@uclouvain.be
Isabelle Ferreras serves as coordinator of the Fund. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Louvain, and a M.S. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a tenured fellow of the FNRS, a professor at the University of Louvain, a member of the IACCHOS Institute and its CriDIS Center (Democracy, Institutions, Subjectivity). Ferreras is also a senior research associate of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard University. She was a DAAD Visiting Professor at the University of Bremen in 2007, and was invited to speak at many universities (e.g. Yale, Wissenschaftskolleg-Berlin, Paris-Sorbonne, Sciences-Po Paris, Lyon, Paris X-Nanterre, Bruxelles, Montréal, UQAM). Her research focuses on developing a political sociology of work and its companion political theory of the firm in the context of the service-based capitalist democracy. Her last books include: Gouverner le capitalisme ? Pour le bicamérisme économique (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2012); Renewing Democratic Deliberation in Europe. The Challenge of Social and Civil Dialogue (De Munck, Didry, Ferreras, Jobert eds., Brussels-Oxford: Peter Lang Press, 2012). Email : isabelle.ferreras@uclouvain.be
Professor Matthieu de Nanteuil
Matthieu de Nanteuil holds a PhD in sociology from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (SciencesPo-Paris), and a B.A. in philosophy from University Paris X-Nanterre. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Louvain, where he directs the CriDIS research center, an affiliate of the IACCHOS Institute. de Nanteuil is an associate of the research group on contemporary political theories (TEOPOCO) at the National University of Colombia. He co-founded ColPaz, a trilingual information platform that covers the humanitarian situation and the armed conflict in Colombia. His research agenda seeks to lay the groundwork for a critical anthropology of liberalism through a comparative study of Europe and Latin America. From January to June 2010, he was a visiting professor at the National University of Colombia and maintains strong ties to the University of Chili. His latest publications include: La vulnérabilité du monde. Démocraties et violences à l’heure de la globalisation, with L. Múnera Ruiz, eds. (Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2013) ; La democracia insensible. Economía y política a prueba del cuerpo, (Bogotá: Uniandes, 2013). Email : matthieu.denanteuil@uclouvain.be
Alicia Pastor y Camarasa is a PhD candidate in Law under the supervision of Philippe Coppens and Marc Verdussen. She graduated with a Master in Law, specializing in 'State and Europe' from University of Louvain in 2013, and a Master of Laws (LL.M) in Transnational Law from King’s College London in 2015. Her King's dissertation focused on the relationship between deliberative democracy and economic, social and cultural rights. With her PhD, she aims to analyze the external constraints of constitutional transitions to democracy.
Administrative staff
Constantine Mukaneza, the administrative and research assistant of Isabelle Ferreras has started working for the Fund on 18 April 2017. Originating from Rwanda, she holds a Master's degree in population sciences and development at the UCL.
