Mattias De Backer is postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven, travelling between criminology, sociology and geography. He holds a Master in Philosophy (UGent) and Urban Studies (VUB), and a PhD in Criminology (VUB). Mattias works on topics related to youth, the city and migration and has an interest in creative/participatory methods and poststructuralist philosophy.
Mattias is editor-in-chief of the open-access journal Criminological Encounters, has published the book Radicalisering: donkere spiegel van een kwetsbare samenleving (2020), the edited collection Order and Conflict in Public Space (2016) and articles in, amongst others, Space and Culture, Social and Cultural Geography, Emotion, Society and Space and Urban Environment. A new edited collection titled Refugee Youth, Migration, Justice and Public Space is due to be published in 2023.
