Kobe De Keere is assistant professor in cultural sociology and a Veni Grant holder. He holds Master’s degrees in philosophy (Ghent University) and sociology (Free University of Brussels) and received a Ph.D. in sociology from the Free University of Brussels. His dissertation research involved an analysis of the role of individualism, as a cultural discourse, within Western societies with an emphasis on class conflict and historical change. He published on topics such as individualism, educational inequality, cultural class boundaries and moral and political conflicts. Currently, his main research focus is on subjects such as moral boundaries, gatekeeping mechanisms and evaluation practices within the labor market.
He is a member of the program group Cultural Sociology of the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a fellow of the Norbert Elias Foundation. He held the Gak Fellowship (2021) at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (KNAW) and is affiliated scholar of the Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion (Harvard University). He has been a part of the TOR-research group of the Free University of Brussels and was visiting scholar at the Affective Science Group of the Social Psychology Department at the University of Oslo . Besides that he is a member of the editorial boards of Tijdschrift Sociologie and Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change.