Polsslag

Nieuw boek. Verschijnt in mei 2025.

Zomer 2020, Minsk. Terwijl het land kraakt onder het gewicht van een autoritair regime, weerklinkt een bekende melodie door de straten: het lied 'Peremen!' van de Sovjetband Kino. Niet alleen in Belarus, maar ook in Oekraïne wordt het gezongen, geschreeuwd of soms gefluisterd.Polsslag neemt de lezer mee naar Oost-Europa in een turbulente tijd. Het vertelt het verhaal van muzikanten die blijven demonstreren voor vrijheid, zelfs al slaat de repressie genadeloos toe. Dit boek is een verslag van teleurstelling en hoop, van verlies en volharding. Wat brengt mensen in beweging? Waar halen ze de moed vandaan om te blijven strijden tegen meedogenloos machtsmisbruik? En was is het geheim van muziek in de strijd voor vrijheid?

Peter Vermeersch is a professor of political studies at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, and a writer of narrative non-fiction. His work explores minority politics, memory politics, and pro-democracy movements in Central and Eastern Europe. He has also written extensively on ethnic conflict, reconciliation, restorative justice, Roma activism, and the politics of commemoration in Southeastern Europe.He holds a PhD in Political Science (2002) and MA degrees in Slavic Languages, Eastern European Studies, and Cultural Studies. His academic career has taken him to Kraków, Warsaw, Prague, and Sarajevo, and he has been a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.As an author, he has published narrative non-fiction books with the Dutch literary publisher De Bezige Bij and regularly contributes essays, reportage, and non-fiction to journals and magazines in both English and Dutch.

BIO

Peter Vermeersch is a scholar and a writer who teaches political studies at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven). His research focuses on minority politics, memory politics, democratisation, and pro-democracy movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Over the years, he has written extensively about ethnic conflict, reconciliation and restorative justice, Roma activism, and the politics of commemoration in Southeastern Europe.In addition to academic writing, he regularly ventures into essays, reportage, and books of narrative non-fiction—published in both Dutch and English. His books in Dutch, Ex (2014) and Aantekeningen bij een moord (2019), have been published by De Bezige Bij. Narrative essays by him have appeared in journals like The Sociological Review, New Writing, and McSweeneys, and he has contributed to De Standaard and De Correspondent.

Based at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the KU Leuven, he is part of the research unit LINES (Leuven International and European Studies). He earned his PhD in Political Science there in 2002 and holds MA degrees in Slavic Languages, Eastern European Studies, and Cultural Studies. Although he lives in Brussels now, his academic path has taken him through cities like Kraków, Warsaw, Prague and Sarajevo. In 2007 and 2008, he spent time as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.He co-founded and co-directs the Forum on Central and Eastern Europe, a platform for exploring the histories, politics, societies, and cultures of the region in the broadest sense. He has served in leadership roles across academic and civic organisations, including as research coordinator for LINES (2014–2020), board member of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), and coordinator of ASN’s Central Europe programme section. From 2012 to 2016, he also served on the board of PEN Flanders, part of the global PEN International network.On the literary front, he is a contributing editor for DWB, Belgium’s oldest Dutch-language literary journal. He has published poems in several literary magazines, collaborated with Passa Porta, the international house of literature Brussels, and worked alongside David Van Reybrouck to coordinate the Brussel Poets Collective (2008–2014), a project culminating in the European Constitution in Verse.

Below is a selection of published material. Tap here to view a complete list of publications. Please get in touch by email for a copy of any articles that are not open access.

Recent articles and essays



Featured peer reviewed work



From the archives

One morning Peter Vermeersch received a letter informing him that he had been randomly selected for jury service. What seemed to be a straightforward case of robbery soon turned out to be a much more complex affair.Published in Dutch
Foreign rights: De Bezige Bij

Aantekeningen bij een moord (De Bezige Bij, 2019)

Hoe voelt het slachtoffer te zijn, of nabestaande? Wat doe je iemand aan als je hem straft? Helpt het? Aantekeningen bij een moord geeft aan de hand van een concrete moord en een rechtszaak een indringende blik op geweld en rechtspraak."Een doortastend, wetenschappelijk onderbouwd en toch emotioneel, zelfs intiem non-fictiewerk." — Annelies Verbeke, De Lage Landen"[Dit boek toont] hoe isolerend het kan zijn om alleen je eigen blik te hebben, maar ook hoe verbindend het kan zijn om ergens met andere ogen naar te kijken." — Nina Polak

Ex. Over een land dat zoek is
(De Bezige bij, 2014)

Een uniek beeld van twee decennia recente geschiedenis op de Balkan, verteld met bijzondere aandacht voor het onverwachte detail. De helden zijn gewone mensen met ongewone verhalen. In dit prachtige, maar versplinterde gebied groeit het verlangen naar een prille, nieuwe liefde."wervelende, melancholische, dan weer hoopvol stemmende tocht door een even aangetast, verwond als vitaal deel van Europa." — Manon Uphoff, NRC"Een hoogstpersoonlijk geschiedenisboek. Een subtiele mix van reisimpressies, gloedvolle essayistiek en poëtische mijmeringen over de Balkan" — Juryverslag Provinciale Prijs Letterkunde voor Proza 2016

The Romani Movement (Berghahn Books, 2007)

In this study, Peter Vermeersch examines the recent attempts of the Roma in Central Europe and their supporters to form a political movement and to influence domestic and international politics. On the basis of first-hand observation and interviews with activists and politicians in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, he analyzes connections between the evolving state policies towards the Roma and the recent history of Romani mobilization."This book is invaluable for the analytical insights it brings to bear and as a rich source of empirical information on recent Romani mobilisation in Central Europe. This comprehensive, thoroughly researched and enlightening study, assisting better understanding and effectiveness of this process, is to be warmly welcomed." — Romani Studies

Edited books and collaborative book projects

Recent courses



Supervised PhD dissertations

  • Terry Savage (2020), Recovering truth and transforming conflict: an exploration of ways in which truth recovery can contribute to conflict transformation in conditions where the prospect for justice for grave violations is problematical.

  • Niels Smeets (2019), The Green Challenge: Exploring Explanations of Russia's Renewable Energy Policies.

  • Ana Milosevic (2019), Signaling values: Europeanisation and Memory Politics in Croatia and Serbia.

  • Ivan Grubanov (2016), Unnation.

  • Zeynep Yanasmayan (2013), Turkey entangled with Europe? A qualitative exploration of mobility and citizenship accounts of highly educated migrants from Turkey.

  • Heleen Touquet (2012), Escaping ethnopolis: postethnic mobilization in Bosnia-Herzegovina.