Christophe Declercq (CI)

Christophe Declercq (CI) is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University College London, where he was Senior Lecturer (2017–2022). He has also held posts at KU Leuven, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and the University of Antwerp, where he is a Research Fellow. A great-grandson of a Belgian refugee, he earned his PhD from Imperial College London (2015) on the linguistic and socio-cultural identities of Belgian refugees in Britain during the First World War. His research examines Belgian refugees alongside translation and intercultural communication in historical and contemporary conflict settings. He co-convened the Languages and the First World War project (three co-edited volumes with Julian Walker) and co-edited the Routledge Handbook of Translation, Interpreting and Crisis (with Koen Kerremans) and Intercultural Crisis Communication (with Federico Federici). A notable focus is the Belgian exile press and its role in diasporic identity and transnational communication. Declercq’s public-facing work includes collaborations with the BBC and VRT, contributions to centenary and heritage initiatives, and roles on AHRC-funded projects such as the crowd-sourced Tracing the Belgian Refugees database and the Asylum: Refugees and Mental Health initiative. He served as UK liaison for the Amsab Institute of Social History and helped document 4,500 Belgian refugees in Wales through the Wales for Peace project.