Gaëlle is a PhD student at the United Nations University (UNU-CRIS) and the University of Ghent in Belgium. Her research topic focuses on access to social services in situations of regional separatism. Her research studies the role of civil society organisations in facilitating this access within and across borders without (full) legal recognition, or de facto borders. The two cases she studies are Abkhazia and Transnistria, two de facto states that seceded respectively from Georgia and Moldova in the 1990s. Gaëlle is also an active member of the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR).
Previously, Gaëlle worked as a researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University. She was involved in two Horizon 2020 research projects: RefugeeWellSchool, which aims to improve the well-being of refugees in schools, and InHere, which stands for inclusive holistic care for refugees and migrant victims of sexual violence in Belgium, Ireland and the UK. In recent years, Gaëlle was project manager at the Development Office of the College of Europe (Bruges) and, before that, at the French Embassy in Croatia.
