Jens studied History at Ghent University (2025), with a focus on the Early Modern period. He wrote his Master’s thesis on local police regulations in Ghent in 1581-87, during and after the Calvinist Republic of Ghent. In his thesis he analysed shifts and continuity after the reconciliation of the city with Philip II in several policy domains, such as religious, economical, fiscal and military regulation. For his thesis, he was awarded the Prijs van de Gentse Geschiedenis 2025. Since 2024, he has also been studying Law at the University of Antwerp.
Jens does a joint PhD in History at VUB and Ghent University. He is supervised by Klaas Van Gelder (VUB) and Thijs Lambrecht (UGent). His research aims to shed new light on social control in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern era (1400-1600), by taking a rural perspective and examining the dynamics between bottom-up norming and top-down regulation. For this purpose, he will draw on two main sets of sources from several villages around Bruges: the minutes of the ‘ongoing inquests’ (doorgaande waarheden), local assemblies at which attendees could accuse community members of all kinds of transgressions, and the police regulations and local customs of these villages.