In October 2023, Thijs Costers has joined SHOC on the FORAGENCY project, researching foraging, colonialism and more-than-human agency in colonial Central Africa. Specifically, Thijs’ PhD-research will focus on how intoxicating substances were produced, distributed and consumed. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degree in history at the VUB, spending one semester at the Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg. He completed his master’s thesis on the gendered dynamics of alcohol consumption in Bruges, based on testimonies gathered by the Witnesses project of the VUB.
His interests include cultural history, intoxicant history, discourse analysis and postcolonial theory.