I am Associate Professor at the Life Course and Inequality Research Centre (LIVES) at the University of Lausanne.

My research is in the areas of social inequality, gender, family and employment, as well as poverty and social policy in a life course perspective. I am particularly interested in understanding processes of cumulative disadvantage during critical life transitions, and the role of the welfare state in mitigating adverse life outcomes. 

My work employs large-scale quantitative data and longitudinal research methods, often analyzing cross-national data to uncover differences and trends both between and within countries. 

I obtained my PhD from the University of Leuven with a thesis on poverty dynamics and social stratification. Subsequently, I worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Manchester and as Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.  From 2012 – 2017 I worked as Junior Professor at the University of Tübingen. I was also a visiting fellow at the Harvard Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy, and at the Social Science Center Berlin (WZB).

Research Interests
Social inequality
Family, Gender and Employment
Poverty
Social policy
Life course research
Comparative research
Longitudinal data analysis

 orcid.org/0000-0003-0707-4224

X: @Vandecasteele_L