Bram Vanhoutte

Biography

Dr. Bram Vanhoutte is a quantitative sociologist, researching the heterogeneous experiences in ageing from an interdisciplinary perspective, bridging psychological, sociological and medical perspectives. He holds a Master’s degree in sociology (Free University Brussels, 2004) and in economics (University of Ghent, 2005), and a Phd in the Social Sciences (University of Leuven, 2011). 

He has researched young people’s political values and attitudes at the Sociology department of the Free University of Brussels and social cohesion at the Political Science Department of the University of Leuven, both in Belgium. As a postdoctoral research associate at the university of Manchester he investigated wellbeing in later life. Next to developing a theoretically grounded measurement approach, Dr Vanhoutte has opened up the study of life course influences on later life wellbeing in a comparative framework, making the most of the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing (ELSA) as well as the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the Australian Life Histories and Health Study.  

As a Simon Research Fellow (2017 onward), Dr. Vanhoutte will focus on examining resilience in ageing form a sociological perspective. Ageing is normally associated with losses in health, partnership and wealth, but some people manage to limit the impact of these events on their wellbeing substantially. Using innovative theoretical insights into the nature of resilience and a mixed method approach incorporating unique comparative longitudinal data on ageing in conjunction with qualitative insights into meaning and everyday context, this fellowship will highlight novel ways of maintaining wellbeing in the face of adversity by examining material and life course resources mobilised to foster successful ageing.