A Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Leuven, Filip De Boeck (° Antwerp, 1961) is actively involved in teaching, promoting, coordinating and supervising research in and on Africa.

Since 1987 he has conducted extensive field research in both rural and urban communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. De Boeck's current theoretical interests include youth and the politics of culture, urban infrastructure, and the transformation of private and public space in the urban context in Africa.

He has published extensively on these topics. Co-authored with photographer Sammy Baloji, his most recent book is Suturing the City. Living Together in Congo's Urban Worlds (London: Autograph ABP, 2016). Other book publications include Kinshasa. Tales of the Invisible City, a joint book project with photographer Marie-Françoise Plissart (Ghent/ Tervuren: Ludion / Royal Museum of Central Africa, 2004). Together with Alcinda Honwana (currently Professor at the London School of Economics, UK) Filip De Boeck also edited Makers and Breakers. Children and Youth in Postcolonial Africa (Oxford: James Currey, 2005).

De Boeck has also curated several international exhibitions and is the author of a long documentary film about Kinshasa.