I had the pleasure of examining the PhD thesis of Tom Bellens at KU Leuven, titled ‘In and Out the Centre of Executive Power: A Text-as-Data Approach to Belgian Ministerial Advisers and their Careers (1999–2020)‘. The dissertation offers an outstanding analysis of the recruitment, roles and post-cabinet careers of ministerial advisers in Belgium and pioneers the use of large-language-model and text-as-data methods in executive-triangle research.
Tom successfully defended his thesis on 30 September 2025. Congratulations on an impressive piece of scholarship!