In February 2023, Akim Said Aalou joined the TOR-research group of the Sociology Department at the VUB as a PhD student and teaching assistant. Earlier, he obtained a master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Antwerp in 2021. For his dissertation, titled Nationalism beyond its delusion of homogeneity, he critically reviews the concepts ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ in the context of superdiversity. He continued to pursue this interest in Vienna, where, one year later, he would obtain a master’s degree in Nationalism Studies at the Central European University. For his dissertation he explored the possibilities of identity by firmly rooting the concept in a deeply sociological ontology. Now, as a PhD student, he continues to delve into this sociological ontology by studying two of sociology’s core concepts and issues: socialization and inequality.