Danielle Chevalier is assistant professor Law & Society at the Van Vollenhoven Institute.

Danielle has a  background in Law (LL.M Utrecht University) and Cultural Anthropology (M.Sc. Utrecht University) and received her PhD in Sociology (University of Amsterdam, cum laude). Her PhD thesis, entitled ‘Playing it by the Rules’, consisted of a socio-legal investigation into local bans on the public use of soft drugs and the production of shared spaces of everyday life in the Netherlands.

Danielle’s research focuses on the interplay between the legal and the social in the urban setting, researching the role of law in urban conviviality. She is particularly interested in the juridification of social norms in superdiverse urban settings. She combines legal research with ethnographic fieldwork in sites where law can be seen ‘in action’. Additional to her research in the Dutch setting, she also has experience with doing research in the Dominican Republic and Namibia. Her current research centers on legal interventions that impact the access to public space for those not part of the dominant power constellation, with a specific focus on –but not limited to- women.