General faculty information
Within the Humanities Faculty (with 26 bachelor and 27 master programmes) about 80 people do research on migration, integration and diversity. This includes a large number of historians, who look at changes in migration from Antiquity until today. They look at trajectories, networks and minority formation. In addition to the History department research is done in Area Studies (which includes renowned experts on mobility in Africa, China, Korea, Japan, the Middle East, Russia and Latin America). Furthermore, migration research is done within the department of International Studies.
What is your research focus regarding (the governance of) migration and diversity?
The focus is on the comparison: between past and present, and between ‘here’ and ‘there’. Many of the policies that are developed today are similar to what has been tried (and failed) in the past. Today migrations are not very different from those in the past and policy makers, politicians, journalists and organisations can learn a lot from looking at past forms of governance. Many forms of governance are Euro-centric. The global comparative perspective corrects this balance. The History Department also participates in the large interdisciplinary Citizenship, Migration & Global Transformation.
What are your educational programmes on governance, migration and diversity?
The History department host the History track of the LDE master Governance of Migration and Diversity. In addition, there is the Master Cities, Migration, and Global Interdependence, which has a more global and longitudinal perspective. In all teaching we try to encourage students to take an intersectional perspective and pay attention to class, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexuality as categories of identity and power.
What do you do on societal impact regarding (the governance of) migration and diversity?
The Leiden migration researchers (over 180) organised in the Leiden Interdisciplinary Research Seminar (LIMS), which organises monthly talks and a yearly conference. For the conference, politicians, policy makers, lawyers, claim makers, and a host of other non-academics are invited. Furthermore, we participate in activities organised by the Ministry of Justice.
Role within and contribution to the LDE Centre GMD
We seek to combine the activities at Leiden University with those of the LDE Centre GMD. Aim is to bring bustling research communities into closer contact with each other. This will help with grant applications.