Border professor
I was once called a ‘Border Professor’ by a moderator in a public lecture. That kind of summarises what I do indeed. I graduated in Economics at the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands (cum laude). After that, I wrote a dissertation on the relationship between political borders and economics at the same university. In 1998, at the University of Nijmegen, as a postdoc, I co-founded and still coordinate the Nijmegen Centre for Border Research. I hold a professorship in Political Geography and Geopolitics at Radboud University Nijmegen. I am a co-director of the Radboud University master specialisation on Europe: Borders, Identities and Governance and the master specialisation on Conflicts, Territories, and Identities. In 2023, I will be a part-time Professor at the Department of Innovation Studies, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, University of Utrecht. I am a member of the editorial boards of the following academic journals: Mobilities, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, and Annales Scientia Politica.
Recent publications
Recently published books:
See here for all published books and here for academic journal articles.
Current research themes
- The philosophy of borders: epistemology and (im)morality of borders, processes of b/ordering and othering
- Global justice: the global inequality of access and freedom of mobility, the unequal power of passports and visas
- Bordering European, national and regional identity (including the geopolitics, internationalisation of and territorial ‘battle’ in football and other sports),
- Borders in and of the EU: Geopolitics of the European integration, The external border regime of the EU, migrant deaths at the border (see our Dutch book: Beyond Fortress Europe (”Voorbij Fort Europa”)
- Designing Borderlands and Borderscapes: The development of cross-border governance and planning of borderlands (see for this, the book: Borderland, 2013),
- C/Artography: Mapping territories, borders and migration. Freeing the Map: from Atlas to Hermes (see the co-authored blog CompasstoCartopolitics, and see the TEDxLecture: Free the Map
- Urban geopolitics and planning: glocal borders, urban politics and identity, and geopolitics of capitalism
Current research Projects
- LIMES: researching and writing on the translation and impact of the Roman LIMES in current day bordering policies and populism
- Just finished an international book on C/Artography: From Atlas to Hermes (see our blog CompasstoCartopolitics, and see my TEDxLecture: Free the Map)
- Writing on the cartography of migration and borders, as a follow-up of our prize-winning article on the Migration Map Trap
- Writing on Paper Borders (the global inequality of the visa-policies) as a follow-up on our article the birth of the paper prison
- Writing on the auto-immunity of the external border policy and immigration politics (2012-2016 FP 7 Project: Website ‘EUBORDERSCAPES’ and on Facebook)
- Writing on Redesigning Cross-Border Cooperation (disseminations of our book Borderland)
- Writing on the Glocal Border Conflict of Cyprus (2012-2016 FP 7 Project Website ‘EUBORDERSCAPES’ and on Facebook)
- For more research projects and interests, see here
Recent media performances
See for the most recent media performances here. I am a regular commentator (see for an overview here) for various Dutch media, such as the TV programmes Nieuwsuur, EenVandaag and Filosofisch Kwintet, the Radio stations Radio 1 and 5 and the national newspapers Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC, De Groene Amsterdammer, De Gelderlander. In addition, I am a commentator for various international media. I published hundreds of articles and columns (see for an overview here) in national and international newspapers and magazines. I have been a columnist for the Dutch national newspaper Volkskrant.nl, De Groene Amsterdammer (see for his ‘De Groene’ columns here), the Dutch regional newspaper De Gelderlander, and for ‘VOX’, the Radboud University magazine (VOXweb).