Faculty of Geosciences

Ilse van Liempt is Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Geography and Planning at Utrecht University and one of the four leaders of the Focus Area on Migration. Her research focuses on forced migration, identity and belonging. She is involved in a HERA project on young refugees and public space. 

Andrea Morrison is Associate Professor in Economic Geography at the Department of Human Geography and Planning (Utrecht University) and Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Management and Technology (Bocconi University). His research interests focuses on the economic outcomes of high-skilled migrants, in particular the nexus between migration and innovation at regional level.

Dora Sampaio is Assistant Professor (Transnational Mobilities) in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University. With a primary focus on international migration, her research focuses on three main thematic lines: 1) mobilities, life course, diversity and inequality; 2) migration regimes, intergenerational relationships and the global challenge of care; and 3) gentrification, urban displacement, and socio-spatial inequalities in the city. She has conducted research in Brazil, Portugal, the UK and the United States.

    Griet Steel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning. Her research focusses on the multifaceted linkages between migration and digital entrepreneurship, land governance and urban transformations in different cities across the globe. She has a specific research interest in the way human mobility and the increased access to new information and communication technologies have shaped entrepreneurial practices and urban development processes in the Global South.

    Bianca Szytniewski is Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University. Her research focuses on cross-border mobility in European borderlands, labour migration and mobile workers from Central and Eastern Europe, non-EU migrants in European shrinking regions and mobilities and activism of youth in the Balkans.

    Kirsten Visser is Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning. Her research focuses on young people’s experiences with growing up in deprived and diverse neighbourhoods, specifically focusing on issues of social in/exclusion, belonging and place attachment.  

    Annelies Zoomers is Professor of International Development Studies in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning. She is the PI of a H2020 Welcoming Spaces programme that focuses on the question how to contribute to the revitalisation of shrinking areas in the EU while also offering a welcoming space for non-EU migrants to pursue their life projects? Other related activities: international migration and displacement linked to climate change and large scale land investments;and the intended and unintended consequences of EU-African migration deals.