Dr. Arjen Leerkes
Arjen Leerkes is a Professor of Migration, Security and Social Cohesion at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and senior researcher at the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. He conducts interdisciplinary social science research (sociology, political science, law, criminology) on the governance of international migration, with a focus on the social construction and operation of immigration control.
Furthermore, he conducts research on how multi-ethnic societies create and solve problems of social cohesion, focusing on issues of crime and policy responses to crime.
He is the coordinator of the sociology track of the interdisciplinary master Governance of Migration and Diversity, where he also teaches two courses: Sociology of Migration and Diversity and the Migration and Diversity in a (De)globalized World. Additionally, he teaches in the sociology Bachelor 3 programme, and supervises students’ thesis projects at the PhD and Master levels.
Dr. Laura Cleton
Dr. Laura Cleton (lecturer) is an Assistant Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Together with Prof. Arjen Leerkes she teaches the Sociology of Migration and Diversity and Migration course and the Migration and Diversity in a (De)Globalized World course. Laura specializes in deportation governance in Europe, with a particular focus on street-level implementation practices and the situation of undocumented migrant families and children.
She currently works in the Finding Agreement in Return project, where she investigates how bureaucracies in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands attempt to establish “cooperation” with Global South countries on identification and (re)documentation procedures for illegalized migrants who the state seeks to deport.
She defended her dissertation Deporting Children. Policy Framing, Legitimation and Intersectional Boundary Work in 2022 at the University of Antwerp. It relied on critical migration and border studies, intersectionality and interpretative policy analysis to question how the Dutch and Belgian authorities legitimize the deportation of undocumented migrant children and their families. In 2026, she will start an NWO-funded project on the role of children’s rights for the implementation and legitimacy of deportation policy in the Netherlands, Belgium and Nigeria. Her research interests include return migration governance, Assisted Voluntary Return and deportation policies and its politics, (international) bureaucracies, gender & feminist approaches to forced migration, and family migration.
Dr. Asya Pisarevskaya
Asya Pisarevskaya is an Assistant Professor of Migration and Diversity Governance. In the GMD programme, she teaches the courses Governance of Migration and Diversity and Designing Migration Policy Research, and she also supervises master’s theses. Her research focuses on migration-related diversity and the governance of migrant inclusion and anti-discrimination in European cities. In her work, she often adopts a comparative perspective and employs both qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Her broader research interests lie in the comparative analysis of policies and practices for migrant inclusion.
Dr. Maria Schiller
Maria Schiller is Associate Professor of Public Policy, Migration and Diversity at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Managing Director of the LDE Centre Governance of Migration and Diversity. She is Theme Leader for “Inclusive Cities and Diversity,” Chair of the IMISCOE Standing Committee on Migration Politics and Governance, and Faculty Diversity Officer at ESSB.
She teaches Politics of Migration and Diversity and Comparative Public Policies in the GMD Master’s and supervises MA theses. Her research focuses on local and regional migration policymaking, policy implementation, street-level bureaucrats, and governance networks, using qualitative and comparative approaches across European contexts.
Dr. Mark van Ostaijen
Mark van Ostaijen is as Associate Professor affiliated to the Department of Public Administration and Sociology (DPAS/ ESSB) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a VIDI grant recipient (2025) on Project ICONIC to conduct international comparative research on the decision-making of ‘street-level workers’ in superdiverse neighbourhoods in Malmö, Aarhus, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Marseille and Bilbao. Within this master programme, he supervises master theses.
He previously worked as Managing Director of the LDE Centre Governance of Migration and Diversity and at Tilburg University, for which he conducted ethnographic fieldwork on how 'smart urban intermediaries' make a difference in neighbourhoods of Amsterdam, Glasgow, Birmingham and Copenhagen.
Prof. dr. Peter Scholten
Peter Scholten is full professor of Governance of Migration & Diversity at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research focuses on amongst others on the governance of migration and migration-related diversity, multi-level governance, comparative public policy, and the relationship between science and politics in the field of migration. In this master, Peter Scholten teaches Politics of Migration and Diversity course. He is one of the co-founders of this MSc programme Governance of Migration and Diversity and scientific coordinator of the LDE Research Center on the Governance of Migration and Diversity.
Dr. Naia Bouras
Dr. Naria Bouras is Assistant Professor at Leiden University, specialising in the history of migration, diversity and state formation. Her research focuses on how migration and diversity have shaped modern European societies, with particular attention to colonial and postcolonial histories, citizenship and state–society relations. In her teaching, she connects historical perspectives to contemporary debates on migration and diversity.
Dr. Martijn van den Brink
Dr. Martijn van den Brink is Assistant Professor in European Union Law at Leiden University. His research focuses on EU migration law, citizenship and non-discrimination, at the intersection of law and political theory. In this programme, he teaches how legal frameworks shape migration, asylum and diversity, and how law structures rights, opportunities and inequalities. His teaching emphasises practical legal reasoning and the application of legal sources to real-world governance dilemmas.