Research staff
Senior researchers
Jan Abbink is an anthropologist-historian and carries out research on the history and cultures of the Horn of Africa (Northeast Africa), particularly Ethiopia.
Akinyinka Akinyoade's research activities are on population health and development, with special attention on fertility dynamics in West Africa.
Dr. Azeb Amha is a linguist whose research focuses on language and culture interface in Afroasiatic languages. She is the chair of the Research Master African Studies.
Lidewyde Berckmoes is an anthropologist and carries out research on regional conflict in Africa.
Mirjam de Bruijn is an anthropologist whose work has a clearly interdisciplinary character. She has done fieldwork in Cameroon, Chad and Mali and an important theme throughout is how people manage risk (drought, war, etc.) in both rural and urban areas.
Marleen Dekker is Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa and Director of the African Studies Centre Leiden.
Rijk van Dijk is an anthropologist. He is an expert on Pentecostalism, globalisation and transnationalism, migration, youth and healing.
Madi Ditmars is the coordinator of the minors' education and student affairs.
Jan-Bart Gewald is a historian specialised in the social history of Africa. He is Professor of African History at Leiden University.
Abdourahmane Idrissa is a political scientist and currently works on the politics of Islam and secularism in Africa, and a modern history of Niger.
Mayke Kaag is a social anthropologist interested in processes of change and continuity in West and West-Central Africa.
André Leliveld is a development economist and does research on informal insurance and social-support systems and community-based (health) insurance schemes in Africa.
Karin Nijenhuis guides students of all levels through interactive teaching, coaching and employability skills training. She is the chair of the Master African Studies.
Annachiara Raia is an Africanist specialised in Swahili Muslim intellectual traditions with a background in the languages, history and cultures of the Islamic countries.
Chibuike Uche is the chairholder of the Stephen Ellis Chair for the Governance of Finance and Integrity in Africa.
Klaas van Walraven is a historian and political scientist currently working on the history of colonialism and decolonisation in French Equatorial Africa.
Junior / Postdoctoral and Project researchers
Olaoluwa (Ola) Abagun is a Knowledge Manager at the INCLUDE Secretariat.
Anika Altaf is Executive Director of the INCLUDE Knowledge Platform
Michel Doortmont is a historian with a research interest in the history and culture of Anglophone West Africa, the Atlantic slave trade, and the Black Atlantic.
Agnieszka Kazimierczuk is working in the framework of the NWO-funded project Dutch Multinational Businesses, Dutch Government and the Promotion of Productive Employment in Sub-Sahara Africa.
Harry Wels is the Publications Manager of the African Studies Centre Leiden.
Retired research fellows
Wouter van Beek is an anthropologist whose main thematic interests are religion, cultural ecology and tourism.
Ton Dietz is former director of the African Studies Centre Leiden (2010-2017) and Professor emeritus of the Study of African Development at Leiden University.
Dick Foeken is a human geographer and his main research interests are urban poverty, urban water supply and urban agriculture in Africa.
Ineke van Kessel is a historian who focuses mainly on contemporary issues in South Africa.
Bill Kinsey is a retired research fellow and focuses on land reform in Zimbabwe.
Robert Ross is Professor Emeritus in African Studies at the Leiden University Institute for History
Posted on 11 April 2012, last modified on 20 February 2017