Mathijs van Leeuwen

Mathijs van Leeuwen is a rural development sociologist, who specialises in conflict and peacebuilding in developing countries. After his graduation at Wageningen University in 1999, he worked as a researcher at the Institute of International Relations Clingendael, and with various NGOs in Kenya, Sudan, Guatemala and Bolivia. His PhD research at Wageningen Disaster Studies concerned discourses and practices of civil society peacebuilding and their international support. This research was conducted in collaboration with the Dutch development organization Cordaid and its local partners in Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, and Guatemala.

Since January 2010 he works as an Assistant Professor at CICAM, teaching on ‘Conflicts and Governance in Africa’, ‘Civil Society and Peacebuilding’, and ‘Conflicting Theories’.

His research interests include:

• post-conflict peacebuilding and development
• local governance and statebuilding from below
• reconciliation and local conflict resolution
• reintegration of former refugees, IDPs and ex-combatants

At the moment, he coordinates and conducts research within the Wotro-funded Integrated Programme ‘Grounding Land Governance; Land Conflicts, Local Governance and Decentralization in Post-conflict Uganda, Burundi, and Southern Sudan’. This programme is a collaborative effort of the Africa Studies Centre Leiden, the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management at the Radboud University, and the Faculty of Development Studies of the University of Science & Technology in Mbarara, Uganda, and a series of other institutes and NGOs.

The Grounding Land Governance webpage at ASC Leiden.