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Prof. Dr. Jan Rath received his MA degree in cultural anthropology and urban studies and his PhD from Utrecht University. He was a Professor of Urban Sociology in the Department of Sociology, and Researcher in the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) and the Center for Urban Studies in the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Furthermore, he is a a Chair of Metropolis International, a Research Fellow at the Migration Research Center (MiReKoc) at Koç University, Istanbul, and an Guest Professor at the Anton De Kom University of Suriname in Paramaribo. In 2021/2022, he was a Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study (NIAS) and and Professor by Special Appointment at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

He has been active in various other disciplines, such as political science, sociology of law, economics and economic sociology. He previously held academic posts at the Center for the Study of Social Conflicts (COMT) in Leiden University, the Center for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Society (SMES) in Utrecht University, the Institute for the Sociology of Law in the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and the Department of Sociology in the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

He has done research on a wide array of topics including (electoral) political mobilization; trade unions; integration policy; the political and theoretical foundations of social science; racism; school segregation; spatial segregation; popular culture; Islam; the informal economy; urban tourism; gentrification; immigrant entrepreneurship; public space; city objects; etcetera.

He is particularly interested in the ways in which cities in a globalizing world help shape unity and diversity. His research focuses on how the urban opportunity structure -- notably its political, economic and symbolic dimensions -- shapes life chances and social relations, and vice versa.

He was the President of UvA's University Forum, that aims to facilitate intellectual debate about the UvA, its values and strategies, and its future. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society (COMPAS) within the University of Oxford, associated with the World Economic Forum. He has, moreover, been an advisor of a wide array of local, national and supranational governmental organizations and civic society institutions, including the European Commission (notably DG Enterprise and Industry), the OECD, the OSCE, and the United Nations (notably the IOM, UNHCR, UNCTAD, and the Population Division).

He is involved in various (international) research projects. He is author of numerous articles, book chapters, books and reports on the sociology, politics and economics of post-migratory processes. He was the founding and managing editor of the Dutch quarterly journal Migrantenstudies (until 2002), was editor of the Netherlands' Journal of Social Sciences, and is currently editor of the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, advisory editor of the International Migration Review (IMR), associate editor of the Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI), and editor of the Solidarity and Identity Series of the Amsterdam University Press. Since January 1, 2020 he has been managing editor of International Migration.

Academic positions

• 2015 – 2023: Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam.
• 2021 – 2022: Prof. Dr J.A.A. van Doorn Chair, Professor by Special Appointment), Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).
• 2005 – 2015: Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam.
• 2000 – 2005: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam.
• 1994 – 2000: Senior researcher and program manager, Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam.
• 1990 – 1994: Post-doc researcher, Institute for Sociology of Law, Faculty of Law, Catholic University Nijmegen
• 1986 – 1991 : Junior researcher, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Center for Study of Multi-Ethnic Society (SMES), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Utrecht.
• 1982 – 1986: Research assistant, Center for the Study of Social Conflicts (COMT), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leiden.

Citations and impact

According to Harzing’s Publish and Perish, Jan Rath’s work has been cited 9,564 times with an average of 52,26 citations per paper, the H-index is 44, and the G-index 97 (March 7, 2024). Google Scholar estimates 10,073 citations, H-index 44, and i10-index 99 (June 27, 2024). Scopus counts 2,058 citations, h-index 18 (January 9, 2023).

Research output

• ORCID 0000-0003-1961-2763
• Google Scholar
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