Prof. M. van Leeuwen (Mathijs)

Professor - International Relations

Contact

mathijs.vanleeuwen@ru.nl
024-3615696

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Visiting address

Heyendaalseweg 141
6525 AJ NIJMEGEN

Postal address

Postbus 9108
6500 HK NIJMEGEN

Working days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

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 Clingendael, and with various NGOs in Kenya, Sudan, Guatemala and Bolivia. His PhD research at Wageningen Disaster Studies (2004-2008) concerned discourses and practices of civil society peacebuilding and their international support, with fieldwork in a.o. Burundi and Guatemala.

Since 2009, Mathijs works at the Centre for International Conflict Analysis and Management (CICAM). His current research work focuses on land disputes, post-conflict land reform, local governance, state formation, violence, and the discourses of intervening organizations on conflict and peace.

At the moment, he is coordinator of the master-tracks ‘Conflict, Territories and Identities’ and ‘Conflict, Power & Politics’ and teaches the following courses:
• Conflicting Theories; Applying Theoretical Approaches of Conflicts
• Natural Resources, Conflict & Governance
• Preparing the Master Thesis

Tags: peacebuilding, civil society, land conflicts, land reform, local governance, state formation, discourse, development policy and intervention

Publications

Projects

2018 - 2021 SECURING TENURE, SUSTAINABLE PEACE? The challenges of localizing land-registration in conflict-affected Burundi and eastern DR Congo. Through local fieldwork in pilots on new approaches to registration in Burundi and eastern DR Congo, the project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the challenges of local land registration and the recognition of claims in conflict-affected settings. Through knowledge-sharing with practitioners, it generates instruments that help development organizations better map potential outcomes. More information
2015 - 2016 ENHANCING LOCAL PEACE COMMITTEES - Facilitating stakeholder debate on the strategic choices involved in transitional justice in Burundi and DR Congo. Local Peace Committees (LPCs) have become an important strategy to promote transitional justice in conflict affected contexts. Support by (international) development organisations to LPCs implies strategic choices, including on the kind of justice and type of institutions to be promoted at the local level, and the future role of LPCs. However, so far, choices made tend to reflect the implicit assumptions and preferences of intervening organizations, and it remains difficult to assure the involvement and leadership of local stakeholders. This project explores what these assumptions and preferences are, and how local stakeholders can be better engaged in the strategic choices involved in supporting LPCs. More information
2014 - 2016 LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF LAND - Enhancing justice through land governance reform in DR Congo's eastern Kivu Provinces and South Sudan's Greater Equatoria Region. By ‘looking through the lens of land’, this action research aims to contribute to understanding the land-related justice concerns of local people in DR Congo’s eastern Kivu Provinces and South Sudan’s Greater Equatoria region, and how, through land governance and its reform, state and non-state authorities respond to these. On the basis of those insights the research aims to facilitate debate among major stakeholders on context-specific policy options and intervention strategies. More information
2011 - 2016 GROUNDING LAND GOVERNANCE - Land Conflicts, Local Governance and Decentralization in Post-Conflict Uganda, Burundi and Southern Sudan This interdisciplinary research programme investigates how land governance evolves in post-conflict situations, as an outcome of the interaction between multiple stakeholders, including government, traditional authorities, NGOs, and local people. Thereby, it looks in particular at how decentralization influences relations of governance, how it impacts the legitimacy and authority of local land tenure institutions, and how it affects the resolution of land conflicts. It builds around comparative analysis of case studies from Uganda, Burundi and South Sudan. More information

Prof. M. van Leeuwen (Mathijs)

Publications

Projects

Teaching

Ancillary activities