Mr E.R. Engelen (1963) has been appointed professor of Financial Geography at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG). Engelen has also been named professor by special appointment of Ethnic Entrepreneurship at the FMG. The chair was designated on behalf of the VNO-NCW Ethnic Entrepreneurship Chair Foundation.

Ethnic Entrepreneurship

In his capacity as professor by special appointment, Ewald Engelen will spend one day a week at the UvA's Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES), home to the special chair. He will be conducting empirical social research - in an international comparative perspective - on the development of entrepreneurship amongst first and second generation immigrants. Engelen will also focus on promoting academic education in the area of ethnic entrepreneurship and the formulation of concrete recommendations for stimulating independent entrepreneurship amongst immigrants.

Financial Geography

Engelen will work as professor of Financial Geography at the UvA's Amsterdam Metropolitan Institute for Development Studies (AMIDSt) for a total of four days a week. The research conducted as part of this chair will build upon Engelen's financial geographic work over the past few years. His focus will be on structural shifts in the locations of financial services centres as a result of globalisation, shifts in the balance of geopolitical power, the financial crisis and the subsequent political response. Engelen will also be establishing an educational programme in the area of financial geography.

Scientific career

Engelen's tenure at the UvA dates back to 1994. He has been a senior university lecturer at the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies since 2007. From 2003 to 2005, he also worked as a research fellow at Wageningen University and Research Centre, where he specialised in social sciences and applied philosophy. From 2004 to 2006, Engelen worked as a researcher at the Advisory Council on Government Policy. As of 2008, he has served as advisor and member of the editorial board at Buitenhof, a television programme broadcast by VPRO. He also writes a regular column on economic affairs at De Groene Amsterdammer. In 2005, Engelen was awarded a Vidi grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in recognition of his study entitled Where the Global Becomes Local. Amsterdam and the Changing Face of Finance.