Prof. J. Nijman (1957) has been appointed Professor of Urban Studies in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

Jan Nijman’s work will contribute to interdisciplinary research within the Urban Studies research priority area. His main area of interest is international urban networks and how these feed into the internal cultural and economic development of cities. His research focuses primarily on comparative theoretical and empirical analysis of the city in its global context, and he is particularly known for his work on Mumbai and Miami. Current research projects centre on the changing role of suburbs in metropolitan regions, the economic and geographic significance of slums in Indian megacities, and how increasing spatial mobility is impacting citizenship in global cities. The city of Amsterdam will form an important focal point of his future research.

Nijman has been professor of Geography and Regional Studies at the University of Miami since 1998, where he also served as director of the Urban Studies Program at the university’s College of Arts & Sciences. Prior to that Nijman held posts at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, USA) and the University of Colorado (Boulder, USA). In 1996 he was appointed to the UvA’s Wibaut chair for metropolitan issues as a distinguished visiting research professor. Nijman is a former Guggenheim Fellow and current scientific adviser to the National Geographic Society. He has numerous publications to his name, including in professional journals such as Urban Geography, Cities, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie and International Journal for Urban and Regional Research. His book Miami: Mistress of the Americas was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in December 2010.