Maggi Leung is Professor of International Development Studies and Chair of the Governance and Inclusive Development research group. Maggi is a geographer and migration scholar by training. Her research aims to account for the prevailing uneven socio-spatial impact of the flows that define our interconnected world. She endeavours to produce insights that contribute to more just and sustainable futures. Working with multi-scalar, intersectional and translocal perspectives, her main research interests are: (i) opportunities and challenges of migration and mobilities (especially in peripherised areas and contexts particularly affected by climate and environmental changes) (ii) Chinese transnationalism and its impact on global development, and (iii) internationalisation of education and knowledge mobilities.

Maggi was born and raised in Hong Kong. She completed her higher education in the USA (BA at Dartmouth College and MA at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities), and obtained he doctorate in Human Geography at Bremen University in 2002. Leung began her academic career as a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2002-2006) and the University of Hong Kong (2007-2010). Between these two appointments, she was affiliated with the University of Bonn as Humboldt Research Fellow. She took up, in November 2010, the post of Assistant Professor in International Development Studies at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning of Utrecht University, where she worked (since 2011 as Associate Professor) for 11 years. She was appointed Professor of International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences in December 2021.

Maggi has extensive experience in fieldwork-based research in Asia (Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam), Africa (Ethiopia and Zambia) and Europe (Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Romania). She has conducted research across the urban-rural continuum. Much of her current research (Welcoming Spaces, VISION) focuses on development challenges and opportunities in peripherised places in Europe, and examines the role of migration and mobilities in these contexts. Maggi's resaerch in urban spaces (in particular Hong Kong, Amsterdam and other Dutch cities) centers on processes of in/exclusion and related (in)justices.

To optimise the impact of her research, Maggi engages in co-creative, action- and solution-oriented partnerships with academic and social actors. She makes efforts in translating and disseminating research findings to diverse audiences using different media and activities.

Maggi has broad teaching experience. She has taught in different education contexts (USA, Hong Kong and the Netherlands) and designed many Bachelor’s and Master’s courses and programmes. Besides being a committed educator in practice, she is also engaged in education-related research and initiatives (e.g. ERASUMS+ projects).

Maggi is one of the editors of Geoforum and has been a guest editor for a number of special issues (in Population, Space and Place, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, Transnational Social Review and Journal of International Migration and Integration) and books (Handbook of Translocal Development and Global Mobilities, A Modern Guide to Spatial Justice in Europe: Engendering Welcoming Spaces for Migrant Emplacement and Inclusive Development in ‘Left Behind’ Areas (in progress).

Currently, she serves as Steering Group member of the IMISCOE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe) research cluster on Gender and Sexuality in Migration Research (GenSeM), board member of CERES - The Dutch Research School for International Development, and member of the EADI International Accreditation Council for Global Development Studies and Research.

Working with multi-scalar, intersectional and translocal perspectives, Maggi's main research interests are:

• Uneven geographies of migration, mobilities and development, with a focus on opportunities and challenges of migration and mobilities (especially in peripherised areas and contexts particularly affected by climate and environmental changes)
• Geographies of in/exclusion, racialisation and related injustices (with recent focus on the context of COVID-19 pandemic)
• "Global China" and its impact on global development
• Chinese transnationalism and activism
• Internationalisation of education and knowledge mobilities

Current/recent research projects:

• GROW PhD programme (2024-2028)
  Co-funding: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND programme of the European Union
  Supervisor of two PhD candidates Patrick Arhin and Aarmstrong Mudzengerere
• Chinese Civil Society in The Netherlands and Europe: Trends, Opportunities and Challenges (2024)
  Funding: The Dutch Chinese Knowledge Network
  PI, with Pál Nyiri, Michael Liu and Ming Lou.
• 'VISION – Envisioning Convivial Europe' (2022-2025)
  Funding: Volkswagen Foundation
  PI of NL team, with Magdalena Nowicka at DeZim, Kyoko Shinozaki at Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg and Bianca Szytniewski Utrecht University, and PhD candiate Cristina Buza.
• ‘Investing in “Welcoming Spaces” in Europe: Revitalising shrinking areas by hosting non-EU migrants’ (2020-2024)
  Funding: European Commission Horizon 2020 (2019)
  Co-Investigator and of the Netherlands team (Project Coordinator), member of the overall Management Team with Annelies Zoomers, Bianca Szytniewski, Karin Geuijen and other team members based in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland.
• 'Navigating and making urban physical and digital spaces in the Covid‐19 pandemic"' (2022-2023)
  Funding: Seed grant, Centre for Urban Studies, The University of Amsterdam 
  PI, with Emiel Martens (Department of Media Studies, UvA), Özge Bilgili (Interdisciplinary Social Science (Social and Behavioural Sciences , Utrecht University) and Aly Amer (Department of Political Science, UvA).