Prof. Marleen Dekker appointed new director of the African Studies Centre Leiden

Prof. Marleen Dekker has been appointed as the new director of the African Studies Centre Leiden. She will take up her new position on 1 April 2021 and has been appointed for a period of four years. Marleen Dekker is Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa. She will succeed Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald, who will continue as Professor of African History at Leiden University and senior researcher at the ASCL. The Board of the ASCL would like to express its gratitute to Professor Gewald for his huge commitment to the ASCL during his directorship.

Prof. Dekker was trained as a human geographer at the University of Amsterdam and holds a PhD in Development Economics from VU Amsterdam. She joined the African Studies Centre as a researcher in 2007, and became coordinator of the Knowledge Platform for Inclusive Develoment Policies in Africa (INCLUDE) in 2014. She was appointed Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa at Leiden University in 2017 (read her inaugural address). 

Her research is interdisciplinary in nature and analyses the role of social norms and networks in accessing markets and local socio-economic development. The focus of her work is on what determines access to formal and informal financial services, including informal insurance networks, community-based health insurance and intra-household resource sharing. Prof. Dekker is also the convenor of the Collaborative Research Group Governance, entrepreneurship and inclusive development.

Read more about Marleen Dekker on the ASCL website and on Leiden University's website. 

Photo credit: Sandra Hazenberg