Prof.dr. L.A.C.J. (Leo) Lucassen

Position:
  • Professor of Social History
  • Academic Director
Expertise:
  • Social History
  • Migation History
  • Urban History


Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2724
E-Mail: l.a.c.j.lucassen@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for History, Economische en Sociale geschiedenis
Office Address: Johan Huizingagebouw
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
Room number 2.11
Personal Homepage: hum.leiden.edu/​history/​staff/​lucassen.html

Spreekuur / Hours

Na afspraak / by appointment

Fields of interest

Migration, integration, urbanisation, global history, comparative history, police and criminality, social control, bureaucratisation, aliens policy, gypsies and travelling groups

Curriculum vitae

Leo Lucassen (1959) studied Social and Economic History at the University of Leiden (MA in 1985). In 1990 he was granted a PhD (cum laude) from Leiden for his dissertation on the history of Gypsies in the Netherlands 1850-1940. In 1989-1990 he was attached to the Law Faculty of the University of Nijmegen and in 1990-1991 to the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Leiden. Between 1991 and 1996 he worked as fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) at the History Department in Leiden and in 1996 received the D.J. Veegensprijs of the Hollandse Maatschappij van Wetenschappen. In 1998 he moved to the University of Amsterdam (UvA) where he directed a NWO pioneer project on the assimilation of immigrants in the Netherlands. In the year 2002-2003 he was fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Wassenaar. In 2005 he returned to Leiden, where he shares the chair of Social History with prof. Wim Willems. Since September 2007 Leo Lucassen is full time professor of Social History at the Leiden History Department.

Memberships and functions

- Member of the Academia Europaea
- Member of the N.W. Posthumus Institute
- Chair of the section Social and Economic History
- Coordinator of the Leiden University profile area on Global Interactions
- Chair of the Centre for the History of Migrants (CGM)

Leo Lucassen & Wim Willems, 'Integratie moet zich richten op álle laagopgeleiden', NRC 28-11-2010

Hier na te lezen

Research profile, 1: Global Migration History

Since 2003 I collaborate with Nancy Green, David Feldman, Jan Lucassen, Gijs Kessler and Ulbe Bosma (and more remotely with Leslie Page Moch, Donna Gabaccia, Dirk Hoerder, Patrick Manning and Adam McKeown) in a long term project that focuses on ‘Global Migration History’. The main aim is to further and develop interdisciplinary cooperation and link up with the booming field of World History. This project consists of a series of workshops and conference volumes. For the first workshop (NIAS 2005) we invited scientists working in the fields of population genetics, paleo-archeology, anthropology and linguistics and discussed their methods and the implications for main stream migration historians. The second workshop on membership regimes and settlement processes was hosted by Donna Gabaccia ( University of Minnesota), whereas the third workshop on migration and mobility will take place in August 2010 in Taipé. This is made possible by grants form the International Institute of Asian Studies (Leiden and Amsterdam) and the Taiwanese National Research Council. Closely related to this project is the recent research project together with Jan Lucassen on the quantitative reconstruction of migration rates in Europe since 1500 which has produced a formalized model that can also be applied to other parts of the world and will hopefully play a role in global comparisons and thereby contribute to ongoing discussions in world history.   

Links: http://www.iisg.nl/research/gmhp.php  

Key publications
Jan Lucassen en Leo Lucassen, The mobility transition in Europe revisited, 1500-1900. Sources and methods. IISH Research paper 46 (Amsterdam 2010) 110 pp.
Lucassen, Jan, Leo Lucassen & Patrick Manning) (eds.), Migration History in World History. Multidisciplinary approaches (Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers, January 2010).
Lucassen, Jan & Leo Lucassen, ‘The mobility transition revisited, 1500-1900: what the case of Europe can offer to global history’, The Journal Of Global History 4 (2009) 3, 347-377.
Lucassen, Jan & Leo Lucassen, ‘Mobilität’, in: Friedrich Jaeger (red.), Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit (Stuttgart en Weimar 2008) vol. 8, 224-244.
Lucassen, Leo, ‘Migration and World History: reaching a new Frontier’, International Review of Social History 52 (2007) 1, 89-96.
Lucassen, Leo, ‘Where Do We Go from Here? New Perspectives on Global Migration History’, International Review of Social History 49 (2004) 3, 505-510.
Lucassen Jan & Leo Lucassen, ‘Alte Paradigmen und neue Perspektiven in der Migrationsgeschichte’, in: Mathias Beer & Dittmar Dahlmann (eds.), Über die trockene Grenze und über das offene Meer. Binneneuropäische und transatlantische Migrationen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Essen 2004) 17-44.

Lucassen, Jan, Leo Lucassen & Patrick Manning) (eds.), Migration History in World History. Multidisciplinary approaches (Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers 2010).


Klaus Bade, Pieter Emmer, Leo Lucassen en Jochen Oltmer (red.), The Encyclopedia of Migration and Minorities in Europe. From the 17th century to the present (New York 2011, Cambridge University Press).


(met Jan Lucassen) (red.), Mi­gra­tion, Migration History, History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (Bern etc., Peter Lang, 1e druk 1997, 2e druk 1999, 3e druk 2005).


Research profile, 2: Integration

This part of my research deals with long term and intergenerational settlement processes and the comparison between the past and the present. Inspired by colleagues like Richard Alba and Nancy Foner I make a distinction between structural (work, education and housing) and identificational (friends, partners, organizations, political mobilization, cultural preferences pertaining to clothing, food and music) dimensions. This research is highly comparative and compares both in time and place. The time dimension is both short  (19th to late 20th) and long (early modern to modern). As for the spatial dimension, I am interested in comparing different membership regimes within European history, as in more global approaches. Empirical research ranges from intermarriage to migrant organizations and back. An important subproject is the European Encyclopedia on migration and integration since 1500 which was published in German in 2007 and of which a revised version will appear in 2010, published by Cambridge University Press. 

Key publications
Lucassen, Leo & Charlotte Laarman, ‘Immigration, intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period, The History of the Family, vol. 14, 2009, no. 1.
Lucassen, Leo, ‘Das Heiratsverhalten von deutschen Migranten in den Niederlanden (1860-1940). Die Bedeutung von Ethnie, Religion, Klasse und Geschlecht.’, Historische Zeitschrift (Fall 2009).
Lucassen, Leo & Rinus  Penninx. "Caught between Scylla and Charybdis? Changing orientations of migrant organisations in the era of national states, from 1880 onwards." In IMISCOE Working Papers, no. 26 (June 2009) 67 pp.
Bade, Klaus J., Pieter C. Emmer, Leo Lucassen & Jochen Oltmer (red.), Enzyklopädie  Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh & Wilhelm Fink 2007).
Lucassen, Leo, David Feldman & Jochen Oltmer (eds.), Paths of integration. Migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004)  (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2006).
Lucassen, Leo, The Immigrant Threat. The integration of old and new migrants in Western Europe since 1850 (The University of Illinois Press, Chicago and Urbana, 2005).
Lucassen, Leo, 'Bringing structure back in. Economic and political determinants of immigration in Dutch cities (1920-1940)', Social Science History  26 (Fall 2002) no. 3,  503-529.
Lucassen, Leo, 'Old and new migrants in the twentieth century: A European perspective', in: Journal of American Ethnic History 21 (2002) no. 4, 85-101.

Leo Lucassen en Jan Lucassen, Winnaars en Verliezers (Bert Bakker, Amsterdam 2011)


Leo Lucassen, David Feldman en Jochen Oltmer (eds.), Paths of Integration. Migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004) (Amsterdam University Press 2006).


Leo Lucassen, The Immigrant Threat. The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850 (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, Oktober 2005).


Leo Lucassen (red.), Amsterdammer worden.Migranten, hun organisaties en inburgering, 1600-2000 (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2004).


(met Gerard van der Harst), Nieuw in Leiden. Plaats en betekenis van vreemdelin­gen in een Hollandse stad (1918-1955) (Primavera Pers, Leiden 1998).


(met Wim Willems) (red.): Het onbekende va­der­land. De repatrië­ring van Indische Ne­derlanders 1946-1964 (Den Haag, SDU, 1994).


(met A.J.F. Köbben), Het partiële ge­lijk. Con­tro­verses over het onderwijs in de eigen taal en de rol daarbij van beleid en weten­schap (1951-1991 ) (Swets & Zeitlinger, Amster­dam/Lisse 1992).


Research profile, 3: Migration Systems

This part of the research deals with micro and meso analyses of migration and mobility and the development of specific migration systems in Europe in the period 1500-1900. It aims at understanding migration decisions and motives at the individual, household and regional level. This interest is closely linked to the field of historical demography and family history. 

Key publications
Leo Lucassen, ‘Southeast Europe and the need for a comparative history of migration and membership’, in: Helmut Konrad and Stefan Benedik (eds.), Mapping Contemporary History II. 25 Jahre Zeitgschichte an der Universität Graz (Vienna and Cologne: Böhlau 2010) 123-144.
Lucassen, Leo, ‘Towards a comparative history of migration and membership in South-east Europe (1500-1900)’, Ethnologia Balkanica (forthcoming 2010) 25 pages.
Lucassen, Leo & Charlotte Laarman, ‘Immigration, intermarriage and the changing face of Europe in the post war period, The History of the Family, vol. 14, 2009, no. 1.
Laar, Paul van de, Leo Lucassen & Kees Mandemakers (red.), Naar Rotterdam. Immigratie en levenslopen in Rotterdam vanaf het einde van de negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam, Aksant, 2006).
Cottaar, Annemarie & Leo Lucassen, ‘A la dernière mode parisienne: les fabricants de chapeaux de paille wallons aux Pays-Bas, 1750-1900’, Actes de l’Histoire de l’immigration (AHI), (Avril 2003).
Lesger, Clé, Leo Lucassen & Marlou Schrover, ‘Is there life outside the migrant network? German immigrants in XIXth century Netherlands and the need for a more balanced migration typology.’,  Annales de Démographie Historique, no. 2 (2002) 29-50.
Lucassen, Leo & Boudien de Vries, 'The rise and fall of a West European textile-worker migration system: Leiden, 1586-1700', in: Gérard Gayot & Philippe Minard (eds.), Les ouvriers qualifiés de l'industrie (XVIe-XXe siècle). Formation, emploi, migrations (Lille 2001) 23-42.

Laar, P. van, Lucassen, L. en Mandemakers, K. (red.), Naar Rotterdam. Immigratie en levensloop in Rotterdam vanaf het einde vande negentiende eeuw (Amsterdam 2006)


Research profile, 4: Migration Controls

Since my dissertation on Gypsies in 1990 I have been intrigued by state authorities who for various reasons want to regulate mobility. This interest concerns both the early modern and modern period and looks at local and central levels. This research interest is closely linked to the broader field of state formation and the formalization of individual identities. From there it is a small step to studies that highlight state activities in making societies legible (James C. Scott) by fixed identities, passports and the like. 

Key publications
Schrover, Marlou, Joanne van der Leun, Leo Lucassen & Chris Quispel (eds.), Illegal Migration and Gender in a Global and Historical Perspective (Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2008).
Van Eijl, Corrie, en Leo Lucassen, ‘ Holland beyond the borders: emigration and the Dutch state, 1850-1940’, in: Nancy L. Green en Francois Weil, Citizenship and those who leave. The politics of emigration and expatriation (Urbana and Chicago 2007) 156-175.
Lucassen, Leo, 'Revolutionaries into beggars: alien policies in the Netherlands 1814-1914’, in: A. Fahrmeir et al. (eds.), Migration control in the North Atlantic world. The evolution of state practices in Europe and the United States from the French Revolution to the Inter-War Period (New York and Oxford 2003) 178-194.
Lucassen, Leo, 'Administrative into social control: the aliens police and foreign female servants in the Netherlands (1918-1940), Social History  27 (2002)  no. 3, 327-342.
Lucassen, Leo, 'A many-Headed monster: The evolution of the passport System in the Netherlands and Germany in the Long Nineteenth Century', in: Jane Caplan & John Torpey (eds.), Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World (Princeton University Press 2001) 235-255.
Lucassen, Leo, 'The Great War and the origins of migra­tion control in Western Europe and the United States (1880-1920), in: A. Böcker et al. (eds.), Regula­tion of migra­tion. Interna­tional experiences (Amsterdam 1998) pp. 45-72.

Research profile, 5: Gypsies and the state

My first (PhD) research dealt with the relation between the Dutch state and people it labeled as ‘Gypsies’, which inspired me to analyse critically the power of definition of state authorities and the consequences of labeling mechanisms and stigmatisation. These are closely linked to the theme of migration controls, mentioned above. In the last decade this interest has become less prominent but it still interests me highly.

Key publications 
Lucassen, Leo ‘Between Hobbes and Locke. Gypsies and the limits of the modernization paradigm’, Social History 33 (2008) no. 4, 423-441.
Lucassen, Leo & Wim Willems, 'The weakness of well ordered societies. Gypsies in Europe, the Ottoman empire and India 1400-1914', Review. A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the study of economics, historical systems and civilizations 26 (2003) no. 3, 283-313.
Lucassen, Leo, 'Zigeuner im früneuzeitlichen Deutschland: neue Forschungsergebnisse,  -probleme, und vorschläge', in: Karl Härter (Hg.), Policey und frühneuzeitliche Gesellschaft (Frankfurt am Main 2000) 235-262.
Lucassen, Leo, Wim Willems & Annemarie Cottaar, Gypsies and other itinerant groups. A socio-historical approach (London/New York, Mac­Mil­lan/St Martin's Press 1998).
Lucas­s­en, Leo, 'Harmful tramps'. Police professiona­liza­ti­on and gypsies in Germany, 1700-1945', Crime, History & Socie­ties 1 (May 1997) no. 1, pp. 27-50.
Lucassen, Leo, "Zigeuner". Die Geschichte eines polizeili­chen Ordnungs­be­griffes in Deutschland (1700-1945) (Böhlau-Verlag, Köln-Wien 1996).
Lucassen, Leo, 'A blind spot: migratory and travel­ling groups in Western European historio­grap­hy', Interna­tional Review of Social History 2 (Au­gust 1993) pp. 209-235.
Lucassen, Leo, 'En men noemde hen zigeuners'. De ge­schie­denis van Kaldarasch, Ursari, Lowara en Sinti in Nederland: 1750-1944 (Amsterdam/Den Haag 1990).

"Zigeuner". Die Geschichte eines polizeili­chen Ordnungs­be­griffes in Deutschland (1700-1945) (Böhlau-Verlag, Köln-Wien 1996).


(met Wim Willems en Annemarie Cottaar), Gypsies and other iterant groups. A socio-historical approach (MacMillan/St Martin's Press, London and New York 1998).


(met A. Cottaar en W. Willems), Men­sen van de reis: woonwa­genbewo­ners en zigeuners in Nederland (1868-1995) (Waanders, Zwolle 1995).


(met Wim Willems) Ongewenste vreem­delin­gen. Bui­ten­landse zigeuners en de Neder­landse over­heid: 1969-1989 (SDU Den Haag 1990).


En men noemde hen zigeuners'. De ge­schie­denis van Kaldarasch, Ursari, Lowara en Sinti in Nederland: 1750-1944 (Stichting Beheer IISG/SDU Amsterdam/Den Haag 1990).


Research profile, 6: State Formation and Modernity

This theme follows from my fascination in the role of states in the life of their citizens which started with my PhD research on Gypsies and the Dutch state in the late 1980s. More recently I have worked on case studies (on gypsies and the relation between eugenics and social democracy in Western Europe) that can be used to test critically popular ideas about modernity, high modernism and social engineering as developed by scholars like James C. Scott, Michel Foucault and Zygmunt Bauman.  

Key publications
Leo Lucassen, ‘A brave new world. The left, social engineering, and eugenics in twentieth-century Europe’, International Review of Social History 55 (2010) no. 2, 265-396.
Lucassen, Leo ‘Between Hobbes and Locke. Gypsies and the limits of the modernization paradigm’, Social History 33 (2008) no. 4, 423-441.  
Lucassen, Leo, ’Op het breukvlak van individu en gemeenschap. Europese sociaaldemocraten en een ‘brave new world’ in de 20e eeuw’, in: Jan van Bavel en Jan Kok (red.), “De levenskracht der bevolking": Sociale en demografische kwesties in de Lage Landen tijdens het interbellum (Leuven, Universitaire Pers najaar 2009) 30 pp.

Research profile, 7: Urban History

Together with my colleague Wim Willems ( Leiden University Campus The Hague) I have developed in the last years an interest in urban history and the role of migration and multiculturality. This has resulted in two book projects in which we have brought together Dutch specialists, both historians and social scientists on urban issues. Key questions are how population dynamics have changed cities through time. 

Key publications 
Lucassen, Leo & Wim Willems (red.), Waarom mensen in de stad willen wonen, 1200-2010 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker november 2009).
Willems, Wim & Leo Lucassen (red.), De krachtige stad. Een eeuw omgang en ontwijking  (Amsterdam, Bert Bakker 2007).
Lucassen, Leo & Wim Willems, Gelijkheid en onbehagen. Over steden, nieuwkomers en nationaal geheugenverlies (Amsterdam, Bert Bakker 2006).

Lucassen, Leo and Wim Wim Willems (eds.), Living in the city. Urban institutions in the Low Countries, 1200-2010 (London en New York Routledge, 2012).


Lucassen, Leo & Wim Willems (red.), Waarom mensen in de stad willen wonen, 1200-2010 (Amsterdam 2009).


Wim Willems en Leo Lucassen (red.), De Krachtige Stad. Een eeuw omgang en ontwijking (Amsterdam, Bert Bakker 2007).


Leo Lucassen en Wim Willems, Gelijkheid en onbehagen (Amsterdam 2006)


Professional services

- 1995- : Member of the Dutch Centre for the History of Migrants (CGM)
- 1998- : Reviewer and external expert for the Dutch Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO), the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the German Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRB).
- 2001-2010: Co-editor  (with prof. Klaus Bade, prof. Piet Emmer and dr. Jochen Oltmer of the Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zum Gegenwart (The English edition by Cambridge University Press in 2010).
- 2003- : Member of the Editorial Board of the series World Migration History, published by the University of  Illinois Press.
- 2003- :  Member of the Editorial Board van H-Migration (University of Michigan).
- 2004- : Member of the Advisory Board van het Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis (BTNG).
- 2005- : Associated member of the Institute for Ethnic and Migration Studies (IMES) of the University of Amsterdam
- 2005-2012: Co-editor of the theme ‘Mobilität’ of the Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit (12 volumes Stuttgart and Weimar 2005-2012).
- 2005- : Member of the Wissenschaftlicher Beirat (Scientific Board) of the book series IMIS-Schriften, Institute for Migration and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), University of Osnabrück.
- 2005- : Member of the Editorial Committee van IMISCOE (Network of Excellence in the domain of International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion ).
- 2006-2008: Chair of the Dutch NWO VICI-Committee of the Humanities.
- 2008- : Member of the Editorial Board of Europäische Geschichte Online/European History Online (Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz)

Institute for History
Last Modified: 14-05-2012