Prof. Dr. Jan Rath is Professor of Urban Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, Director of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES), Director of the Summer Institute, and Track Coordinator of the Master Programme on Migration & Ethnic Studies (at UvA's International School for the Humanities and Social Sciences). He is, moreover, involved in the IMISCOE Network of Excellence, sponsored by the European Commission.

He received his MA degree in cultural anthropology and urban studies and his PhD from Utrecht University. He has been active in various other disciplines, such as political science, sociology of law, economics and economic sociology. He previously held academic posts at the Center for the Study of Social Conflicts (COMT) in Leiden University, the Center for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Society (SMES) in Utrecht University, the Institute for the Sociology of Law in the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and the Department of Sociology in the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

He has done research on a wide array of topics including (electoral) political mobilization; trade unions; integration policy; the political and theoretical foundations of social science; racism; school segregation; spatial segregation; popular culture; Islam; the informal economy; immigrant entrepreneurship; urban tourism; public space; etcetera.

He is particularly interested in the ways in which cities in a globalizing world help shape unity and diversity. His research focuses on the interrelationship of city dwellers and the urban opportunity structure as well as the political, economic and symbolic dimensions of this interrelationship.

He is involved in various research projects. He is author of numerous articles, book chapters, books and reports on the sociology, politics and economics of post-migratory processes. He was the founding and managing editor of the Dutch quarterly journal Migrantenstudies (until 2002), and is currently editor of the Netherlands' Journal of Social Sciences, editor of the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, advisory editor of the International Migration Review (IMR), associate editor of the Journal of International Migration and Integration (JIMI).

1. REDIRECT Jan Rath's web site http://users.fmg.uva.nl/jrath/index.htm
2. REDIRECT IMES web site http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/imes/
3. REDIRECT IMISCOE web site http://www.imiscoe.org/