Research

Nationality

Dutch

Lothar Smith is an Associate Professor in migration and rural-urban connectivity.

Can you introduce yourself?

I see myself as an engaged global scientist and educator. Growing up in southern Africa, but also doing research with local partners in countries around the world, the contrasts and inequalities between different parts of the world are striking. However these differences also recur at more local levels, such as in cities. 

As the coordinator of our Human Geography Master programme, with further teaching roles in courses such as 'Globalisation & Extractivism' and 'Migration, Displacement & Justice', but also as a thesis supervisor there is , happily, lots of opportunity to engage with you on your own stance, engagement and positioning in the local-global continuum that has come to define much of our everyday worlds.

Why did you choose to study/work in this field? What makes this field so interesting?

The field of human geography is quite diverse and embracing - it seeks to connect all kinds of themes and perspectives on key processes happening around the world, by giving these a literal place; understanding how they are given definition at local levels, how they impact societies at various geographic scales. 

With much interest in migration, perhaps because of my own history as a migrant, as the child of 'development aid' teachers, I take particular interest in how migration impacts not only the lives of those on the move, but also those who 'remain behind'. For that scale matters, as this helps to understand that migration, as a field of study, cannot be understood fully through local or even national-scale studies. We cannot study where people migrate to, without understanding the geopolitical influences impacting on this, i.e. their very scope to migrate, their possibilities. But it also matters how well transnational ties, connecting migrants with their families and friends back home can be sustained, through remittances - financial and social - that flow back and forth. In turn their value, their merit, needs to be seen in the light of other global flows for the opportunities, but also inequalities, thereby produced. 

Making such connections, by showing - through real life case studies - how people are able to both derive agency from activities such as trade or migration that they engage with, yet also find themselves subjected to unequal conditions of a global economy - is what excites me about doing research, and teaching, in this field.

What are you currently doing your own research on?

Alike to my colleagues we are always involved in multiple research projects at any moment in time. In particular this says much about our wide scope of interests. However, let me highlight one research project: 

Where my past research focused much more on transnational dimensions connected to international migration (e.g, the role of remittances, the influence of diasporas), I presently find the mobility dynamics in the continuum connecting rural and urban spaces, a far more compelling field of study. Not only is it empirically far more significant than international migration, if you look purely at the volume of people on the move, but - more importantly - this research can also help to better understand the relation of human movement to other flows, whether of technology, money, new ideas or other forms of capital. Thus, since 2015, I have been conducting longitudinal research with local research partners in northern Ghana, looking at these rural-urban dynamics.

What advice do you have for students making their study choice?

Given the fact that we provide you with ample space to conduct serious research with your thesis, I would warmly recommend - and I am certainly not alone in this - that you pursue research on topics you find compelling, important, inspiring, etc. 

Also, while you may be more comfortable doing research in one language more than another, or one geographical context more than another, or use a more quantitative rather than a qualitative approach (or vice versa), I would warmly recommend that you really use your Master programme as a true opportunity to learn, going well beyond what you feel to be safe ground. As supervisors we will readily support you in this endeavour.

What is the best part of working with students?

At the master level the sheer commitment and strong self motivation of students is something we - lecturers - simply enjoy. You encourage each other, build on ideas we share with you, and often traverse well beyond the thematic confines of whatever we teach you in our courses.

Something else which I often share as something of an insight, is my continued amazement at the steep learning curve that a one year Master produces, without exception. This is most visible in the difference in quality, in rigour, in theorisation, in reflection when comparing BA theses with those at the MA level. This makes our thesis supervision not only something we enjoy doing, but also very rewarding.