Carolien Jacobs is Assistant Professor at the Van Vollenhoven Institute. She has a background in International Development (MSc, Wageningen University) and in Legal Anthropology (PhD Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology/Wageningen University). She is a socio-legal, qualitative oriented scholar with an interest in interdisciplinary research. She teaches various courses in the field of Law and Society and regularly supervises Bachelor, Master, and PhD theses.

Her research covers the broad fields of law, governance and international development, especially in Africa and in conflict-affected countries. Migration in the contexts of conflict and of climate change are at the core of her research interests, as reflected in her long-term research agenda on internal displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in collaboration with a team of Congolese research partners.

Concluded research looked at ‘Everyday justice and security provision for displaced and residents in Bukavu, DR Congo’, 'Climate-related displacement in Mozambique in the aftermath of cyclone Idai', and 'Transnational Figurations of Displacement'. At present, Carolien is involved in research for the Just Future Alliance, for which she conducts research on lawmaking in the DRC, and on legal identification and registration of internally displaced persons. Besides, she continues to conduct research on climate migration.

Carolien’s research is part of the research programme Effective Protection of Fundamental Rights in a Pluralist World. She is an editor of the Journal of Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, a senior research associate of the Internal Displacement Research Programme, hosted at the University of London, a fellow member of the African Studies Centre Leiden Community, a member of the Law and Development Research Network, and a member of the Environmental & Climate Mobilities Network.