Pieter van Houten is an Associate Professor in the POLIS department, where he teaches comparative politics, European politics and research methods. His past research interests focused on territorial politics (especially regional autonomy movements and regional parties) and state development in Western Europe, as well as post-conflict reconstruction in the Balkans. He has a PhD and MA from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from the University of Amsterdam.
He has supervised postgraduate students on a variety of topics, including territorial and party politics in Europe, state building and development, ethnic conflict, and applications of game theory and quantitative methods.
He is currently Director of Postgraduate Education and chairs the Ethics, Risk and Fieldwork (ERF) Committee in the POLIS department. He is a member of the University Council and the university’s General Board.