Saskia Sassen is the Ralph Lewis Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics.

She is an internationally renowned sociologist and economist, noted for her analyses of globalization and international human migration.

Born in The Hague in 1949, she holds a PhD in Sociology and Economics from the University of Notre Dame, USA, and completed post-doctoral studies at the Faculté des Sciences Humains, Université de Poitiers, France and the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Most recently, she is the author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages. She is also the author of Cities in a World Economy (3rd ed), A Sociology of Globalization, Digital Formations: New Architectures for Global Order and The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages.

She has recently completed a five-year project on sustainable human settlement for UNESCO. The project established a network of researchers and activists in more than 30 countries and is published in the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: www.eolss.net.

She serves on several editorial boards and is an advisor to several international bodies. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities, and Chair of the Information Technology and International Cooperation Committee of the Social Science Research Council (USA).

Her comments have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde Diplomatique, The International Herald-Tribune, and The Financial Times, among others.

[last updated 22-July-2007]