Prof Harlan KOFF

Harlan Koff Full Professor of Social Sciences and Migration Studies in the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg. He is also head the Faculty of Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences’ Research Priority on Migration and Inclusive Societies.

Dr. Koff’s research focuses on sustainable development, migration, comparative border politics and comparative regional integration.  It specifically engages with policy coherence for sustainable development (PCSD) which examines how policy interactions contribute to or undermine sustainability and human rights. He has published 1 book, 8 edited volumes, 42 peer-reviewed articles, and 36 peer-reviewed book chapters in English, French, Italian and Spanish. He has also supervised: 16 postdoctoral scholars, 8 other researchers, 15 Ph.D. candidates (4 of which in progress), 83 Masters theses (5 of which in progress), and 6 Bachelors theses.

Dr. Koff teaches in the university’s Master in European Governance on comparative regional integration and sustainable development. He also co-teaches Ph.D. seminars on research concepts and methods at the University of Luxembourg’s Doctoral School in Social Sciences and co-organizes the RISC-RISE Consortium’s Doctoral School on Human Rights and Sustainability. He is a recipient of the University of Luxembourg’s Teaching Excellence Award.

Prof. Koff has been engaged with civil society and government in public policy discussions throughout his career. Most recently, he has won RISC-RISE community engagement grants to promote two initiatives: 1) a policy coherence for indigenous communities project with the Veracruz Institute for Indigenous Peoples and 2) a policy coherence for clean water project with Global Water Watch in Mexico. He has also contributed to the United Nations Development Programme’s Sustainable Finance Report for Cabo Verde with a PCD analysis of Global South-South Development Funding in the country.

Dr. Koff holds the GAMMA-UL  Chair in Regional Integration and Sustainability at the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL), Mexico. He is also Senior Research Associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and Docent in development Studies at the University of Helsinki (Finland). In the past he was a West Africa Institute Fellow (Cabo Verde), a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute and a Fulbright Fellow in both France and Italy.

Prior to his current position, Prof. Koff was Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Luxembourg (2026-2014) and founding head of the university’s Political Science Institute.

Prof. Koff obtained his B.A. in History and Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He completed is M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science at Duke University.