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Laura Ogden (L.J.)

Research projects

Young people's sibling relationships between West Africa and Europe: transnational intra-generational kinship

My current research focuses on transnational siblingship--that is, relationships between young siblings who live in different countries. This addresses a key knowledge gap in research on transnational families, which has focused on inter-generational relationships between migrants and their children.

Transnational Siblings' Kinship between Africa and Europe: Imagining the Future Together, Apart

Many youth are part of transnational families separated across borders; in some African countries, up to 20% of youth have at least one parent abroad. Yet while we know much about youth’s relationships with their migrant parents, research has overlooked their transnational sibling relationships. As African youth grow in demographic importance, sibling relationships between Africa and Europe can generate important insights. Through multi-sited, audio-visual ethnography in Cape Verde, Portugal, and the Netherlands, this project asks how transnational siblings are ‘doing kinship’ and imagining their futures together, apart.

This 4-year project is funded by a VENI grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

Preliminary fieldwork for this project in Cape Verde in 2024 was conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Research and Training on Gender and the Family (CIGEF) at the University of Cape Verde (UniCV) and funded by the Fonds Dr. Catharine van Tussenbroek.

The right to (research) transnational sibling relationships: A co-research project with Ghanaian-background youth in Germany

This project involved 11 co-researchers, all young people of Ghanaian background living in Hamburg, Germany. Co-researchers attended a series of workshops, interviewed other migrant youth about their experiences of transnational sibling relationships, and produced podcasts presenting their interviews and analysis. Ethnographer and radio producer Vera Klocke provided training and post-production on podcasting.

A radio feature (in German) about the project aired in August 2025 on the German radio station Deutschlandfunkkultur's show Echtzeit.

A website featuring podcasts by the co-researchers and illustrations by Claudia Flandoli will share research findings with legal practitioners, NGOs, and the general public to bring the voice of transnational siblings to debates on child rights to family reunification and relationships. This co-research project is funded by the Child Rights Research Fund and an Incentive Grant from the Playground and Laboratory for New Technologies (Plant).

Students' Understandings and Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education

 I am collaborating with Dr. Joris Boonen and two undergraduate students on a survey on students' definitions, ideals and self-assessments of global citizenship norms across all faculties of Maastricht University.

This survey builds upon the project, 'A full-cycle approach to Global Citizenship Education in international study projects', funded by a Learning & Innovation grant, in which Dr. Joris Boonen, Kevin Fuchs, Rikus van Eeden, and I explored the role of pre-departure training and post-arrival consolidation of Global Citizenship Education among third-year Bachelor of Global Studies students at Maastricht University (UM) who did an international field study.

Mobility Trajectories of Young Lives (MO-TRAYL)

My PhD thesis, Transnational Youth Mobility Trajectories: An ethnography of young people with a migration background between Ghana and Germany, was part of the MO-TRAYL project, funded by the European Research Council and led by Prof. Valentina Mazzucato.

I conducted 14 months of multi-sited, mobile ethnographic fieldwork with young people of Ghanaian background in Hamburg (Germany) and Ghana.

The objective of MO-TRAYL was to develop a better understanding of the relationship between migration and young people’s life chances, by studying the mobility and educational trajectories of young people growing up between Ghana, The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. See motrayl.com for more details.

As part of this project, I co-edited a Special Issue in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies with Prof. Valentina Mazzucato on 'Transnational Youth Mobility through Trajectories and Temporalities.'

Key publications
Recent publications
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Other publications

You can find a full list of my publications here or on Google Scholar.

Visual ethnography

Ogden, L.J. (2017) 'Maria, reforming. A portrait of a teacher in Timor-Leste's education reform.' Photo essay for Society for Psychological Anthropology 2017 Conference.

Ogden, L.J. (2017) 'Local Voices, Global Conversations.' Photo in mobile exhibition Heritage on the Move, Leiden Global.

Ogden, L (2017) Scripting Change: Education reform in Timor-Leste. MA thesis film [video: 42']

Ogden, L. and Bakker, V. (2015) Marion en Het Klaverblad [video: 13']

Media and science communication

'Nah fern – wie Geschwister zwischen Deutschland und Ghana aufwachsen' [How siblings grow up between Germany and Ghana], radio feature on co-research project by Vera Klocke, Echtzeit / Deutschlandfunkkultur (August, 2025)

'Legacies of Race and Space', Urban Uncovered podcast, w/ Ms. Marie-Aminata Peron (University of Toronto) and Ms. Mandipa Ndlovu (Africa Studies Centre Leiden) (2024)

'Young Ghanaians in Europe travel ‘home’ a lot: why their mobility matters', The Conversation-Africa (2021)