Barbara Oomen holds a chair in the Sociology of Human Rights at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ. This is a small appointment (0.05) next to her fulltime position at the HZ/ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Applied Sciences, where she served as a president upto June 205.
Until June 2022 prof. Oomen worked at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ College Roosevelt. From 2012-2016 she was the Dean of this College. Her research is about the interplay between law and society, with special attention for human rights, human rights cities and legal pluralism. She chaired the Vici-project 'Cities of Refuge', that considered the role of human rights in how cities throughout Europe welcome and integrate refugees. Het most recent books are 'Rights for Others: the slow-homecoming of human rights in the Netherlands' (2014) and 'Global Urban Justice: the rise of human rights cities' (2016), both with Cambridge ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Press.
Barbara Oomen was also active in the field of education, as an expert on human rights education, undergraduate research and excellence in education. She holds a variety of social positions in the field of human rights and education. In the past, she was a member of the Advisory Board of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, the Constitutional Review Commission, the Advisory Council on International Affairs and the UNESCO scientific commission. In the 2016-2017 academic year, prof. Oomen was a Senior Fernand Braudel fellow at the European ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Institute in Florence.