Her research focuses on Islam, politics of belonging, materiality and aesthetic practices, media, activism, and migration, with a regional focus on Morocco. She received her MA in Cultural Anthropology and her Ph.D. in Religious Studies/Islam Studies from Radboud University (2016). Her dissertation analyzed the political uses of contemporary Islamic music in Morocco. Subsequently, she conducted a postdoctoral research project at Utrecht University (2016-2020) on home-making practices of Dutch and Flemish Muslim converts in Morocco. Nina has taught at the Universities of Leiden and Utrecht and is an active member of several academic networks. Her current research explores music, art, and media in (post)colonial memory practices in the Rif (North Morocco) and its diaspora in Europe. She's also involved in the development of collaborative research methods through media and art.

Nina ter Laan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne as part of the Collaborative Research Centre "Media of Cooperation" project "Digital Publics and Social Transformation in the Maghreb". She is also part of the DAAD-funded exchange project, Dialogue on Migration Governance (DiaMiGo) and the Mediterranean Liminalities Research Lab.

Laan, N. ter (2023) “Assalamu alaykum, can we add this sister?” WhatsApp as an ethnographic research tool and a strategy of home-making among Dutch and Flemish muhajirat in Morocco. Religion and Gender, 13:2, 206-226. https://doi.org/10.1163/18785417-01302006

Laan, N. ter (2023) “Anything can happen on a smartphone...” Mutual explorations of digitalization and social transformation in Morocco's High Atlas through On/Offline Theatre Ethnography., Working Paper Series Media of Cooperation (June). https://dspace.ub.uni-siegen.de/bitstream/ubsi/2499/4/ter_Laan-Anything_can_happen_on_a_smartphone.pdf

Laan, N. ter (2021). “They have no taste in Morocco.” Home-making practices among Dutch Speaking muhajirat in Morocco. Contemporary Islam, 15 (1), Special issue, (Eds. A. Moors, N.Fadil & K. Arnaut) 15, 57–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-021-00464-4

Laan, N. ter (2021). Musical negotiations of a ‘moderate’ versus a ‘radical’ Islam in Morocco: dissonance and the sonic among vocal performers of Islam-inspired music, Religion, 51:2, 214-236. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0048721X.2021.1865602