Thomas Kampen is a sociologist and has been affiliated with the University of Humanistics since 2015 as an assistant professor. His research focuses on social work, care and welfare, and lived experiences of public sector clients. In 2021 Kampen was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies and from 2016 to 2019 a part-time endowed professor at Inholland University of Applied Sciences.

Kampen published in Administration and Society (2022) and The British Journal of Social Work (2019, both with Trappenburg and Tonkens) on the implications of policy reforms for social work. He has published on the implementation of and experiences with social assistance in Work, Employment & Society (2021, with Sebrechts), European Journal of Social Work (2018, with Tonkens), Voluntas (2019, with Veldboer and Kleinhans, 2017 with Slootjes) and Social Policy and Society (2018, with Tonkens, 2013, with Elshout and Tonkens). In 2018, together with Jasmijn Slootjes, he won the Voluntas Best Article of the Year 2017 from the International Society for Third-Sector Research. Two years later, he received an Honorable Mention in the same competition with Lex Veldboer and Reinout Kleinhans.

Kampen has (co-)edited Welfare to Work in Contemporary European Welfare States (Policy Press, 2020, with Eleveld and Arts) and several Dutch books for a wide audience. 

His current research focuses on the interactions between social workers and social assistance recipients (together with Movisie). Kampen co-supervises three PhD candidates in the EU-funded project Solidarity in Diversity.

Kampen is bachelor coordinator and teaches  two third-year courses: 'Humanization and the Public Sector part 1 and 2' in which students conduct research for public sector organizations.