He has been a visiting lecturer at Bilgi University, Istanbul University and Chulalongkorn University, and a research fellow at Yale University's Department of Political Science. Oude Nijhuis specializes in the comparative political economy of labor markets and welfare states and the political economy of European integration. His work has been published in World Politics, Labor History, Twentieth Century British History and the Journal of Economic and Social Geography. His thesis was shortlisted for the Nederlandse Kring voor de Wetenschap der Politiek Annual Dissertation Award. He has received an NWO-Rubicon grant for a research proposal that aimed to uncover the determinants of organized labor support for redistribution. In 2011 he was awarded the prize for best article of the year on a non-U.S. or comparative topic by the journal Labor History.