Projects with student fellowships

Prevention of Violence Against Children | Sophia Backhaus & Patty Leijten

This project addresses the prevention of violence against children by diving into the specific effects of parenting interventions. As of 2023, the World Health Organization recommends these interventions globally as a public health strategy to reduce violent parenting. Evidence shows that such programmes significantly reduce physical and emotional violence, with effects that persist over time and across diverse parent populations. However, we still lack clarity on what kinds of violence these interventions actually prevent. Do they stop parents from slapping, or also from more severe acts like burning or choking? 

Invisible Conflicts | Saurabh Khanna

A dataset of "invisible conflicts" will be developed - the idea is to have a stronger focus on global/regional conflicts where the conflicts' presence in media narratives (using data from newsapi) is much less pronounced than the ground level losses to human life (using cleaned ACLED data). The long-term goal is to systematically assess the visibility of each conflict in the news media landscape and suggest ways to improve visibility where possible.

Moral Cognitive Warfare | Henrik Pröpper

This project explores the use of moral language in Russian and English social media posts within the context of cognitive warfare and online influence. By conducting a manual content analysis of both real-world and synthetic (AI-generated) texts, the research examines how moral framing is used to persuade, mobilise, or polarise audiences in online environments. The findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of moral narratives in digital conflict communication, informing both academic theory in moral psychology and communication research, as well as practical applications in the detection and mitigation of information manipulation.

Strengthening Citizen Participation in Amsterdam | Nanke Verloo

This project is a collaboration between the Municipality of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). Under the academic lead of Nanke Verloo and Stan Majoor, researchers, students, civil servants, and citizens collaborate in studying the effects of participation policies, and co-develop strategies for more inclusive urban governance.

Nonviolence Network (NVN) | Anne de Jong

The Nonviolence Network is a new initiative led by Anne de Jong that aims to connect scholars, activists, NGOs, and policy makers working on or with nonviolent resistance. This project focuses on identifying and mapping different stakeholders and actors in the Netherlands who engage with nonviolent resistance in their work. In addition, the initiative includes organising a network meeting at the VU in late January to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange. As part of its outreach, the NVN will also set up a webpage to present its activities and engage potential partners from the NGO sector.

State Policies on Internal Displacement | Abbey Steele

This project examines state policies related to internally displaced people (IDPs). Using policy documents collected by the UNHCR office on Law and Policy, it analyses whether national laws and policies provide protections for IDPs. The focus is on key rights, including freedom of movement, access to essential services such as health and education, and access to identity documents.

Political Trees | Erella Grassiani

This anthropological study looks at trees as political tools and  analyses how humans turn trees into political tools and harness ecological concerns to political goals.

Violence and nonviolence resistance in Palestine-Israel | Anne de Jong

This project focuses on violence and nonviolent resistance in Palestine-Israel, with particular attention to developments since 7 October 2023. It aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of recent publications addressing key themes such as settler colonialism, political violence, resistance practices, and broader critical theoretical perspectives on the ongoing situation. Through a semi-structured literature review and systematic archiving of topical publications, the project seeks to map emerging scholarly debates and interventions, identifying conceptual, political, and methodological contributions to the field.