Grants and Awards FSS

The FSS Dissertation Award seeks to increase the high quality of empirical research in the broad field of social sciences. The granting of the FSS Dissertation Award is open to all FSS former PhD students that defended their dissertations in the past two years at the faculty. 

Rosanne Anholt (Political Science & Public Administration)
Governing (In)security and the Politics of Resilience
Promotor: W.M. Wagner

Summary
Little is known about the significance and implications of governments, donors, international organizations, and (international) non-governmental organizations turning to ‘building resilience’ in response to crises of insecurity. Analysis of European Union policy documents in the area of security, humanitarian aid, and development assistance and interviews with humanitarian and development professionals working under the banner of the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP) in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, show that ‘resilience’ is understood as the selfreliance of affected states and populations, and that ‘building resilience’ requires localized responses and collaboration across long-standing policy siloes. In the context of the 3RP, ‘resilience-building’ aims at containing refugees in ‘the region’ by framing refugees as an economic development opportunity for refugee-hosting countries. These findings point to the need to continuously and critically reflect on interests and agendas informing policy and practice, and more broadly, on what is necessary for vulnerable individuals and social, economic, and political systems to recover from crisis.

Elena Bonanini (Social and Cultural Anthropology)
Reshaping Humanitarian Intervention in Greece
Promotor: D. Dalakoglous

Summary
This dissertation focuses on the reconfiguration of bordering and migration practices in Greece triggered by the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement in March 2016 as a culmination of a series of political decisions on migrations aimed to address what was labelled a ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015. Such measures form part of the EU’s migration management, through practices of securitization of borders and humanitarian intervention. I approached the topic by examining the humanitarian intervention provided to newcomers, utilizing as an observation point a local non-governmental organization to explore how the measures are translated on the ground into the daily practices of humanitarian care. Building on the differing management of migration systems generated by the new measure according to geographical location – mainland and islands – I conducted my fieldwork research between April 2018 and May 2019 on a small southeastern Aegean Island, Tilos, and in Athens on the mainland, in an accommodation facility and a centre that provides integrated services respectively. The findings collected in both fieldsites ultimately indicate that the ‘refugee crisis’, attributed to the numerous arrivals, materializes instead in the reception system and the way in which migration is managed.

Robert Larruina (Organization Sciences)
The Winding Road to Meaningful Integration: A Ten-Year Multi-Perspective Approach to Unraveling Refugee Reception and Integration in the Netherlands
Promotor: K. Boersma & H. Ghorashi

Summary
Robert’s dissertation focuses on the reception and integration of refugees in the Netherlands by studying the work of civil society, volunteers, governmental organisations and refugees and their interactions between 2011 and 2021. His research aims to understand if refugees had the necessary social and institutional conditions to achieve meaningful integration and how different challenges at the social and political levels influenced that. By meaningful integration, he understands the integration that makes sense to refugees because it aligns with their lifeworlds and considers their possibilities and ambitions. In his research, he used the notion of bordering because this concept helps us see and understand from everyday actions to more subtle forms of exclusion that prevent refugees from having a fulfilling life in the Netherlands. The main motivation behind his research was observing civil society organisations trying to make refugee reception and integration more viable and the challenges and limitations governmental organisations presented to them. What is more, no matter the resources and time allocated to the refugee reception and integration in NL, there is a lot to be done (as constantly seen in the news) to give the right opportunities for refugees to become part of Dutch society.

Felicia Loecherbach (Communication Science)
Diversity of News Consumption in a Digital Information Environment
Promotor: W. van Atteveldt

Summary
This dissertation examines the impact of a digital information environment on media diversity and the types of political news people consume. The study is based on four sub-studies, two of which focus on methodological and conceptual challenges faced by researchers in studying media diversity in the digital environment. In Chapter 2, a systematic literature review of over 200 academic articles was conducted to identify gaps in existing research, revealing that most studies on media diversity rely on outdated ideas from an era dominated by mass media, and do not consider the impact of personalization and fragmentation. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the challenges associated with collecting digital traces for research purposes, including data access, privacy, and usability of data collection tools. The chapter offers recommendations on how researchers can collect data from multiple platforms and devices to improve their studies. Chapter 4 and 5 examine the impact of fragmentation and personalization on news diversity. The main findings of these studies show that fragmentation leads to less diverse news consumption, whereas personalization leads to more niche and diverse consumption. Overall, the dissertation concludes that the digital environment has fundamentally changed the way people engage with news and that media diversity research needs to evolve to reflect these changes, considering aspects such as personalization and fragmentation.

Moos Pozzo (Sociology)
Language playfulness of contextual navigators: Young refugees’ language strategies for inclusion in the Netherlands
Promotor: H. Ghorashi

Summary
Moos Pozzo conducted PhD research with young refugees between the ages of 12 and 23 in the Netherlands. Her research is entitled “Language playfulness of contextual navigators: Young refugees’ language strategies for inclusion in the Netherlands”. It focuses on the experiences and employment of languages during their participation and integration trajectories from their stay in the Dutch asylum seekers centres until living in society for several years. Despite that the integration policy increasingly emphasizes that learning Dutch is key to participation and integration, the language strategies of young refugees – consisting of their language learning, language choices and multilingual co-creations - have so far remained unexamined. By including these young people in the choices of methods and eventually through co-creation of the entire research process, the research uncovers how they constantly develop and adapt their language strategies to deal with the paradoxes between participation and integration policy expectations and their real-life experiences.


Previous years 

The FSS Research Award aims to bring the most appealing, promising and original research achievements into the spotlight. Each academic department of the FSS may nominate one candidate. This year the FSS Research Award will be granted to a junior research talent.

Bianca Beersma (Organization Sciences)

Summary
Cooperation and competition are at the core of organizing. For interdependent individuals, groups, and organizations, finding a balance between their own perspectives and interests and those of others, is essential for obtaining effective collective outcomes. My team members and I use a variety of research methods (e.g. experiments, surveys, interviews, agent-based models) to study the motivational and contextual factors that drive organizational behavior in settings where both cooperation and competition play a role. We do “basic” research that aims to build theory on organizational behaviors, such as gossip (for which I received an ERC Consolidator Grant), negotiation, and conflict management. More recently, inspired by my family situation in which long-term care plays an important role, I also engage in more “applied” research on joint decision-making in healthcare. I find it important that scientific research contributes to solving societal problems and helped facilitate this as the Talma Institute’s scientific director (2020-2023).

Marjolein Broese (Sociology)

Summary
Marjolein Broese van Groenou is a full professor in the department of Sociology. She holds a chair on ‘Informal care in a changing society’ and aims to increase the scientific and societal impact of the domain of informal care. With a continuous stream of research grants in 2G and 3G in the past decades, she has built a strong research program on how individual, family and societal factors impact on the decision to use or provide informal care. Besides increasing our theoretical understanding of the domain, she strategically connects with a variety of societal stakeholders (via media, conferences, publications) to increase understanding of how informal care can remain a sustainable part of our long term care system in an ageing society. This all has been accomplished in addition to managing the department of Sociology since 2004 as research manager and recently head of department.

Naná de Graaff (Political Science and Public Administration)

Summary
Naná de Graaff’s research combines the fields of International Political Economy and Elite Studies (political sociology) as well as geopolitics, with a special focus on Chinese political and economic elites; the globalization of Chinese firms; the growing role of China in Europe, US foreign policy in the post-Cold War period; American political and economic elites; corporate elite networks; Social Network Analysis (SNA); and the politics and political economy of energy. Her future research (VIDI grant) will focus on the geopolitical drivers of an emergent techno-nationalism in the EU, which must be seen as linked to a possible process of decoupling of the European and Chinese economies. These developments contribute to a new global dynamic of (potential) de-globalization and create new challenges and problems not only for states but also for global business (elites) with a vested interests in globalization. Her research is theoretically grounded in critical political economy while her empirical research employs an innovative mix of methods, especially SNA.

Elly Konijn (Communication Science)

Summary
Prof. dr. Konijn's dedication to communication and media psychology has yielded a profound understanding of media usage, processing, and its societal effects. Her pioneering research spans three critical domains in Media Psychology, reshaping our comprehension of media and human interaction. In the realm of media personalities, virtual entities, and social robots, Prof. dr. Konijn's comprehensive investigations reveal the intricate interplay between these entities and human perception, unveiling new dimensions in media psychology. Her exploration of emotions and reality perceptions shaped by media has redefined social reality understanding. Moreover, her studies underscore the significant impact of media on moral standards and societal perspectives, establishing a benchmark in comprehending media's psychological impact. Prof. dr. Konijn's groundbreaking research into adolescent media usage delves into critical areas such as cyberbullying, effects of violent video games, thin-body ideal perpetuation, and self-presentation complexities. These findings not only illuminate the darker facets of media influence on youth but also offer guidance for policymakers and educators in addressing pressing societal concerns.

Pal Nyiri (Social and Cultural Anthropology)

Summary
We are glad to nominate Professor Pal Nyiri for FSW Research award 2023. Pal’s career and research perfectly encapsulates the width of FSW and anthropology’s reach into studying contemporary world challenges. In Pal’s case he sets light to the international influence of Chinese politics in Europe and the World, focusing on the lives and the roles of the actors of this effect of ideas, information, labour and capital. With nine (co)authored books and ten edited volumes, Pal has been one of the most prolific scholars of our faculty, with excellent scholarship published by prestigious University Presses and some of the best journals of social sciences.

Previous years 

The Johannes van der Zouwen Masterthesis Award is the prize for the best master's thesis in the field of social science research. The master thesis has to be graded with a minimum of 8 and has to be completed and graded a maximum of 1 year before the submission date. Each master programme of FSS may nominate a thesis. 
 
Aletta Koopmans (Sociale en Culturele Antropologie) 
Digital Feminist Activism among the Yemeni Transnational Community: A Case Study of Peace Track Initiative 

Céline Manten (Beleid, communicatie en organisatie) 
Zonder wrijving geen glans: Een kwalitatief onderzoek naar de omgang van management consultants met weerstand tijdens de unfreezing fase van een organisatieverandering 

Samuel Ornstein (Political Science) 
Civility is in the eye of the disobedient. Tolerance for violence during protest in the Netherlands 

Denise Roth (Societal Resillience) 
Adapting to the Climate Challenge: A Computational Analysis of UK’s Media, Politics, and Public in Addressing Climate Change 

Abel van de Sluis (Communicatiewetenschap) 
Latent opinions and overt expressions: antisemitic attitudes in Dutch society

Megan van der Vorst (Culture, Organization and Management)
“The Lockdown After Math”: Organizational trauma and healing in the aftermath of a slow-burning crisis 

Daphne van Waarde (Bestuurskunde) 
Buiten de lijnen, niet buiten spel 
 
Previous years