The Open Competion SGW-XS grants are intented to support promising ideas, and to facilitate innovative and more speculative initiatives within Social Sciences and Humanities, without thematic prerequisites. The grants provide researchers with space to explore initiatives quickly in small-scale, innovative projects. The projects last a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years and can thus quickly contribute to new scientific insights and societal solutions.
The assigned VU applications (in alphabetical order of the applicant):
Assistant professor in Language, Literature and Communication Gea Dreschler for her research The influence of GenAI on written language: the case of Dutch.
The widespread use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) raises an exciting question for linguists: is the uniqueness of GenAI going to cause changes in written language that are different from changes that have occurred in human languages so far? Research on English texts suggests that this is indeed the case, but data from other languages are needed to establish both universal and language-specific developments. This project investigates the influence of GenAI on written Dutch texts, with a focus on vocabulary and grammar. An overview of typical AI features will help language users recognize GenAI texts.
Assistant professor in Social and Cultural Anthropology Flávio Eiró de Oliveira for his research Bureaucratic Debris: Governance After Policy Termination in São Paulo.
What happens to specialized services, trained staff and equipment when governments terminate programs for homeless populations? In 2025, São Paulo moved hundreds of people out of "Crackland" - an area where drug users and homeless people lived for 30 years. People dispersed, but ambulances designed for street health care, police trained in specific tactics, and social workers with specialized expertise remained behind. This research studies whether these vestiges of "dead" policies continue to influence how cities govern vulnerable populations. Understanding this is urgent as cities worldwide increasingly displace marginalized groups, leaving behind invisible government debris that shapes future policies in unexpected ways.
Assistant professor in Spatial Economics Thomas de Graaff for his research A Scalable Text-Based Method to Recover Historical Housing Prices.
Historical housing prices are largely unobserved prior to the 1990s, which limits research on long-term housing affordability. This project develops a method to extract local housing prices and rents from digitized historical newspapers. The method identifies housing ads, prices, rents and housing characteristics and links them to locations and times. The project provides reproducible historical panel datasets of housing prices and rents that are reusable for a wide range of research purposes beyond housing affordability research. All code will be made publicly available, ensuring transparency and reproducibility.
Assistant professor in Political Science and Public Administration Philipp Lutz for his research The Normative Integration Regime: How Differential Expectations Shape Immigrant Societies.
In addition to formal immigration policies, societies have unwritten expectations about how immigrants should behave-but we lack evidence on this. Do people expect more from immigrants than from others? Do they think societies are stricter? This study surveys 2,500 Dutch residents to identify these expectations for everyday behaviors such as social participation, cultural practices and social interactions. By comparing what people personally believe with what they think others expect, and examining whether identical behaviors are judged differently depending on who performs them, the study reveals how informal expectations shape integration debates and policy preferences in diverse societies.
Assistant professor in Communication Studies Silvia Majo Vazquez for her research Do echo chambers exist only online? Examining exposure diversity on television and political polarization.
Echo chambers are often studied in online environments, but offline media consumption remains crucial for understanding polarization. This project investigates whether echo chambers exist in offline news consumption by analyzing television news consumption patterns using multimodal classification systems that use visual and video elements. Building on observational data already collected, the study measures diversity in exposure to television news. The analysis examines the links between offline media consumption patterns and measures of democratic citizenship, including political polarization and knowledge about surveillance. This research fills an important gap in polarization studies by extending echo chamber theory from digital platforms to traditional broadcast media.
Assistant professor of Water and Climate Risk Maurizio Mazzoleni for his research FEEL: Forecasting dengue Epidemics using Emotion and Language.
Dengue incidence has increased significantly over the past two decades due to climate change and human actions. Many models have been developed to better predict dengue infections based on climate data. Although human emotions can strongly influence adaptive behavior and thus dengue spread, no model has yet accounted for these emotions in dengue predictions. FEEL aims to develop a new approach that uses human emotions - derived from news and public social media sources - to improve predictions of dengue infections, complementary to climate factors. FEEL results can be used to support stakeholders in improving health management under climate and social change.
Assistant professor in Criminology Elanie Rodermond for her research Barbells behind bars: CrossFit as a novel approach to counter radicalization in Dutch terrorism wings?
Violent extremism is a persistent societal threat in Europe, while predominantly repressive and security-oriented approaches to radicalization prevention show limited effectiveness. Research suggests that unmet psychosocial needs, including social connectedness, self-esteem, identity development and resilience, are crucial determinants of radicalization susceptibility. Sport-based interventions offer a promising but under-researched approach to address these vulnerabilities. This research focuses on CrossFit, a community-oriented sport that combines structured routines, group cohesion, measurable progress and identity formation. By strengthening self-efficacy, social support and resilience, this study explores whether CrossFit can reduce violent-extremist attitudes and promote rehabilitation within high-security detention environments.
Assistant professor in Labor Law Vivian Bij de Vaate for her research Bridging the Gap: Public-Private Information Exchange to Strengthen Labor Law Enforcement in the Netherlands.
Labor law violations, including underpayment and sham constructions, are common and harm workers and competition. Although the Dutch Labor Inspectorate can investigate violations, it cannot ensure that workers are compensated. Social partners, such as trade unions, can collectively enforce labor rights but do not have inspection powers. This project investigates how information sharing between the Labor Inspectorate and social partners strengthens labor law enforcement. Combining legal analysis with empirical research, the study maps how these actors work together, what legal and practical obstacles they face, and how information sharing improves enforcement. The results provide concrete policy recommendations to protect vulnerable workers.
Assistant professor in Criminology Maartje Weerdesteijn for her research Gendered Justifications of Mass Atrocities by Female Perpetrators: The case of Maria Lvova-Belova.
This study examines whether, and how, the justifications of female perpetrators differ from this. It does so through a case of Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Through critical and rhetorical discourse analysis, speeches, press conferences, UN briefings, interviews and Telegram messages between 2022 and 2025 will be analyzed. This is important because the extent to which justifications are colored by gender influences how female perpetrators are perceived by others, including within international courts and tribunals.
Scholars will receive a maximum of €50,000.