Conflict & Society ● Research Priority Area ● University of Amsterdam

Conflict & Society RPA (Research Priority Area) at University of Amsterdam (UvA)
Francisco Goya: The Third of May 1808

Conflict & Society Research Priority Area (RPA)
at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)

Developing a deeper and multidisciplinary understanding about the dynamics of conflict – in all its different forms. Read more about our mission here. The RPA is based at:

  • Writing Violence

    Writing Violence

    Tuesday 15 September | UvA Conflict Society

    Next Tuesday 15 September from 11.00-13.00 at Bushuis room E1.01E, we will be hosting the next Writing Violence session. The session is open to anyone working on sensitive or conflict-related issues (understood broadly), at any career stage. It’s not necessary to have attended prior workshops to join in. Our sessions work with the Chatham house rules, to ensure a care-full space where we can be jointly vulnerable and explorative.

    You can learn more & sign up for the sessions here (also to get early warnings for next sessions): https://forms.gle/6KN8X3VXpjqsBRwb6

    And you can always find powerpoints & prompt materials from previous sessions here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uB5zpwyOFY5S-ou1qa0A2kNdD14iicar?usp=drive_link 

    As usual, the session will include time and prompts to discuss, reflect and write! This time, as we’re coming back from summer holidays, we’ll be paying some additional attention to the dynamic between stress & rest, and figuring out how to set yourself up for ‘success’ when writing about challenging issues/experiences/materials. We’d also like to do a brief round to check what issues you’ll be working around this year, and how the Writing Violence sessions might help along the way.

    Please reach out if you have specific issues you’d like to bring to the table, we’re very happy to accommodate.

    Much looking forward to seeing you next week 🙂

    Best wishes,
    Julienne
    j.h.j.weegels@uva.nl

    _____________________

    The writing sessions are organisesd by Dr. Julienne Weegels.

    Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies // Coordinator Minor Global Justice // Coordinator MA Latin American Studies

    University of Amsterdam – CEDLA, Centre for Latin American Studies and Documentation

    E: j.h.j.weegels@uva.nl | www.cedla.uva.nl | Visiting address: Binnengasthuisstraat 46, 1012 ZD Amsterdam – office 1.04

    https://conflictsociety-uva.com/.


  • Call: UvA Researchers working on Conflict and Violence who could use a student research assistant

    DEADLINE EXTENDED

    Student Fellowships – Apply to have an RPA funded Student Fellow (RA) work on your research project. Starting September 2026

    Could you use a bachelor-level student assistant for your research on conflict and violence? The Research Priority Area (RPA) Conflict and Society facilitates bachelor’s student research assistance on projects of FMG researchers. We offer fellowships of €1,000 per year per bachelor student research assistant, which corresponds to about 53 hours of work (€19 per hour) per student.

    The RPA’s aim with the Student Fellowships is to bring students from all backgrounds into contact with academic research. To that end, we prefer to advertise positions to students through an open call and actively prioritise applicants from underrepresented groups in academia, such as first-generation-university students and students from minority backgrounds.

    Interested in having an RPA funded RA on your project?

    Please send us a short project description (around 100–150 words). Please highlight the tasks of the research assistant and any requirements for the RA. If applicable, also include a short statement on ethics.

    The Student Fellowships are open to all UvA bachelor’s students from the FMG (Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences), 2nd year and up. Project leaders decide whom to hire.

    Application Deadline September 16th, 2026, via this link: RPA Conflict & Society Student Fellowship Project  

    For questions, send us an email at edu-rpa-conflictsociety-fmg@uva.nl.

    If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.

  • Call: UvA Researchers working on Conflict and Violence who could use a student research assistant

    Student Fellowships – Apply to have an RPA funded Student Fellow (RA) work on your research project. Starting September 2026

    Could you use a bachelor-level student assistant for your research on conflict and violence? The Research Priority Area (RPA) Conflict and Society facilitates bachelor’s student research assistance on projects of FMG researchers. We offer fellowships of €1,000 per year per bachelor student research assistant, which corresponds to about 53 hours of work (€19 per hour) per student.

    The RPA’s aim with the Student Fellowships is to bring students from all backgrounds into contact with academic research. To that end, we prefer to advertise positions to students through an open call and actively prioritise applicants from underrepresented groups in academia, such as first-generation-university students and students from minority backgrounds.

    Interested in having an RPA funded RA on your project?

    Please send us a short project description (around 100–150 words). Please highlight the tasks of the research assistant and any requirements for the RA. If applicable, also include a short statement on ethics.

    The Student Fellowships are open to all bachelor students from the FMG, 2nd year and up. Project leaders decide whom to hire.

    Apply before August 28th, 2026, via this link: RPA Conflict & Society Student Fellowship Project  

    For questions, send us an email at edu-rpa-conflictsociety-fmg@uva.nl.

    If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach 

  • Event: On One Stage – A Theatre Performance

    Event: On One Stage – A Theatre Performance

    Join ACCS and the RPA Conflict & Society for On One Stage, a powerful theatre performance created by students and staff of the University of Amsterdam, exploring conflict and identity through Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed!

    Over the past few months, members of the University of Amsterdam community – students and staff who had never met before – have come together. They explored and investigated the various layers of identity and conflict through theatrical and performative practices. In a series of workshops led by Dr. Chen Alon (visiting scholar at the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies), they engaged with the techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal. You are warmly invited to attend their performance, which is the outcome of these weeks of intensive work.

    Date: 24 June 2026

    Time: 19:30 -21:00

    Location: University Theatre (Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16-18, Amsterdam – NB this not the CREA theatre!)

    Please sign up via: ACCS Theatre show On One Stage – Intellistack

    Stories of conflict and identity

    You are invited to immerse yourselves in stories of conflict and identity drawn from the participants’ own experiences – a space where the oppressors are also the oppressed.

    We hope that you, too, will leave with new questions and the passion to become an active agent in shaping the narrative of your own life, within the realities and contexts in which you live.

    This theatre project is supported by the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS) and the RPA Conflict & Society.

  • Invitation: UvA Conflict community kick-off

    Invitation: UvA Conflict community kick-off

    Are you an UvA-based researcher working on political or social conflict, violence, or their memories & legacies? Join us on Wednesday 10 June, 15:00–17:00 in REC B1.03* – with a borrel at Mama Makan (next to the REC) afterwards! – for the launch of the UvA Conflict Community.

    This community aims to connect people, resources and support, and is meant for all colleagues across all faculties researching and teaching conflict, war and/or violence.

    At the kick-off, colleagues from the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences will share plans for 2026–27 and invite you to co-shape what this community should be and do.

    Planned activity lines include:

    • Writing Violence sessions – bi-monthly, guided and open writing sessions tailored to conflict-related research;
    • Substantive workshops – thematic, cross-disciplinary events (regions, periods, methods, etc.);
    • Research support & community care – advocacy and events to improve ethical, safe working conditions and support at UvA.

    Come meet colleagues, share ideas, and enjoy refreshments on 10 June.

    Please register here: UvA Conflict Community (UCC) Kick-off – Form

    * You can find REC B1.03 on your right-hand side when exiting the lift on the first floor of the REC B building 

    Best wishes,

    Samuël Kruizinga, Hanna Muehlenhoff, Abbey Steele, Eda Kirişçioğlu Taşan & Julienne Weegels

    With support from the Conflict & Society RPA

  • Talk: Counterinsurgent Urbanism: Weaponising Land and Heritage in Northern Kurdistan

    Lunch Talk by Ronay Bakan, organized by ACCS and the RPA Conflict & Society

    Date 12 March 2026 | Time12:00 -13:30 | Location Roeterseilandcampus – Room B3.05

    Emerging technologies of war and counterinsurgency increasingly target urban landscapes, populations, and infrastructures. This talk will explore the role of the built environment in counterinsurgency campaigns. Dr. Bakan will address questions such as: Why do states expend the time and resources to engage in developmental projects targeting urban spaces in the midst of counterinsurgency campaigns? What is the spectrum of tactics so used? How do inhabitants whose self-identity is shaped, in part, through attachments to urban landscapes conceive, adopt, or repurpose the land-heritage-military nexus in the everyday?

    Focusing on the civil war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Turkish state, Dr. Bakan argues that states intervene in the everyday environment of ostensibly unruly populations as part of a broader security strategy to prevent future insurgent formation. She terms this set of processes “counterinsurgent urbanism.”

    She identifies three core mechanisms of counterinsurgent urbanism: legal-institutional restructuring of land; policing of the urban landscape; and selective development. Her research draws on a multi-method approach that includes urban ethnography, in-depth interviews, neighbourhood mapping, photography, tourism surveys, and archival research to demonstrate how everyday, non-spectacular forms of violence operate in global counterinsurgencies.

    This talk is co-organised by the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS) and the RPA Conflict & Society.

    Conflict & Society Research Priority Area RPA University of Amsterdam

    About the speaker

    Dr. Ronay Bakan is currently a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute and incoming Assistant Professor at Fordham University/USA. She works on Kurdish insurgency and Turkey’s urban policies of counter-insurgent action.

    Register here

  • Open Call: Student Fellowships (RA Positions)

    Open Call: Student Fellowships (RA Positions)

    Semester 2, Academic Year 2025–2026

    Application deadline: 18 February

    Are you interested in gaining hands-on experience in academic research on conflict, violence, authoritarianism, and related social issues? Applications are now open for Student Fellowships for Semester 2 of the 2025–2026 academic year.

    Student Fellowships offer bachelor students the opportunity to work as Research Assistants (RAs) on ongoing research projects led by UvA scholars across a range of disciplines. The programme aims to bring students from all backgrounds into close contact with academic research and research practice.

    See all projects and apply here

    What we offer

    • Paid research assistant work
    • Remuneration: €19 per hour
    • Maximum of 53 hours per fellowship
    • Close supervision and training by experienced researchers
    • Practical experience with real research projects of high societal relevance

    Eligibility requirements

    Applicants must:

    1. Be a second-year (or higher) UvA Bachelor’s student (preferably enrolled in an FMG programme)
    2. Hold EU or EEA citizenship. Unfortunately, UvA’s adherence to labour rules prevents the RPA Conflict & Society from hiring non-EU/EEA citizens. We regret the policy.

    Available projects

    A wide range of projects are available, including (but not limited to):

    • Moral injury, war, and suicidality (systematic literature review)
    • Nonviolent resistance and activism networks
    • Propaganda and information diffusion in the Russia–Ukraine war
    • Electoral violence and political competition in Colombia
    • Peacebuilding through education
    • Urban conflict, participation, and governance in Amsterdam
    • Graffiti, public space, and political expression
    • Substance use, health, and exposure to violence

    Each project has its own focus, tasks, and (where applicable) language or skills requirements.

    How to apply

    Full project descriptions can be found in the accompanying vacancy page here.

    Please consult the detailed project descriptions and follow the application instructions specified there. Selection will be made by the project leaders.

    Deadline for applications: 18 February

    If you are curious about academic research and would like to gain concrete research experience alongside your studies, we strongly encourage you to apply.

    Image: Francisco Goya. The Disasters of War, 1810-1820

  • Announcement:  Eda Kiriscioglu as a Postdoctoral Researcher


    The RPA Conflict & Society is very happy to announce Eda Kiriscioglu as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Conflict & Society Research Priority Area (RPA) at the University of Amsterdam.

    Eda works on the GRIID project (Government Responses to Internal and International Displacement), which examines how states respond to displacement through protective and repressive policies and practices across different levels of governance.

    Her research focuses on forced displacement, migration governance, and government responses to mobility, with particular attention to inconsistencies between de jure policies and de facto practices. A central strand of her work examines migration aspirations, risk perceptions, and decision-making under uncertainty among refugee and migrant populations. Methodologically, she works with mixed methods, combining qualitative fieldwork with survey research, experiments, and cross-national data analysis.

    Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Refugee Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, Disasters, and Open Democracy. She holds a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and has extensive research experience in Turkey and the EU context.

  • Workshop: From Archives to Ethnographies (extended deadline until 7 January 2026)

    Workshop: From Archives to Ethnographies (extended deadline until 7 January 2026)

    Studying Experiences, Imaginaries and Legacies of Conflict, War and Violence across the Social Sciences and the Humanities

    Thursday 5 February 2026, 09:30-17:00 at the Vondelzaal, UB (University of Amsterdam)*

    This interdisciplinary workshop brings together scholars at all career stages (including PhD researchers) from both the Social Sciences and the Humanities who study conflict, war, and violence at the UvA. Despite clear societal relevance, shared research interests, and overlapping research experiences, disciplinary and institutional boundaries continue to hinder interdisciplinary understanding and cooperation. This is especially visible in the practicalities of conducting research on these topics.

    In this workshop, we aim to explore points of connection as well as tensions by focusing on four interrelated themes. These will serve as the basis for roundtable discussions that elicit and address struggles around:

    1. Methods: What epistemologies guide our work? Which methods do we employ to study conflict, war, and violence? What counts as data, and how do we analyze it? How do these choices shape our work both in and beyond the field?
    2. Ethics: Which ethical dilemmas arise when studying conflict, war, and violence? What responsibilities do we have toward our research participants and toward archival material? How do we navigate the “politics of ethics”? And how do we reconcile our ethical research practice with requirements imposed by ethics committees?
    3. Care practices: How do we deal with the emotional and mental toll of researching conflict, war, and violence, whether through engagement with visual or textual material or through interaction with survivors? What forms of support do we need, and which do we actually receive? How, if at all, do our institutions acknowledge this emotional burden?
    4. Engagement and activism: Can and should we use our work to contribute to political or societal change, and if so, how? With whom do we collaborate? What is the societal relevance of our research, and how do politics or society respond to the critiques we may put forward, for example in the context of militarization or rising authoritarianism in Europe? How do we deal with situations in which our work becomes politicized or marginalized?

    Across four collaborative roundtable sessions, we invite scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds to speak briefly on one of these themes from their own experiences, followed by interdisciplinary discussion and debate. The main aim is to build mutual understanding of each other’s research practices, foster collaboration, inspire new ideas, and lay groundwork for future cross-disciplinary and cross-faculty initiatives.

    Please submit your expression of interest in presenting by by the extended deadline of Wednesday 7 January using the link below. We will follow up and compose the program by mid-January. We very much look forward to hearing from you.

    If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Julienne at j.h.j.weegels@uva.nl 

    Sign up here

    This workshop is organized by Samuël Kruizinga, Hanna Mühlenhoff, and Julienne Weegels with the support of the ARTES research cluster Social Justice & Contestation, the research group Conflict, War & Violence, the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies (ACCS), and the Conflict & Society RPA.

  • Call: UvA Researchers working on Conflict and Violence who could use a student research assistant

    RPA Conflict and Society Sudent Fellowships – Call for conflict researchers looking for research assistants for the third round of the fellowship programme (starting February 2026)

    Could you use a bachelor-level student assistant for your research on conflict and violence? The Research Priority Area (RPA) Conflict and Society facilitates bachelor’s student research assistance on projects of FMG researchers. We offer fellowships of €1,000 per year per bachelor student research assistant, which corresponds to about 53 hours of work (€19 per hour) per student.

    ‘The RPA’s aim with the Student Fellowships is to bring students from all backgrounds into contact with academic research. To that end, we prefer to advertise positions to students through an open call and actively prioritise applicants from underrepresented groups in science/research, such as first-generation-university students and students from minority backgrounds.’

    Interested?

    Please send us a short project description (around 100–150 words). Please highlight the tasks of the research assistant and any requirements for the RA. If applicable, you may also include a short statement on ethics.

    The Student Fellowships are open to all bachelor students from the FMG, 2nd year and up. Project leaders decide whom to hire.

    Apply before January 12th 2026, by sending an email to: edu-rpa-conflictsociety-fmg@uva.nl.

    If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.