at the Conflict & Society Research Priority Area (RPA) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)
This page gives an overview of the current Student Fellowship projects. These cover a wide range of issues, including violence against children, intergenerational mental health, global conflicts that receive little media attention, experiences of microaggressions, the digitalisation of drug markets, cannabis supply modes, and Black Studies. They use different approaches, from experiments and surveys to fieldwork, data analysis, and systematic reviews.
Photo: Student Fellowship Semester 1 2025-26 Kick-off meeting
Projects September 2025
Prevention of Violence Against Children
Sophia Backhaus & Patty Leijten | Child Development and Education
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?
To answer this question, the research assistant supports the expansion of our aggregate and individual participant data meta-analysis by harmonising violence outcomes across randomised studies. This work will generate critical insights into the specific behaviours that parenting programmes reduce, informing policy and future intervention design.
Student Fellow
I am Anjela Postic, a third-year Politics major in the Politics, Psychology, Law, and Economics (PPLE) program at the University of Amsterdam. Having tutored children since high school, I have developed a deep interest in their experiences as a vulnerable group. Thus, I am excited to contribute to this project on parental interventions to reduce violence against children — an ideal opportunity to combine my passion in conflict studies with hands-on research experience.
E-mial: anjela.postic@student.uva.nl
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjela-postic-3109912b5/
Intergenerational Transmission of Psychopathology and the Role of Conflict and Violence
Daniëlle van der Giessen & Jana Runze | Child Development and Education
We are conducting a meta-analytic structural equation model (MASEM) to investigate the intergenerational transmission of psychopathological symptoms. Specifically, we examine how parental (maternal and paternal) depression and anxiety relate to child internalizing and externalizing behavior, with parenting behavior as a potential mediator. This project pays particular attention to conflict and violence as key mechanisms: (a) harsh or coercive parenting and child maltreatment as manifestations of conflict and violence in parent-child relationships, and (b) aggressive or violent behaviors as part of children’s externalizing problems. We include studies on postnatal parental mental health and child outcomes from birth to age 18, and also assess bidirectional effects of conflict and violence (i.e., child effects on parental mental health).
The student research assistant provides valuable support in organizing and coding studies for the meta-analysis, extracting relevant data, and assisting with literature review and data management. This project offers an excellent learning opportunity for students interested in mental health, family dynamics, and the role of conflict and violence in development. They gain hands-on experience with systematic reviews, exposure to advanced quantitative methods like MASEM, and insight into how psychological conflict and behavioral violence are studied in intergenerational research.
Student Fellow
I’m Sara Jakubowska, a Polish student studying sociology, with minors in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Eastern European Studies. I’m excited to connect theory with research practice and gain experience working in an academic environment where I can see the impact of research firsthand.
Invisible Conflicts
Saurabh Khanna | Communication Sciences
We will be building a dataset of “invisible conflicts” – 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.
The student research assistant helps with basic data cleaning so we can map the news and ACLED datasets to each other. They also help with simple exploratory data analysis once the two datasets have been connected.
Student Fellow
I’m Sara Jakubowska, a Polish student studying sociology, with minors in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Eastern European Studies. I’m excited to connect theory with research practice and gain experience working in an academic environment where I can see the impact of research firsthand.
Everyday Power: Understanding Dominant-Group Perceptions of Microaggressions and Marginalised Experience
Byron Adams | Work and Organisational Psychology
This multi-experiment project examines how dominant-groups members (e.g., White Dutch/American Citizens) perceive microaggressions and the people who experience them. Within the Conflict & Society’s research priority area the focus is on non-violent, relational conflict and seeks to inform inclusion practices beyond institutional procedures. We will design three experiments: In the first experiment, participants will assess vignettes of microaggressions targeting individuals from marginalised groups, rating subtlety, harm, intent, and acceptability. The second experiment shifts focus to perceptions of individuals who experience microaggressions. It aims to examine whether victimhood is seen as legitimate or exaggerated depending on specific identity markers. The third experiment investigates reactions to those who report microaggressions, probing whether whistleblowing is perceived as disruptive or justified. Together, these studies aim to understand the normative assumptions within dominant cultural frameworks that shape responses to everyday bias.
Outline of the Research Assistant’s tasks:
- Experiment development and programming: Co-design all three experiments; create stimuli and outcome measures and program them into Qualtrics
- ERB preparation: Draft ethics materials (protocols, forms, risk statements) to be submitted by the main supervisor
- Pilot-testing & data management: Conduct cognitive pre-tests, recruit pilot samples and run pilots, monitor data quality, and organise datasets.
- Documentation & coordination: Prepare preregistration drafts, maintain codebooks, and support research dissemination.
Digitalisation of the illicit drugs market in Amsterdam
Rivke Jaffe | Human Geography & Planning
This project focuses on micro-transactions in illicit drugs to understand how the uptake of digital technologies in drug dealing transforms uneven urban landscapes of risk. It aims to understand how drug dealers and consumers experience unequal risks – including exposure to criminal or state violence – as mobile, digitally-enabled deliveries replace place-based sales.
The student fellow to supports this research project on the digitalisation of illicit drugs market. This project focuses on micro-transactions in illicit drugs, and specifically on how mobile, digitally-enabled deliveries replace place-based sales. To understand the logistical geography that enables the ultrafast delivery of illicit drugs, the student fellow collects and analyses written media that can serve to map the distribution of “stash houses” in Amsterdam. The fellowship involves (1) analysing news reports of stash house closures (e.g. in the Parool newspaper) and, where available, police records to assemble a database that can help understand this spatial distribution, and (2) processing this data in cartographic form.
Cannabis supply modes predictive of health and safety outcomes
Ivy Defoe | Department of Child Development and Education
The diversity in supply modes of drugs makes this a relevant clinical- and policy-oriented research question. For example, in the Netherlands—and increasingly in more countries—cannabis use is legal. However, the recreational cannabis trade is illegal unless it occurs via “coffeeshops”, in which adults can physically buy cannabis. Other common forms of cannabis trade occur between social contacts (e.g., between friends). Finally, the COVID-19 lock-down spurred a new illegal supply mode of cannabis in the Netherlands (and elsewhere), namely buying cannabis online via illegal drug shops.
The research assistants is part of a larger project-team consisting of a master-thesis student, postdoctoral researcher, and me (principal investigator). The research assistant, gains experience in: designing a questionnaire and its codebook, data-management, and in data-collection. The data-collection (via a digital questionnaire) takes place online and in person.
Student Fellows
I’m Adriano Guidelli, a third year political theory student, about to start writing my bachelor’s thesis. With this fellowship opportunity I’d like to sharpen my research skills and explore new theoretical and practical connections between the topic of the project and my research interests. adriano.guidelli@student.uva.nl
My name is Irmak Youdjelten, and I am a second year Political Science student at the University of Amsterdam. I am motivated to contribute to this project because I am deeply interested in how drug policies intersect with public health and social outcomes. I hope this fellowship will provide hands-on research experience while broadening my understanding of the societal implications of cannabis supply modes. For more information:www.linkedin.com/in/irmak-youdjelten-77957932b
Fay Balomenou. I am currently in my final year studying political science with an interest in public health and health policy. Excited to participate in this project for its focus on the real-world impact of cannabis supply modes on health and safety. This position provides a meaningful opportunity to develop research skills and support evidence that can inform public health and policy.
Black Studies and Black Feminist Theory
Jan Mendes | Gender and Sexuality Studies Sociology
The research assistant works on two main research-related tasks. First, as part of the RPA Conflict and Society seed grant project titled “Investigating Suicide as a Social Outcome of Anti-Black Racist Violence”. Dr. Jan Mendes will be conducting fieldwork in the form of in-person interviews with medical doctors, health practitioners, and private individuals affected by suicide who live in Canada. Fieldwork will begin in November 2025. Secondly, in collaboration with Black feminist scholars in the Nordic regions, Dr. Jan Mendes will be organising a Black Feminist Summer school to take place in Amsterdam in July 2026.
The research assistant helps to prepare for fieldwork by finding the contact information and/or websites of applicable medical professionals, mental health organisations or community outreach centres that seek to address suicide and/or mental health among Black Canadians. This task requires that the research assistant spend significant time searching online for contacts (e.g. LinkedIn, online newspaper articles that mention suicide and name healthcare professionals, Black-focused mental health organisations etc). Once contacts are located through online searches, the research assistant sends an organised list (with contact information) to the supervisor.
The research assistant also helps to advertise the summer school to potential participants by preparing and posting social media posts about the summer school on Instagram and other relevant platforms. Depending on the time left in the research assistant’s contract, there is the potential for involvement in the Black Feminist summer school to be extended.
Student Fellow
Emma Fatoma is a Political Science BSc student minoring in Global Health, Care, and Society. Emma is excited to be a fellow in a research project that is contingent on her lived experiences and that will put her knowledge of anti-Black racism into practice. She is grateful for the opportunity to engage with Black feminist theory in the field of health and suicide, as a student, activist, and future healthcare professional.
Data annotation in the context of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Henrik Pröpper | Communication Sciences
The project investigates how moral language operates within the information environment surrounding the Russia–Ukraine war. The project explores both real-world and AI-generated social media posts in Russian and English to understand how moral framing is used, interpreted, and reproduced in online communication.
The Research Assistant (RAs) plays a central role in this project. They conduct manual content analysis of social media texts, identifying and categorising moral language and themes. This work provides the foundation for developing and training large language models (LLMs) that can recognise and interpret moral language across different cultural and linguistic contexts.
The RA contributes to several key components of the project:
- Quality assessment of synthetic data: evaluating AI-generated posts to ensure the accuracy and consistency of annotations.
- Codebook development and refinement: testing and improving the framework used to classify moral language.
- Manual annotation of real-world social media posts: labeling moral content in authentic Russian and English texts.
Student Fellow
My name is Jurijs Jelutins. Originally from Riga, Latvia, I moved to Amsterdam to pursue studies in Communication Science with a focus on journalism, as well as broaden my horizons and engage in genuine, fulfilling work that I haven’t had the opportunity to pursue in my home country. I’m always eager to join new projects and contribute as much as I can. I believe the work that I do, that being research and creative work, has real power to help people, no matter the scale.
LinkedIN & Emial: jurijs.jelutins@student.uva.nl
Everyday Power: Understanding Dominant-Group Perceptions of Microaggressions and Marginalised Experience
Byron Adams | Work and Organizational Psychology
This multi-experiment project examines how members of dominant social groups (for example, White Dutch or American citizens) perceive microaggressions and the individuals who experience them. The project focuses on non-violent, relational forms of conflict and aims to contribute to more inclusive social practices beyond institutional frameworks.
The research consists of three experimental studies:
- Experiment 1 explores how participants evaluate vignettes depicting microaggressions targeting individuals from marginalized groups. Participants rate these situations in terms of subtlety, harm, intent, and acceptability.
- Experiment 2 examines perceptions of the individuals who experience microaggressions, focusing on whether their reactions are seen as legitimate or exaggerated depending on identity markers.
- Experiment 3 investigates how people respond to those who report or call out microaggressions, assessing whether whistleblowing is viewed as disruptive or justified.
Role of the Research Assistants
Research Assistants (RAs) are involved in the full research cycle, from design to data management and documentation. Their work ensures the rigor and ethical integrity of the project’s empirical studies.
RAs contribute to the following activities:
- Documentation and coordination: Preparing preregistration materials, maintaining codebooks, and supporting the dissemination of research findings.
- Experiment development and programming: Co-designing the three experiments, creating stimuli and outcome measures, and programming them in Qualtrics.
- Ethics preparation: Drafting ethics materials, including protocols, consent forms, and risk statements for submission to the Ethics Review Board.
- Pilot testing and data management: Conducting cognitive pre-tests, recruiting and running pilot samples, monitoring data quality, and organizing datasets.