Programme team
Prof. dr. Jurian EdelenbosAcademic Director of VCC
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Dr. Mike DuijnManager
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Britt Boeddha MscCommunication Advisor
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Theme Leads
Dr. Maria SchillerTheme Lead Inclusive Cities & Citizens
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Dr. Isabel Awad CheritTheme Lead Inclusive Cities & Citizens
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Dr. Jan FransenTheme Lead Smart Cities & Communities & Theme Lead Resilient Communities
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Dr. Jiska EngelbertTheme Lead Smart Cities & Communities
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Dr. Julia WittmayerTheme Lead Sustainable Cities and Citizens
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Dr. Annabel VreekerTheme Lead Resilient Cities and People
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A number of senior scholars are affiliated to the VCC program who support and contribute to research, education and social impact/valorisation of the programme.
Pearl Dykstra is Professor of Empirical Sociology and Deputy Chair of the High Level Group of scientists advising the Cabinet of European Commissioners. She is an internationally regarded specialist on intergenerational solidarity, aging societies, family change, aging and the life course, and loneliness.
Peter Scholten is Professor Public Policy & Politics and coordinator of the interdepartmental research cluster Erasmus Migration & Diversity Institute (EMDI). His research focuses on issues of intercultural governance, multi-level governance and knowledge & public policy.
Liesbet van Zoonen is professor of Sociology, dean of the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities, and Academic Director of BOLD Cities, the LDE institute on Big, Open, and Linked Data. Her research especially concerns the question whether and how popular culture is a relevant resource for civic understanding and social participation.
Thea Hilhorst is professor of humanitarian aid and reconstruction. She is interested in the ways in which people seek access to livelihoods and services in the midst of crises, how institutions form and reform in crises and how aid interventions affect conditions and societies experiencing humanitarian crises.
Renske Keizer is professor in Family Sociology. Keizer’s primary research interests are fatherhood and parenthood in an internationally comparative perspective, and the dynamics of partner relationships. Her research straddles sociology, pedagogical sciences, demography, and developmental psychology.
Lidia Arends is professor of Statistics at Institute of Psychology + Institute of Pedagogical Sciences. She has expertise in Quantitative Social Research. Moreover, she is specialist in talented urban youth – transition from primary to secondary education.
Semiha Denktas is professor of Behavioral Change. Semiha has a track record in large scaled multidisciplinary research programs and projects. This type of scientific projects are not only demanding for solid leadership skills but also for the competence to translate scientific knowledge into useful (health and policy) tools.
Joop Koppenjan is professor of Public Management and Public Policy. His fields of interest are:
- Agenda building, decision making and policy implementation;
- Democratic Governance in policy networks;
- Institutions and institutional design;
- Privatisation and public private partnerships;
- Safeguarding public values in public service delivery;
- Project and process management;
- Management of risks and uncertainties;
- Collaborative innovation and learning.
Erik-Hans Klijn is professor of public governance networks. Klijn is an international distinguished Public Administration scholar especially on the field of complex decision-making, (policy) networks and network management. His research fields are:
- the impact of network management on network performance,
- the role of trust in complex decision-making in networks and
- the influence of media attention on complex decision making in networks.
Sabine Severiens is professor of Educational Sciences. The main theme in her scientific work is diversity and educational inequality, from the perspective of motivation, integration and the learning environment.
Des Gasper is professor of Human Development, Development Ethics and Public Policy. His research refers here to human-centred socio-economic development, including extension of people’s ability to live in ways that there is reason to value. This field links to work on human rights and human security.
Susanne Janssen is professor of Sociology, Media and Culture. Her current research projects focus on the consequences of increased diversity and digitalization for agents, institutions, structures, processes and practices in the fields of media, culture, education, and politics.
Marise Born is professor of Personnel Psychology. Her research interests are in the domains of personnel selection, cross-cultural psychology, test development, and personality and individual differences.
Arwin van Buuren is professor of Public Administration and Academic Director of the Erasmus Governance Design Studio. This studio is involved in a variety of experimental design-oriented research projects. He is also program manager of the Research Excellence Initiative RePolis in which the relation between community initiatives and governmental action is analysed.
Stijn Reijnders is professor of "Cultural Heritage, in Particular in Relation to Tourism and Popular Culture". His research focuses on the intersection of media, culture and tourism. Currently he leads two large, international research projects: Worlds of Imagination, funded by the European Research Council, and Locating Imagination funded by the Dutch Science Foundation.
Arjen Leerkes is professor of Migration, Securitization and Social Cohesion. In his research, he aims to understand how states impact patterns of international migration in intended and unintended ways. This has led to various publications on the social operation, effectiveness and legitimacy of immigration regimes.
Willem Schinkel is professor of Social Theory. He publishes in a wide range of subjects, including social theory and social philosophy, the sociology of art and STS. He is currently the principal investigator of the ERC project Monitoring Modernity, which focuses on the ways society is imagined in the monitoring of flows of migrants, flows of capital and climate change.
Ingmar Franken is professor and chair of the Clinical Psychology group. His research interest is mainly focused on the neurocognitive aspects of addiction and substance abuse and is committed to a “From Lab to Society” research idea, which aims at a strong mutual connection between basic experimental research and clinical practice and health promotion.
Maria Grever is professor of Theory and Methodology of History. Main research interests: historical culture, historical consciousness , theory of historiography, collective memory and identity, history education, popular culture and heritage.
Koen van Eijck is professor of Cultural Lifestyles. His research and publications focus on social inequality in cultural participation, taste patterns and trends in leisure behavior and media use in general, talent development and art perception and appreciation, with a focus on both music and visual art.
Anna Nieboer is professor of Socio-Medical Sciences. Her work has focused on quality of care, innovation in health and social care, and the self-management abilities and wellbeing of community-dwelling, (frail) older people.
Amanda Brandellero is Assistant Professor at ESHCC. She researches urban creativity and heritage. Her project 'Crafting future urban economies' was awarded an NWO VIDI grant. The project focuses on how making and crafts can support the transition to more circular urban economies. Amanda also participates in the LDE Port City & Region Futures programme.
Derk Loorbach is director of DRIFT and Professor of Socio-economic Transitions at the Faculty of Social Science, both at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Derk is one of the founders of the transition management approach as new form of governance for sustainable development. He has over one hundred publications in this area and has been involved as an action researcher in numerous transition processes with government, business, civil society and science. He is a frequently invited keynote speaker in and outside Europe.
Erik Snel works as assistant professor at the Department of Sociology of the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR). He teaches about urban policies and about multicultural cities. His research interests concentrate around concrete social issues such as urban poverty, juvenile delinquency, immigration and immigrant integration, urban developments and urban policies, and so on.
Martijn van der Steen is endowed Professor at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Public Administration and Sociology. His research interests are public strategy, policy for long-term uncertainty and governance in networks.
Godfried Engbersen is Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is also the Research Director of the Sociology Department and Director of the interdisciplinary research group Citizenship, Migration & the City (CIMIC) at EUR.
Prof. Eveline Crone is full professor in Developmental Neuroscience in Society and she leads the SYNC lab (Society, Youth and Neuroscience Connected).
Prof. dr. Nina Glick-Schiller (University of Manchester) received an honourary doctorate by recommendation of the Erasmus Initiative ‘Vital Cities and Citizens’. The anthropologist connects questions of migration, identity, power, citizenship and urban development. In this field Glick-Schiller is considered a leading scientist. Her most recent work investigates migration theories by researching the relationship between the migrant and the city.
On 1 January 2021, former Resilient Communities theme lead Dr. Naomi van Stapele started a new position as Lector Inclusive Education at The Centre of Expertise Global and Inclusive learning at THUAS. In this position, she continues community-led research with a strong focus on the role of education in urban resilience. Accordingly, she remains associated with VCC. She also volunteers at one of VCC's research partners in Kenya, Ghetto Foundation, and supports the ongoing community-led researchproject on Community Resilience Initiatives in Nairobi ghettos, which is led by Dr. Jan Fransen, The incoming theme-leader 'Resilient Cities and Communities'.