VU-GSSS International fellows
International fellows are reputed scholars in the domains of the social sciences. They contribute, as advisors and participants, to the training of our graduate students, and to the research programmes of the Faculty’s departments. As such they play an important role in the graduate teaching programmes, in seminars and as supervisors of dissertations and theses. International fellows have a limited affiliation with one of the research programmes, usually as visiting professor for a number of short visits over a two-year period.
Current international fellows
Prof. Nina Glick Schiller (SCA), Director of Cosmopolitan Cultures Institute and Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester
Prof. Thomas DiPrete (SOC), Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Former international fellows
Brad Bushman (CS); Professor of Communication and Psychology at the Ohio State University
Brad Bushman’s research focuses on the causes and consequences of human aggression. It has challenged several societal myths (e.g., violent media have a trivial effect on aggression, venting anger reduces aggression, violent people suffer from low self-esteem, violence and sex on TV sell products, warning labels on TV programmes reduce audience size). He is also interested in meta-analysis, a quantitative approach to reviewing the scientific literature.
Merril Silverstein (SOC); Professor of Gerontology and Sociology at the University of Southern California, Davis School of Gerontology
Merril Silverstein's research is concerned with understanding how individuals age within the context of family life, including such issues as social support across generations, later life migration, life-course patterns of intergenerational solidarity, and public policy toward care giving families.
Frank Biermann (POL); Professor of Political Science and of Environmental Policy Sciences at the VU University Amsterdam and visiting professor of Earth System Governance at Lund University, Sweden
Prof. Biermann specializes in the study of global environmental politics, with emphasis on climate negotiations, UN reform, global adaptation governance, public-private governance mechanisms, the role of science, North-South relations, and trade and environment conflicts. He pioneered the concept of ‘earth system governance’ in 2005, which has evolved into a major global research programme in this field.
Stuart Clegg (ORG); Professor at the School of Management, University of Technology, Sydney
Stuart Clegg is Research Director of CMOS (Centre for Management and Organization Studies) Research at UTS, and holds a small number of Visiting Professorships at prestigious European universities and research centers. His research interests are Organisation and Management Theory and Power. Recently he has written on topics as diverse as ‘food’, ‘strategy’, ‘modernity’ and ‘gossip’.
James Ferguson (SCA); Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Stanford
Professor Ferguson’s research has been conducted in Lesotho and Zambia, and has engaged a broad range of theoretical and ethnographic issues. A central theme running through it has been a concern with the political, broadly conceived, and with the relation between specific social and cultural processes and the abstract narratives of “development” and “modernization” through which such processes have so often been known and understood.
Anoop Madhok (ORG); Professor of Strategy at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto
Professor Madhok’s research interests span strategy and international management and include topics such as multinational firm strategy, foreign market entry, strategic alliances, trust and interfirm collaboration, and the theory and boundaries of the firm.
Scott Poole (ORG); Director of The Institute for Computing in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of Illinois (I-CHASS)
Poole’s research interests include group and organizational communication, information and communication technologies, collaboration, organizational change and innovation, and theory construction. One of Scott’s current research projects is the Virtual Worlds Exploratorium Project, a multi-university collaboration which investigates communication and behaviour in massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs).
Sim Sitkin (ORG); Professor of Management, the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Sim Sitkin's research focuses on leadership and control systems and their influence on how organizations and their members become more or less capable of change and innovation. He is widely known for his research on the effect of formal and informal organizational control systems and leadership on risk taking, accountability, trust, learning, M&A processes, and innovation.
