FRIS projects

In recent years, the faculty Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam has seen an increase in international students. The international classroom poses challenges to teaching and learning. For instance, prior research highlights significant differences between Chinese students and students with a Western background. Among others, Chinese students are known to be very quiet and are often reluctant to speak up within the classroom environment (Zhu and O’Sullivan, 2022). This is not only caused by differences in comprehension in English. In general, Chinese students experience difficulties in shifting from China’s exam-oriented system and highly teacher-centered education to a more interactive and student-centered educational approach in the Netherlands (Jiang and Altinyelken, 2020). Research has indicated the importance for institutions to provide more support for Chinese students regarding linguistic competences (Jiang and  Altinyelken, 2022).

In this project, we examine the international classroom within the context of teaching an international business case. We examine differences in the preparation and the delivery within the classroom, comparing students on their social performance in an international and intercultural context.

The goal of the research is twofold. First, we examine the effect of the different linguistic competences on to the social integration of international students. Second, through interviews, we develop a greater understanding of international students’ experiences and learning within the context of the international classroom.

Grantholder:

Sanjay Bissessur, EB, Accounting

How do we learn to face the complex realities of today – both the light and the dark sides – with clarity? How do we navigate uncertainty? And how do we then find direction for meaningful action?

These questions form the starting point of Meeting the Crisis Inside Out: a training series that helps students deal with the chaos of our time – not by ignoring it or rushing to solve it, but by learning to see, listen, and connect. Together, we explore how the major crises – ecological, economic, technological, social, and psychological – are rooted in an underlying human crisis of relationships: how we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the world. From that understanding, students discover how they can find meaning in uncertain times and orient their studies, work, and lives.

Goal
The project aims to equip students (and potentially lecturers as well) with the inner resilience and systems understanding needed to stay grounded and contribute in a world full of change. It brings together head and heart in an integral form of learning that connects reflection, dialogue, and action.

Innovation
The training combines current theories from social transitions and systems psychology with experiential learning methods and dialogue circles in which students reflect on current events, explore their inner responses, and co-create shared meaning. We aim to develop a flexible format for the dialogue circles that students can independently organise and continue, even outside the classroom.

Intended outcomes
Students develop greater emotional and mental agility, feel less powerless in the face of global crises, and gain tools to give direction to their studies and career paths. We will pilot the training series within the Collective Futures MSc minor, and from there hope to inspire a group of students to continue a dialogue circle themselves. The insights and methods from the project will be documented and shared, contributing to a broader movement toward more resilient, connected, and action-oriented education.

Grantholder:

Jelger Kroese, FNWI, Graduate school of life and Earth sciences

In the course Love is a Bitch! Romance, Sexuality and Desire in Popular Culture, we study how romance, sexuality and desire are experienced and represented in contemporary popular culture. Given the current growth of the global anti-gender movement and increased normalization of racism and exclusionary politics, we believe it is important to develop even further in understanding love in a transnational and cross-cultural sense. Part of this will be to further explore how recognizing and accounting for different configurations of love in bureaucracies leads to a specific, hierarchical, and structuring materialization of romantic love in a transnational context.

In the course Love is a Bitch! Romance, Sexuality and Desire in Popular Culture, we work with a transnational, cross-cultural class (both students and faculty). We are therefore going to use the FRIS grant to develop a transnational pedagogy in which students and faculty from diverse backgrounds co-create flexible teaching together to create space for the integration of intercultural insights and interdisciplinary approaches that students and faculty take with them into the working classes.

The intended outcomes are to implement the findings in the course from September 2025 on, lay a foundation for further research on the sociocultural construction of romantic love, and contribute to changing educational practices at UvA.

Grant holders:

Dr. Margriet van Heesch, PhD, FMG, Department of Sociology

Jen Maaskant, MSc. FMG, Department of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Understanding the causes of and our responses to the climate crisis from multiple perspectives is an important factor in influencing the extent to which we are able to mitigate and adapt to a rapidly changing climate. I will develop a broad and accessible introduction to the field of climate psychology for students from a variety of academic backgrounds. Climate psychology is concerned with the cognitive, affective, and motivational processes and behaviors that have contributed to the ecological and climate crisis, and our cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral responses to it.

With this grant, I plan to create a course that is challenging and interesting for a diverse group of students. And to use didactic methods that will allow me to engage a large and diverse group of students not only on a cognitive level, but also on a personal affective and motivational level. In this way, the course will hopefully influence our future generation to contribute to a more sustainable and resilient society as a whole person: from scientist and professional to parent and citizen.

Grant holder:

Dr. Max van der Linden, FMG, Department Psychology

An inclusive learning environment requires initiatives from different perspectives. Through the FRIS grant, we aim to apply these initiatives at three different levels within the Faculty of Medicine. Firstly at the student level, secondly at the teacher level and thirdly throughout the entire workplace. For this purpose, we will employ the VU Mixed Classroom model.

At all levels, we start with developing empowering teaching forms. These forms will help us become aware of the differences within the groups and of our own biases. Starting with this foundation, a safe and inclusive learning environment can emerge. Building on this foundation and on each other, we strive to educate (more) inclusive future doctors and teachers. For students, this happens within the three-year mentoring and for teachers within the BKO track of eight sessions. In this regard, we need to use teacher professionalisation to regularly provide inclusive forms of education to teachers, mentors and health professionals. Good cooperation with both the Faculty Development team and the coordinator of the mentoring is crucial achieving this.

Grant holder:

K.W. (Winggo) Pang – Faculty of Medicine

The objective of this project is to develop and improve Community-based medical education (CBME) in an elective course about diversity and healthcare. The course will be available for 60 3rd year Bachelor students. CBME is increasingly recognized as an important means for medical students to acquire competencies to deliver 21st century healthcare. It situates their training in a community setting and exposes them to patients within their social and environmental contexts. The course currently focuses on instruction connections and community integration, but the goal is to explore other approaches of CBME. These approaches include community participation and citizen action, and give students better opportunities to learn from and within the community.

The FRIS Grant will be used to explore the best approach(es) for the course and to explore whether other courses in the curriculum could fit the purposes of CBME. Ultimately, the objective is to develop and implement CBME in the medical curriculum to improve the education and training of future healthcare professionals.

Grant holder:

J.L. (Jeanine) Suurmond – Principal Educator and Faculty Diversity Officer of the faculty of Medicine 

It is an undeniable societal reality that the enormous economic growth we see currently has its effects on our climate and our well-being. The structures and institutions we’ve long built only further emphasise growth while breeding inequalities. Degrowth models albeit being born in the 70s (that emphasize a fair and sustainable society for all) have recently gained traction in Economics and elsewhere. It is imperative for educators/teachers and learners/students alike to study these models and compare/contrast them with the existing models in Economics for a better understanding. When it comes to education, one of the challenges that is currently gaining focus within the Economics and Business Economics programme is in the realm of student activating teaching/learning. My proposal for the FRIS grant aims to look at an Active Learning strategy in the elective course of Public Economics connecting both the above-mentioned themes: namely studying degrowth models in an activating way. The main idea of this transdisciplinary approach is that students and the educator take learning outside the classroom – engaging movement and not only cognition while doing so and collaborate with external parties to study a degrowth model adopted by the city of Amsterdam. In its simplest form, the goal of this activity is to establish an ongoing partnership with valuable third parties like the Gemeente. Students will submit an assignment where they academically critique the model used by the Gemeente and reflect on and offer their insights into the world we ought to envision.

Grant holder:

Sneha Gaddam – program director of the BSc Economics and Business Economics 

Grant holders:

Neeltje Huijing-Schrofer

Anke Munniksma

Daury Jansen

In the interdisciplinary and integrative seminar Societal Challenges (PPLE, UvA), prominent scholars from various fields speak about global issues that our societies face. From climate change to poverty and from the unethical fashion industry to dilemmas with AI governance. Students also write personal reflections in response to the guest lectures. In it, they respond to how these global problems affect them and their communities. Over the past years, I have witnessed increased nihilism, despair, and negative-self rumination in these reflections of students.

Through this grant, I aspire to support students in processing potentially unpleasant, challenging, and even controversial topics. I aim to develop resilience-building learning activities. These activities firstly allow students to cultivate awareness about their embodied reactions to the challenging learning material. For example, we help students recognize how their noncognitive reactions – such as anger, fear, doubt and irritation – arise and influence their engagement with the learning material. Secondly, the learning activities will support students in cultivating emotional resilience. This will help them to stay centred in the face of uncertainty and doubt. So they are able to be present without immediate reactivity and judgment and act with self-compassion.

Grant holder:

Dr L. (Lela) Mosemghvdlishvili – Faculty of Law, PPLE

We are developing an introductory course on Disability Studies that will be open to students and staff members from all UvA faculties. Since emerging in the 1980s, Disability Studies has been a research area that stresses that disability and disease are social and historical phenomena. But also, that they are crucially changeable phenomena. Disability Studies includes interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education and research on the history, theory, politics, techno-science, and art (representation) of disability.

The FRIS budget allows us to develop the course co-constructively and in line with Universal Design for Learning principles. We will collaborate with UvA researchers and the Disability Studies Foundation in the Netherlands, as well as with other individuals and organisations. All these actors deal with disability through experience, research, or work on accessibility. The goal is to realise a fair learning environment that appreciates and accommodates everyone to learn differently. We hope the course will contribute to greater visibility and understanding of disability-related issues within the university and beyond. This will fill a gap within the current UvA course curriculum.

Grant holder:

Iwan Oostrom – Education coordinator interdisciplinary electives, Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies

The purpose of this project is to identify and suggest best practices regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom. The main output will be an accessible, living document. This document will guide teaching and learning in the diverse classroom. Additionally, the quality assessment project will stimulate community building among students. It will do so by involving their voices in the creation of this living document.

Furthermore, this project identifies differences among students as an enrichment of the learning environment. The differences will not be seen as challenges to be overcome. This aligns with the institutional intention to thematize ‘differences in prior knowledge, interests, identity, cultures and needs of students’. Therefore, the project aims to hold focus groups with diverse students. Based on the results, we will deliver tangible recommended strategies for other lecturers. These handouts will be tailored to specific topics, depending on the outcomes of the themed focus groups. Each of the project members will attend program meetings within Communication Science, contextualize the handouts and further explain the practical recommendations.

Grant holders:

Dr. G. (Gian-Louis) Hernandez – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Persuasive Communication

Dr. A.P.V. (Anna) Berbers –  Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Corporate Communication

C.J. (Chei) Billedo – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

supported by Dr. S.R. (Sindy) Sumter – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

The project is aimed at providing a more inclusive educational environment. It will teach research methods in communication science. Consequently, a greater representation in the actual research that our students conduct for their thesis will be provided. In doing communication science research, we often include several sociodemographic characteristics as variables. Examples of these variables are: sex, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation and ethnic identity. This is based on how they are used in mainstream literature. However, some of these practices have come under scrutiny and are criticized as non-inclusive.

In some of our classes, our students have voiced their objections to the exclusionary character of our measures. It is a challenge for some teachers to provide a clear and valid response in these situations. The goal is to produce a set of resources and guidelines for more inclusive conceptualization, operationalization, and analyses of sociodemographic variables. This set will be available for teachers to use in their methods, classes and thesis supervision.

Grant holders:

C.J. (Chei) Billedo – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

Dr. I.I. (Irene) van Driel – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

Dr. S.R. (Sindy) Sumter – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

The current project aims to see how the Diversity matters matter workshop, developed by Dr Abacıoğlu, can be integrated into a newly developed course. The course will be titled: Representation in Media. It introduces our master students to communication science research on the power of media representation for young people. This takes place in the context of identity development and the social perception of others. We discuss the frequency, accuracy, and authenticity of media portrayals and we’ll include a wide variety of marginalized social groups and their effects.

Students are encouraged to reflect on the parallels between representation in entertainment media and the position and treatment of those social groups in present-day society. The lecturers aim to integrate the student’s individual experiences and viewpoints in the course. Awareness of one’s own position is crucial when we are engaging in conversations about this topic. The students will have to navigate discussions using arguments that are well-grounded on academic evidence and engaging in active listening. But also, considering their own positionand the general public discourse. To constructively address opposing ideas and opinions that arise from class discussions, both lecturers and students need to bolster their skills. We hope the Diversity matters matter workshop will help us with this challenge. The suitability of the workshop for other courses, where student discussions are at the core, are also evaluated.

Grant holders:

Dr. S.R. (Sindy) Sumter – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Communication Science: Youth & Media Entertainment

Dr. I.I. (Irene) van Driel – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

C.J. (Chei) Billedo – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Youth & Media Entertainment

Dr C.S. (Ceren) Abacioglu – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, PPLE

Our educational aim is to foster discussion on sustainability in global economic relations. This takes place in a global environment with students and educators situated in different parts of the world. Policies and regulations furthering sustainability in global trade and supply chains, such as the EU Green Deal, are often considered in an unconsciously Eurocentric manner. This manner neglects the geographical specificity of this policy agenda. It also neglects the uneven effects that these policies produce on countries in different positions within global production chains. This decontextualizing perspective misses the entrenched colonial histories of global trade. Furthermore, it overlooks the hidden geopolitics of sustainability and the adverse effects that may occur when European norms encounter local realities.

Our course ‘Making Markets Beyond the State’ is offered at Master’s level at the Law School and invites reflection on these matters in a more diverse educational environment. In what we term our ‘Global Classroom’, students enrolled at UvA join (online) delegations of students from partner institutions. These partner institutions are mostly located in the Global South. We invite the students to produce group work, have discussions and take part in seminars. Credits are awarded as determined by each university. Professors from partner institutions serve as guest lecturers in the global classroom. This adds to the decolonization of the syllabus of private international law and economic law. Therefore, the project can become a pilot for strengthening similar global learning environments at UvA in the future.

Grant holders:

Dr. K.H. (Klaas) Eller – Faculty of Law, Department of Private Law

Dr. G. (Geraldo) Vidigal – Faculty of Law, Public International Law

Public Intervention as a teaching/learning method departs from an interdisciplinary framework in which the exchange of concepts, ideas and practices from one field to another is encouraged. The social impact of academic knowledge production is a constant concern here. Students are asked to design ‘interventions’ outside of the classroom in conversation with the topics and readings of the course. I then ask them to report their public interventions by using relevant theoretical and visual material.

I find it especially important for the Literary and Cultural Analysis students to discover their creative skills. I would like to encourage them to think of ways in which they are involved in society as active agents, by intervening into and transforming everyday spaces they inhabit. With Public Intervention as a learning/teaching method, students are asked to form groups and organize events, situations or experiments in public space. I ask them to collaborate with other people, organizations and institutions within the field of culture and politics. This helps students establish further links between theory and practice, and to collaborate with each other. But also to form bridges inside and outside of academia, and involve in the learning process in an active way.

Some examples of Public Interventions conducted by the students

Grant holder:

Dr. A. (Aylin) Kuryel – Faculty of Humanities, Literary and Cultural Analysis Department

Teaching and studying in international and ethnically diverse classrooms come with both challenges and opportunities. With this grant, I will incorporate contemplative pedagogical practices in my teaching. They connect students to their embodied, lived experiences and to their learning. Students are encouraged and supported in improving their awareness about their internal worlds. This helps connecting their learning to their experiences, values and sense of meaning. In turn, students develop richer and deeper relationships with their peers, with their communities and the world around them. My focus will be on ‘Cognitive inquiry method’, which is done in pairs or groups of three. It will also be done in two different forms: open inquiry and repeating questions.

This is implemented in a Research Master course, which enrols students from various parts of the world. Specific relevant themes or questions are developed for each weekly session. After practice sessions, students are invited to take notes about their reflections and insights. Based on these written notes, students will also write an analysis report after seven weeks. This report will constitute one of the classroom assignments for finalizing the course. As such, the potential of cognitive inquiry for deep learning and for enhancing an inclusive pedagogy will be explored.

Grant holder:

Dr H. (Hülya) Kosar-Altinyelken – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Educational Sciences

We offer a two-legged improvement and advancement to our current teaching of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). This improvement consists of offering small scale reflection hours and introducing a buddy system. The weekly reflection hours create a space where students have the opportunity to engage in participatory discussions and in personalized reflections on the subject matter. This helps us realize some important learning objectives, such as evaluating and independent thinking.

By introducing a buddy system, we promote connection among students and between students and the subject matter. First, it allows international exchange students to connect more with local students and get peer support in becoming part of the UvA-community. International exchange students often report challenges with a sense of belonging during their exchange experience. Complementary local students are provided with extra peer support from a buddy for the course of the teaching period (and perhaps beyond). Last, it offers students to gain hands-on experience with a real-world EDI-intervention. This helps them truly experience the subject matter from a first person’s perspective.

Grant holders:

Dr. S. (Seval) Gündemir – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group Work and Organizational Psychology

Prof. dr. A.C. (Astrid) Homan – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Work and Organizational Psychology

The honors course Resilient Societies, that is part of the bachelor Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, challenges students to link the ‘grand theories’ to every day (working)life. These theories all come from the Anthropocene, resilience and from sustainability. We ask students to ‘ground’ their achieved knowledge and their personal ambitions. By collaborating with external parties, students experience how hard it is to work towards a more resilient, sustainable and fair society. However, they are also empowered in this process, so they feel capable of meaningful interventions and interactions.

So far, we experienced that projects delivered by students were of great value for the learning experience of the student and have been of great importance for the partners. To collaborate in a way that is helpful for the students, as well as the external partners, we try to work towards a more balanced learning experience for both students and partners. We do so by finding tools and methods to achieve this, talking to colleagues with the same challenges and by exploring possible collaborations with like-minded teachers.

Grant holders:

Elias den Otter

G.W. (Guido) Knibbe MSc – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, GPIO : Docenten GPIO/ISW

While much has been written on the topic of DEI and how institutions define, constrain, implement, and even discipline DEI measures, comparatively little focuses on organic, bottom-up approaches to diversity, equity, and inclusion (Kvam, et al., 2018). Furthermore, the literature that does center student voices tends primarily to focus on North American universities (Ashby-King and Hanasono, 2019). This study extends the scope of current research by incorporating perspectives from a large Western European university, demonstrating the tensions between and amongst demographics that differ largely from the US context. Drawing on ethnographic data from participation in student activist groups, as well as data collected during focus groups, the paper explicates notions of US cultural hegemony within diversity perspectives, incorporating and promulgating student ideas as a driving factor of change (Evans and Lange, 2019). Additionally, this paper provides a strong methodological innovation on the practice of incorporating international students as researchers, informants, and co-conspirators in the research process. It further centers the needs groups of students outside of the US, a key focus in the internationalization literature. This paper suggests strategies to think through diversity while acknowledging contextually diverse student perspectives.

Grant holder:

Dr. G. (Gian-Louis) Hernandez – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences