Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. We strive to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. Our teaching and research encompass the entire spectrum of academic endeavor – from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 31,000 students. We employ over 5,000 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible and located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.
Diversity We are an inclusive university community. Diversity is one of our most important values. We believe that engaging in international activities and welcoming students and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds enhances the quality of our education and research. We are always looking for people who can enrich our world with their own unique perspectives and experiences.
Faculty of Social Sciences The Faculty of Social Sciences examines the major social problems of our time from multiple perspectives. From bullying at school to dealing with transnational immigration, from the rise of populist politicians to creating a self-reliant society. Only at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam you will find all the academic disciplines needed to understand these 'wicked problems': alongside the traditional disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and politics, we also research and teach the new social sciences such as communication science and management & organization science. We do not settle for easy answers in our teaching and research. Our researchers and students are critical thinkers and doers who work together to devise surprising solutions to the problems of today.
Working at the Faculty of Social Sciences means working with colleagues from a range of academic disciplines in an inspiring and personal work and study environment with excellent research facilities. We employ more than 350 staff members, and we are home to around 3,000 students.
About the project We live in an increasingly complex world. For example, if you aim to behave environmentally friendly, should you drink plant-based milk or is it better to drink locally produced cow milk? This is not an easy answer, and the answer brings a lot of “buts” and “ifs” to the table. This, in turn, might lead to confusion or frustration, or in other complex situations may even appear threatening. At the same time, complexity is an increasingly popular trend in mainstream film and television, manifesting in narratives presenting formal‐structural narrative complexities (multiple timelines, complicated causality of events, etc.), yet attracting wide audiences. This new trend of filmic narrative complexity provides an opportunity to build evidence‐based theories of viewers’ emotional and cognitive engagement with complexity in filmic storytelling and the effect thereof on opinion formation of complex issues in the real world. In this cross‐disciplinary project, the Postdoc will integrate theories and methods from the Humanities (film studies, cognitive narratology), Communication Science and Social Sciences (narrative engagement, media effects, public opinion formation). The current Postdoc vacancy focuses on real-world understanding through complex narratives in films in various social contexts (e.g., climate change).
The research is embedded in the department of Communication Science (
Department Communication Science), in the Media Psychology and Political Communication Programs of the department. Supervisor is dr. Katalin Balint. The Postdoc will be part of an interdisciplinary team of media psychologists, film-, and political communication scholars. You will have opportunities to collaborate with many researchers in their research groups on narratives in films and public opinion formation.