Esther Rozendaal new dean Erasmus Graduate School Social Sciences and the Humanities

The main task of EGSH is to offer state-of-the-art, high-quality, international, interdisciplinary, intersectoral doctoral education for PhD candidates from the faculties of social and behavioural sciences, humanities, philosophy and development studies, and from research groups in health, housing and transition studies. Professor Van Zoonen has built the Graduate School in recent years into a joint venture with five faculties and three institutes in which 500 PhD candidates participate. 

Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Prof. Victor Bekkers - Dean Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences "We sincerely thank Liesbet van Zoonen for the almost ten years she has been dean. With great vigour and from a clear vision she has developed the EGSH into an institute in which by now all PhD's from the Social Sciences and Humanities within the EUR are included. She has also set up an interesting training program that responds to current methodological developments.

We believe we have found a worthy successor in Esther Rozendaal, who in a well-considered manner, from involvement but also from a realistic point of view, will give form and content to strengthening the importance of interdisciplinarity, achieving impact and methodological innovation. In doing so, as a leading researcher, she can make ample use of her own experience in these areas, also keeping in mind the well-being of PhD students. We wish her much success in the coming years in further strengthening the Graduate School, and training the PhD candidates."

Esther Rozendaal "I am delighted with this appointment and that I may continue Van Zoonen's work. EGSH has inclusion as one of its most important core values. I fully embrace this core value, but I would also like to add one: academic resilience. The life of a graduate student has many challenging and stressful moments, both during the doctoral program and afterwards. In my view, the Graduate School can play an important role in training doctoral students to be resilient to those challenges, face setbacks, adapt practices, and grow as persons and professionals. In my role as dean, I hope to be able to contribute to that in the coming years."

About Esther Rozendaal
Dr. Esther Rozendaal received her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2011, where she subsequently worked as a postdoc. From 2012 to 2020, she worked in the Department of Communication Science at the Behavioural Science Institute of Radboud University Nijmegen. Since 2020, she has been an associate professor of Communication and Behavioural Change at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). Her research focuses on the digital resilience of young people. In particular, she investigates how to help children and teenagers to behave media-wise online. In 2014 she received a NWO Veni grant, and in 2020 a NWO Vidi grant for a five-year research project investigating how to empower teens to use digital media in a safe and responsible way. She has received several awards for her work, including from the International Communication Association (ICA), the Netherlands School of Communication Research (NeSCoR), and the International Journal of Advertising.

In addition to her academic research, she is concerned with bridging the gap between science and practice. In 2011, together with Prof. Moniek Buijzen (ESSB), she founded Bitescience, a company aimed at transferring scientific knowledge to professionals with young people as the target group.

About EGSH

EGSH is a joint venture with:

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB), Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC), Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil), International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM), Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), The Dutch Research Institute For Transitions (DRIFT) .

The Board of Trustees consists of the deans of the faculties.