Dr. Nienke Smit is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Utrecht University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Her research focuses on scaffolding processes, adaptive teaching, and classroom observational research from a complex dynamic systems perspective. Specializes in teacher-student interaction Expert in adaptive instruction and observational methods Collaborates with Data Science department Develops tools for classroom observation Research interests include language learning and teaching , judgment and decision-making in education , and professional development of teachers . She leads projects like Eye Get It (joint attention in classrooms) and a replication study on adaptive instruction effectiveness. Her work applies dynamic systems theory to second language development and foreign language pedagogy. Recent publications address translanguaging in multilingual classrooms, replication studies , and process-oriented research . She teaches at Utrecht's Graduate School of Teaching and works on initiatives to reduce teacher shortages through improved training programs.
Raquel Fernández is Full Professor of Computational Linguistics and Dialogue Systems at the University of Amsterdam, where she leads the Dialogue Modelling Group at the Institute for Logic, Language & Computation (ILLC). As Vice-Director for Research at ILLC and a Fellow of the ELLIS Society, she bridges computational linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence through her research on language use in multimodal and conversational contexts. PhD in Computational Linguistics from King's College London Prior research positions at University of Potsdam and Stanford University's CSLI Her work explores how cognitive constraints, social interaction, and perception shape language use, with a focus on: Visually-grounded language processing Multimodal dialogue modeling Model uncertainty and calibration Language grounding in multimodal data Language learning and semantic change Dialogue reference resolution Recent publications analyze multimodal reasoning limitations, cross-lingual knowledge consistency, and uncertainty modeling in dialogue systems. She has received multiple accolades including an ERC Consolidator Grant , NWO VENI/VIDI/Aspasia fellowships , and EMNLP/GenBench awards . Outstanding Paper Award (EMNLP 2023) Best Data Award (GenBench Workshop 2023) ELLIS Society Fellow ERC Consolidator Grant #819455 recipient NWO VENI/VIDI/Aspasia awardee As a leader in academic service, she serves on the SIGDAT Executive Committee and chairs multiple conference committees. Her lab develops models for multimodal dialogue, visual storytelling, and grounded language understanding.
David Peeters is an Associate Professor at Tilburg University's Department of Communication and Cognition, part of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences. His research focuses on multimodal communication, multilingualism, and digital communication, leveraging immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies combined with EEG, eye-tracking, and fMRI. He explores neurobiological underpinnings of language, including neuropragmatics, non-verbal communication, and multilingualism. His work is supported by grants such as the NWO Veni and Tilburg University Fund. Peeters teaches courses on virtual reality, language psychology, and digital literature integration in education. He is a Research Fellow at the Donders Institute and President of the Tilburg Young Academy. Key research interests include the role of gesture and iconicity in second language acquisition, bilingual language switching in immersive environments, and the impact of dataism on academic publishing. He collaborates with libraries and schools to integrate digital literature into curricula and public collections. His scientific awards include the NWO Veni Grant and a Fellowship from the International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences. His research bridges cognitive science, linguistics, and technology, emphasizing ecologically valid experimental paradigms.
Lesya Ganushchak is Assistant Professor in Educational Sciences at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research employs cognitive neuroscience methods to examine language processing, reading development, and educational interventions. Using EEG/ERP and eye-tracking methodologies, she investigates cognitive mechanisms underlying self-monitoring, lexical access, and sentence production. Recent publications demonstrate her focus on evidence-based educational interventions: Meta-analyses of reading proficiency interventions (2024) Inference-making development in early readers (2023) Behavioral nudges improving online learning engagement (2022) Her ORCID profile documents extensive research output with collaborative networks spanning cognitive psychology and education research.
Sible Andringa is Professor of Second Language Pedagogy at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Humanities, officially inaugurated on June 16, 2023. Dr. Andringa serves as Academic Director of the Institute for Dutch Language Education (INTT), Coordinator of the Language Learning, Literacy and Multilingualism research group, and Coordinator of the Master's program in Dutch as a Second Language and Multilingualism. Dr. Andringa's research focuses on second language acquisition and bilingualism, specifically investigating the added value of explicit instruction, how input distribution affects language learning outcomes, and the role of awareness in language learning trajectories. Key ongoing projects include the Meta-LLL project examining how literacy shapes language learning, the SLA4All initiative for reproducing SLA research with non-academic samples, and the OASIS project creating accessible research summaries for practitioners. Previously, Dr. Andringa led Project MIND studying bilingual daycare effects and contributed to the Stilis project on listening proficiency. As General Editor of the Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics (DuJAL), Dr. Andringa promotes open science principles in language research. Recent publications demonstrate a focus on addressing sampling biases in SLA research, open access publishing ethics, and practical applications of language acquisition research for educational settings. Academic Director, Institute for Dutch Language Education (INTT) Coordinator, Language Learning, Literacy and Multilingualism research group Coordinator, Master's program Dutch as a Second Language and Multilingualism General Editor, Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics (DuJAL) Member, Mastery Team for Modern Foreign Languages Member, OASIS project team Member, IRIS database advisory group Dr. Andringa supervises PhD candidates including Kyra Hanekamp and Darlene Keydeniers, particularly in research related to bilingual daycare environments and language development. The research program has received funding from the Dutch ministry of Social Affairs for Project MIND and continues to secure support for ongoing projects examining language learning mechanisms. Dr. Andringa leads the Language Learning, Literacy, and Multilingualism research group which investigates language and literacy acquisition across the lifespan, with emphasis on how language skills are learned, maintained, and used in educational contexts. The group meets weekly to discuss projects, plans, funding opportunities, and research topics while promoting collaboration, methodological innovation, and open science principles.
Prof. Bart Streumer is a Professor of Ethics at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. Previously, he held positions at the University of Reading and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. His research focuses on metaethics, particularly the error theory regarding normative judgments, arguing that such judgments cannot be believed yet are likely true. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Moral Philosophy and is a Board member of Stichting Jazz in Groningen. Streumer has authored influential works like Unbelievable Errors , exploring skepticism about moral and normative truths. His teaching includes courses on metaethics, free will, and property metaphysics. Education: Research Fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge; Lecturer/Reader at University of Reading. Research Interests: Metaethics, error theory, normative judgments, moral skepticism. Key Publications: Unbelievable Errors (2017), articles in Noûs , Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , and Analysis . Teaching (2024-25): Courses on Free Will and Responsibility, Metaethics, Advanced Metaethics, and the Metaphysics of Properties. Ancillary activities include editorial work and jazz-related community involvement.
G.J. Greg Poarch, PhD is an Associate Professor of English Linguistics and English as a Second Language (ESL) at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Arts. He holds positions on the Cluster Board 2 as Secretary and serves as President of the International Association of Multilingualism (IAM). His research focuses on bilingualism, multilingualism, psycholinguistics, and the cognitive impacts of language learning. He is affiliated with the Neurolinguistics and Language Development (NLD) research group. Research interests include cross-linguistic activation in multilingual speakers, executive function development in multilingual children, and the relationship between multilingualism and neurocognitive health in aging populations. His work addresses topics like translanguaging theory, structural priming in language acquisition, and the role of genetic factors in Alzheimer's risk mitigation among multilinguals. Poarch collaborates internationally, organizing conferences such as the 13th International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism (2024). His research has been published in journals like Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism , Language Learning , and Journal of Experimental Child Psychology .
Geert Buelens (born 1971) is a Professor of Modern Dutch Literature at Utrecht University and guest professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Affiliated with the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication within the Faculty of Humanities, he works at the Humanities Institute for Cultural Inquiry. His research focuses on the intersection of literature and society, particularly examining how writers and artists respond to moments of crisis. His areas of expertise include Environmental History, Literary History, Modern Dutch Literature, Cultural History, 1960s in Global Perspective, Avant-Garde Poetry from the First World War, and Poetry Song Culture. Buelens has published extensively on European poets of the First World War, the global cultural upheaval of the 1960s, the history of Flemish poetry, literature and decolonization, and cultural responses to the environmental and climate crisis. His notable publications include Wat we toen al wisten. De vergeten groene geschiedenis van 1972 (2022), which explores the environmental year 1972 and was awarded the Boon Prize while longlisted for the Jan Wolkers Prize; De Jaren Zestig: Een Cultuurgeschiedenis (2018), a comprehensive global perspective on the 1960s; and Europa Europa! Over de dichters van de Grote Oorlog (2008), examining WWI poetry across Europe. He has also published poetry collections including Ofwa (2020). Boon Prize for Best Fiction or Non-Fiction book of 2022 Longlisted for the Jan Wolkers Prize Buelens is actively involved in the Network for Environmental Humanities and participates in the HERA project 'Cultural Exchange in a Time of Global Conflict.' He frequently contributes to public debates on literature, environmental issues, and cultural history through media appearances and public lectures. His current research examines the relationship between literature and the climate crisis, with a particular focus on Dutch and Flemish literary responses to environmental challenges.
Prof. Floris de Lange is a Professor at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, and holds a part-time W3-Professorship in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience at the University of Bonn. His research focuses on understanding how top-down factors like goals, attention, expectations, and prior knowledge shape perception, cognition, and decision-making. He uses behavioral and neuroimaging techniques (MEG, fMRI, TMS) to study these processes in healthy and pathological brains. Key research themes include predictive perception, attention, and the neural mechanisms underlying decision-making. His work has been supported by prestigious grants such as the Vici and ERC Consolidator Grants. He teaches courses on Attention and Prediction, Cognitive Control, and Neurophysiology of Cognition and Behaviour. Education: Not explicitly stated in the provided text. Awards: Vici Grant (NWO), ERC Consolidator Grant, Ammodo Science Award, and others. Labs/Teams: Leads the Predictive Perception and Cognition group within the Donders Institute. His research highlights the brain’s predictive nature, demonstrating how expectations modulate sensory processing in early visual cortex and influence decision-making. He collaborates internationally, including an adversarial testing project on theories of consciousness.
Gesa van den Broek is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences , specializing in Education and Learning: Development in Interaction . Her research focuses on instructional design, cognitive psychology, and memory studies, particularly in foreign language pedagogy and higher education research. Areas of Expertise: Instructional Design, Cognitive Psychology, Memory Studies, Foreign Language Pedagogy Research Themes: Dynamics of Youth (DoY), Game Research, Higher Education Research Her recent work investigates retrieval practice mechanisms, stepwise worked examples, and multimedia learning effects. She actively collaborates on educational technology tools like ET_cam_home and participates in public engagement activities, including media contributions to Dutch outlets like Volkskrant and Trouw.
Peng Wang is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the Sciences within the Faculty of Humanities at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His academic qualifications include a PhD in Language and Emotion from VU University Amsterdam, and advanced studies in Linguistics, Education Research, and Public Health Statistics from Missouri State University, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Oxford. His research focuses on interdisciplinary topics such as mental health interventions, emotion dynamics in education, neurodiversity advocacy, and healthcare communication. Key areas include transdiagnostic mental health approaches, ecological momentary assessment frameworks, and the integration of AI with neurotechnological research. Recent publications explore innovative methods for mental health monitoring (e.g., trimodal emotion assessment systems), universal school-based interventions for children, and the neuroethical implications of neurodiversity research. His work bridges philosophy of science with applied research in healthcare and education systems. No formal awards are listed, though his research has garnered attention across multiple platforms including Mendeley and Bluesky. Collaborations span global institutions with a focus on child mental health and healthcare professional wellbeing.
Dr. Jacqueline Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and Pedagogy at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University. Her academic work focuses on enhancing educational practices through evidence-based research in self-regulated learning and learning analytics, with particular applications in higher education contexts. Dr. Wong earned her Ph.D. (cum laude) from Erasmus University Rotterdam with a thesis entitled "Enhancing Self-Regulated Learning Through Instructional Supports and Learning Analytics in Online Higher Education," which received the Best Thesis Award 2021 from the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities. She completed her Master's degree (cum laude) in Educational Psychology, where she examined the use of movements to support text comprehension. Prior to joining Utrecht University, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology (2020-2022) working with the Program of Innovation in Mathematics Education (PRIME). Dr. Wong's research program spans several interconnected areas: the application of learning analytics to support self-regulated learning, the design of instructional interventions that promote metacognitive awareness, and the investigation of how emerging technologies like generative AI can enhance educational experiences. Her work frequently examines how technology can be leveraged to support students' metacognitive processes and goal-setting behaviors in both traditional and online educational settings. She has made significant contributions to understanding how conversational agents and learning analytics can provide personalized support for students' self-regulated learning processes. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a clear trajectory toward integrating emerging technologies with established educational theories. Her 2024-2025 work increasingly focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence and educational psychology, particularly examining how generative AI tools can enhance academic text accessibility and provide adaptive support for learning. She also continues to investigate cognitive aspects of learning in educational games and augmented reality environments, with implications for both educational practice and learning theory development. Among her notable achievements, Dr. Wong received the Best Thesis Award 2021 from the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities. This recognition highlights the significant contribution her doctoral work has made to the field of educational psychology and learning sciences. Her systematic reviews, including examinations of student engagement in mathematics education and gamification in MOOCs, have provided valuable syntheses of research in growing areas of educational technology. Dr. Wong has been an active research member of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Learning and Education (LDE-CEL) and the network for Self-Regulated Learning in Digitalised Schools (SeReLeDiS). Her collaborative approach to research is evident in her extensive co-authorship network across multiple institutions. Before joining Utrecht University, she worked with lecturers to promote student motivation and self-regulated learning in blended service mathematics courses and examined the effectiveness of technology tools for learning mathematics. Dr. Wong's work bridges theoretical frameworks with practical implementations, often involving close partnerships with educators to ensure research relevance to real-world classroom challenges. Her current research appears to be moving toward deeper integration of AI technologies with educational theory, particularly examining how generative AI can support metacognitive processes and self-regulated learning across diverse educational contexts.
Amalia Arvaniti is a Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures and the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud University, Netherlands. She specializes in English Language and Linguistics with a strong focus on phonetics and laboratory phonology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics, particularly in prosody, intonation, rhythm, sociophonetics, bilingualism, and language variation . She investigates these phenomena in both English and Greek, with a current emphasis on developing an integrated model of intonational form and function. The recent publications highlight a consistent focus on intonation and prosodic structure, drawing on experimental, phonetic, and pragmatic methodologies. Her work spans theoretical phonology and empirical phonetics, often using laboratory-based approaches to examine cross-linguistic patterns and speaker variability. ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-ADG-835263) for SPRINT project (2019-2025) Leverhulme Major Fellowship (UK, 2019-2020) Mohrmann Grant (Radboud University, 2020-2022) She leads the SPRINT project as Principal Investigator, which funds four post-doctoral researchers and supports training, dissemination, and international collaboration with scholars like Chris Cummins and Yiya Chen. Her teaching includes core courses in phonology, British English phonetics, and language variation at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She supervises Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Research Master’s theses, indicating active student mentorship. The research is conducted within the Speech Production and Comprehension Group, which employs behavioral and neurophysiological methods to study speech.
Dr. Leanne Nagels is a researcher at the University of Groningen and University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), affiliated with both the Faculty of Medical Sciences' Department of Otorhinolaryngology and the Semantics and Cognition research group at the Center of Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG). Her PhD project, supervised by Professors Petra Hendriks and Deniz Başkent, investigates the perception of indexical voice cues (e.g., gender, emotion) in children and adults with cochlear implants. This interdisciplinary work bridges linguistics and audiology, addressing challenges in speech perception and cognitive processing among hearing-impaired populations. Her research focuses on how degraded acoustic signals from cochlear implants affect voice perception, vocal emotion recognition, and speech comprehension in noisy environments. Key contributions include developing the EmoHI test to assess emotional voice perception in hearing-impaired children and identifying dissociated developmental trajectories for gender and emotion perception in pediatric cochlear implant users. She has published extensively in journals like Scientific Reports , PeerJ , and Trends in Hearing , and received the PeerJ VIHAR workshop Best Proceedings Paper Award (2019). Education: PhD candidate in Linguistics/Audiology, University of Groningen (2017–present); Master’s thesis on contextual and lexical processing in cochlear implant users (supervised by Dr. Anita Wagner). Affiliations: Research School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences Groningen (BCN); Center of Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG). Her work highlights how early auditory deprivation impacts voice perception abilities and advocates for tailored rehabilitation strategies to improve quality of life for cochlear implant users.
Dr. Elena Tribushinina is an Associate Professor at Utrecht University's Department of Languages, Literature and Communication , affiliated with the Institute for Language Sciences . Her expertise spans Child Multilingualism , Developmental Language Disorders , and Foreign Language Pedagogy , with a focus on educational interventions and cognitive mechanisms in language acquisition. Research Themes : Language Acquisition, Processing, and Disorders; Dynamics of Youth (DoY). Teaching : Courses in English Language and Culture (BA/MA), Multilingualism, and Topics in Language Acquisition. Her research investigates how bilingualism and language disorders interact in foreign language learning, using eye-tracking and intervention studies to differentiate between bilingual and DLD profiles. Recent projects include CodeTaal App for DLD children and support for Ukrainian refugee pupils. Key publication trends (2022–2025) reveal a focus on bilingual advantages , cross-linguistic transfer , connectives in discourse , and explicit instruction strategies for learners with DLD or dyslexia. She collaborates with institutions in Alberta , Antwerp , and Russia . She leads the research group Language Acquisition, Processing and Disorders and serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Child Language . Her methodological toolkit includes eye-tracking , longitudinal studies , and meta-analyses of pedagogical interventions.
