How art shapes young social minds

You will join an NWO-funded Vidi project at the University of Amsterdam, at the intersection of social psychology and developmental science. You will work closely with the principal investigator and a postdoctoral researcher, and collaborate with performing arts festivals, music venues, and cultural partners in the Netherlands and abroad. The project combines controlled lab studies with field research in real performance settings and uses behavioral, physiological, and computational methods to understand how performing arts shape children’s social development. This position is especially suitable for someone who recently completed a research-focused Master’s in psychology or a closely related discipline and wants to build a strong interdisciplinary research profile.

What are you going to do

Work with the project team and external collaborators to develop theory-driven, societally relevant research;
Design and run lab and field experiments with young children in performing arts contexts;
Collect behavioral, physiological, and observational data in close contact with children, parents, artists, and partner organizations;
Supervise master’s students who will contribute to the project as part of their master’s theses;
Analyze quantitative and multimodal data and build reproducible workflows;
Contribute to publications, conference presentations, and open science outputs.

What do you have to offer

Must-have: You independently analyze quantitative data and write clear, reproducible code;
Must-have: You organize complex data collection carefully and communicate clearly with children, parents, artists, and partner organizations;
Good-to-have: Experience with research involving young children;
Good-to-have: Experience with physiological or movement data, such as electrocardiography or wearable sensor data.

What else do we offer you

We offer a temporary full-time position of 38 hours a week for a term of 4 years. The initial employment is for one year. Following a positive assessment and barring altered circumstances, this term will be extended by a maximum of 36 months, which should result in the conferral of a doctorate. We will put together a curriculum which will also include the opportunity to attend training courses and both national and international conferences.
You will receive close and substantive supervision from the project PI (Eftychia Stamkou) and collaborators, with regular feedback on theory, study design, analysis, academic writing, and career development. You will join a strong network of collaborators with expertise in empirical aesthetics, developmental research, social psychology, and the arts. The project offers access to dedicated lab facilities, family testing spaces, advanced measurement equipment, and technical support. You will also have opportunities to present your work at international conferences and develop an interdisciplinary academic profile. The fulltime position is for 4 years, starting September 1st 2026.

In this department you will work

You will become part of the Amsterdam Arts and Social Sciences Lab, a research group in the Psychology Department that studies how art and society shape each other. The lab brings together perspectives from psychology, empirical aesthetics, developmental science, and computational approaches, and works in close collaboration with artists, museums, and cultural institutions. Within this project, you will work closely with the principal investigator, a postdoctoral researcher, and a broader interdisciplinary network. The team offers an ambitious, collaborative, and supportive environment for building innovative research at the intersection of art and social science.

Do you want to study how live performing arts open young children to others and to the unfamiliar? This interdisciplinary PhD combines lab and field experiments with behavioral and physiological measures to examine how early art experiences foster prosociality, synchrony, awe, and imaginative exploration.

How art shapes young social minds

What are you going to do

Work with the project team and external collaborators to develop theory-driven, societally relevant research;
Design and run lab and field experiments with young children in performing arts contexts;
Collect behavioral, physiological, and observational data in close contact with children, parents, artists, and partner organizations;
Supervise master’s students who will contribute to the project as part of their master’s theses;
Analyze quantitative and multimodal data and build reproducible workflows;
Contribute to publications, conference presentations, and open science outputs.

What do you have to offer

Must-have: You independently analyze quantitative data and write clear, reproducible code;
Must-have: You organize complex data collection carefully and communicate clearly with children, parents, artists, and partner organizations;
Good-to-have: Experience with research involving young children;
Good-to-have: Experience with physiological or movement data, such as electrocardiography or wearable sensor data.

What else do we offer you

In this department you will work

If you recognize yourself in this profile and are interested in the role, we look forward to receiving your motivation letter (max 1 page) and brief CV (including educational background and research experience). You can apply via the red button until 13 May 2026. Interviews will take place on 22 May 2026. In case of equal qualifications, internal candidates will be given preference over external candidates. For questions about the vacancy, you may contact Eftychia Stamkou (e.stamkou@uva.nl).

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PhD Position: How Performing Arts Shape Young Children's Social Development