Team

Dr. Maykel Verkuyten is Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at Utrecht University and the academic director of the European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER). Together with Borja Martinović he advises the PhD students in the OWNERS project. By training he is a social psychologist and an anthropologist. His main research interest is in ethnic identity and interethnic relations. He focuses on the nature of ethnic, religious and national identities, and their interrelationships. He is interested in the conditions under which these identities become less or more important and strong, as well as the conditions under which they are experienced as compatible or rather contradictory. In addition, he examines various consequences of these identities, including well-being, group evaluations, and collective behaviour. His most recent research project is on Integroup Toleration (InTo) for which he received an ERC advanced grant in 2017.

Dr. Jolanda Jetten is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Queensland and an ARC Laureate Fellow (2019-2023). She collaborates with Borja Martinović and Wybren Nooitgedagt on Project 2 about ownership in settler societies, in particular Australia. Dr. Jetten’s research is concerned with group processes, social identity and intergroup relations. She has published over 170 peer-reviewed articles, over 35 chapters and 5 books. She is the former co-Chief Editor of the British Journal of Social Psychology and currently serves as co-Chief Editor of Social Issues and Policy Review. She was awarded the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal in 2004 and the Kurt Lewin Medal from the European Association of Social Psychology in 2014. In 2015 she was elected as fellow of the Association of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).

Dr. Ana Figueiredo is Assistant Professor at the Society and Health Research Center at Universidad Mayor, Chile, and adjunct researcher with the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES). She has a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Coimbra, Portugal (European doctoral degree with the University of Amsterdam). She was an active member of the research network COST Action IS1205 "Social psychological dynamics of historical representations in the enlarged European Union" and she has recently finished a research project about “Representations of history and intergroup relations between Mapuche and non-indigenous Chileans (Fondecyt Grant 3160352). Her research focuses on representations of history, colonialism and historical conflicts, intergroup relations, emotions, acculturation, majority-minority interactions, collective action and sexual and cultural diversity. Ana collaborates with Wybren Nooitgedagt on Project 2 about ownership in settler societies.

Dr. Sabina Toruńczyk-Ruiz is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Psychology at Warsaw University, and researcher at the Centre of Migration Research, Warsaw University. Her doctoral dissertation was about the relationship between neighbourhood diversity and place attachment, and the role of individual social ties and affective appraisals in this link. Apart from being trained in psychology, she also obtained a MA degree in social and cultural anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam. Her main research interests currently include the effects of ethnic diversity for social cohesion, determinants and consequences of place attachment, as well as the relation between person-place bonds and attitudes towards newcomers. She studies these topics at the local (mostly neighbourhood) level. In relation to psychological ownership, together with Borja Martinović she has examined the role of place attachment and perceived entitlements in the link between length of residence in the neighbourhood and community cohesion.

Dr. Iris Žeželj is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology at University of Belgrade. Her area of interest are processes that contribute different forms of biases, from macro to micro-level: group biases, biases in memory, beliefs and self knowledge. Being from Balkans, she is especially concerned in the role of social psychology in bettering the intergroup relations. She has led or co-led several international projects on these topics. In her research, she combines laboratory experiments, large scale cross cultural studies and content analyses. In collaboration with Borja Martinović she has examined the role of psychological ownership in potential for reconciliation in post-conflict settings.

Dr. Charis Psaltis is an Associate Professor of Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Cyprus. He holds a degree in Educational Sciences and a degree in Psychology. He received his MPhil and PhD in Social and Developmental Psychology from the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Cambridge. He also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Oxford Centre for the Study of Intergroup Conflict at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, where he studied intergroup contact between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. His main research interests are social interaction and learning and development, genetic epistemology, social representations of gender, intergroup contact and intergroup relations, the development of national identities, history teaching and collective memory. He currently runs the University Centre for Field Studies at the University of Cyprus and co-directs the Genetic Social Psychology Lab. He is the Cyprus national coordinator for Round 10 of European Social Survey (ESS). Together with Nora Storz and Borja Martinović he is looking into how strong feelings that the disputed territory rightfully belongs to the ingroup keeps individuals in conflict regions from reconciling.

Dr. Rezarta Bilali is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Social Intervention at New York University - Steinhardt. Her research focuses on the social psychological underpinnings of intergroup conflict and violence in various conflict settings (e.g., Albania, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Turkey, the U.S.). Dr. Bilali seeks to understand the influence of group identities on intergroup conflict, and the psychological underpinnings of conflict narratives, specifically focusing on group members' denial or acknowledgement of past collective violence, the factors that drive denial narratives, and strategies to address these narratives. She also merges theory and practice by working with non-governmental organizations to develop and evaluate violence prevention and reconciliation media programs. Within the OWNERS project, Dr. Bilali collaborates with Nora Storz and Borja Martinović on questions of ownership and reconciliation in conflict regions.

Edona Maloku is a Lecturer in Psychology at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Kosovo (RIT Kosovo). Her research focuses on the social-psychological processes that underlie relations between groups with a history of conflict. As a survivor of war herself (Kosovo war 1998-1999) she examines the barriers and the potential of members of adversarial groups to work towards peacebuilding and reconciliation after violent conflicts. Most of her work is grounded in social identity, contact with outgroup members, and intergroup relations. Recently, she has expanded this insight to understanding how social identities and prejudice develop among children of the peacebuilding generations in the countries of former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and Israel. Within the OWNERS project, Edona collaborates with Borja Martinović and Nora Storz to examine the role that the psychological ownership of Kosovo plays in shaping intergroup relations among Albanians and Serbs following Kosovo’s war in the late 90s and the country’s independence in 2008.

Dr. Constantine Sedikides is Professor and Director of the Center for Research on Self and Identity, University of Southampton, UK. He is part of the ERC project OWNERS, collaborating with Tom Nijs, Borja Martinović and Maykel Verkuyten on Project 1 (ownership claims in Western Europe). His research is on self and identity (including narcissism), and their interplay with emotion (especially nostalgia) as well as motivation, close relationships, and group or organizational processes. This research has been supported by grants from national and international funding agencies, such as Economic and Social Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, and National Institute of Health. He has received several awards, including Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize (Society for Personality and Social Psychology), Distinguished Lifetime Career Award (International Society for Self and Identity), Kurt Lewin Medal for Outstanding Scientific Contribution (European Association of Social Psychology), and The Presidents’ Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge (The British Psychological Society).

Dr. Kumar Yogeeswaran is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He received his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst in 2012. Kumar’s primary research examines the complexities and challenges of achieving national unity in culturally diverse societies. Specifically, his research explores questions such as: (a) how do people’s implicit or abstract notions of what it takes to be considered an ‘authentic’ member of the nation impact intergroup relations within culturally diverse nations?; (b) how do strategies and ideologies about the ways to best manage diversity impact on majority and minority group outcomes?; (c) what is intergroup toleration and how does it impact intergroup relations in culturally diverse nations? Within the OWNERS project, Kumar collaborates with Wybren Nooitgedagt and Dr. Borja Martinović on questions of collective ownership and intergroup relations in settler societies.

Dr. Nimrod Rosler is a lecturer (tenure-track) at the Evens Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation, Department of Public Policy, Tel Aviv University. Previously a Visiting Israel Professor at the University of Kansas, he is currently the head of the International Program in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel-Aviv University. His studies deal with psychological and social aspects of political conflicts and their resolution, while focusing on the following areas of research and their integration: gender, emotions, leadership, peace processes, and interventions for attitude change towards peace. Nimrod collaborates with Nora Storz and Borja Martinović on the topic of ownership claims and reconciliation in Israel.

Dr. Rob Ford is Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester. He researches public opinion and political behaviour, with particular interests in the politics of race and immigration, electoral choice, and the radical right. His latest monograph, entitled "Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics", examines the emergence of new political divides over education and identity in Britain. Within the OWNERS project, Professor Ford collaborates with Tom Nijs and Borja Martinovic on how collective psychological ownership influences welfare attitudes.

Dr. Sibusiso Maseko is a lecturer at the University of South Africa’s department of psychology. He earned his doctorate degree in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2023. Drawing on South Africa’s history of settler colonialism, his broad research agenda focuses on how White South Africans assert themselves as natives to maintain a sense of territorial entitlement. His current research examines how White South Africans mobilize autochthony and collective nostalgia to defend their ownership of settler colonial territory and to maintain racial inequality.

Dr. Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti is at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki (Finland) since 2012. Her main research interests include intergroup relations with a focus on the social identities and inequalities, prejudice, racism, and discrimination as well as immigrant integration. She has published over 150 scientific articles and book chapters. Currently, prof. Jasinskaja-Lahti is co-leading with her colleague prof. Jääskeläinen (Aalto University) the PREVENT-consortium (Academy of Finland), which aims at developing a social scientifically and neurobiologically informed understanding of prejudice and of the ways to reduce discrimination in social encounters off-line and in virtual reality. In addition, she is a leader of a social psychological project of the SRC funded DECA-project led by prof. Pantti (UH), which focuses on collective epistemic rights and capacities among cultural majority and minority groups in Finland. Prof. Jasinskaja-Lahti has served for several years the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal and she is currently a member of the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) in Finland. Within the OWNERS project, prof. Jasinskaja-Lahti works on questions of epistemic ownership, ownership threats, cultural appropriation, and a sense of psychological and epistemic ownership in minority groups.