Lexin is visiting Nynke Niersink at Carnegie Mellon University, United States of America. Together, they work on a paper comparing the predictive power of homophily preferences that are based on self-reported ethnic background and the perception of the belonging of classmates.

Lexin Chen’s 1st paper of her dissertation was published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence. She shows that dual identifiers typically do not realize their potential to form interethnic friendships. Although they are popular among both students with and without a migration background, dual identifiers prefer mainly those who also have a migration background…

A working paper introducing our new software VINA has been made available at SSRN and can be cited as: Nijs, T.; Stark, T.H.; and Boda, Z. (February 10, 2026). Introducing VINA: An Engaging and Ethically Responsible Interface To Collect Social Network Data Including Cognitive Social Structures on Smartphones . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6327198 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6327198 The software is…

Angelos is visiting Verónica Benet-Martínez at University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Together, they work on a paper assessing the effects of actual and perceived ethnic segregation in school classes on feelings of school belonging and prejudice. They make use of the school data, which we collected with the VINA tool, to examine the perceived structure…

Anniek Schlette visited Zsofia Boda at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, from October to December 2025. Together, they worked on a new research paper on the recognition of dual identifiers using our newly collected school data, which includes peer recognition and perceived networks.

Tobias Stark presented the latest insights from the DUALNETS project, our software VINA, and novel multilayer ERGMs to model cognitive social structures at the Mitchell Centre Seminar Series at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

The DUALNETS team organized the 4th installment of the mini conference of the research network on “Intergroup Relations and Social Networks”. Ten experts presented their work on social networks and another 15 people attended the mini conference to exchange insights on intergroup relations. The two-day mini conference took place at the University Museum Utrecht.

The Sunbelt social networks conference is one of the major events of the year for our group. Angelos Dimosiaris, Lexin Chen, Anniek Schlette, and Tom Nijs all presented their work to expert audiences. Tobias Stark organized three panels on intergroup relations and social networks, and he gave the plenary introduction of the lifetime achievement award…

Anniek Schlette, Lexin Chen, and Angelos Dimosiaris each presented their DUALNETS research at the Migration and Societal Change Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands. Tobias Stark organized two panels on multicultural identities and social networks at the conference.

Tobias Stark was invited to present our new software to measure and model network perceptions at the SoDa Lab Seminar of the University of Bremen, Germany.