VSR x ELS Academy PhD Days 2026: Expanding Horizons

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Practical information

If you’re a PhD candidate interested in law in action—whether you already use empirical methods or want to add them to your toolkit—join the VSR × ELS Academy PhD Days. Over two concentrated days you’ll sharpen your research design, pressure-test your research questions, and learn to communicate findings with impact, guided by experienced scholars and a cohort of peers and senior researchers. We open with a keynote by Prof. Wibren van der Burg, reflecting on what interdisciplinary and empirical legal research demands in practice and how it can reshape your project’s trajectory.

Across the programme you’ll encounter interactive sessions that cover the full arc of the PhD: from framing problems and designing studies to collecting and analysing data (qualitative and quantitative), navigating ethics and reflexivity, and presenting your work inside and outside academia. The emphasis is practical, actionable, and immediately usable—so you leave with tools you can apply the next day, plus an expanded network for feedback and collaboration.

Programme

You can find the summarized programme in Pdf-format here.

DAY 1 (27 January)

• 9:00-9:30: Walk-in, registration and coffee/tea
• 9:30-10:00: Opening by VSR & ELS Academy
• 10:15-11:15: Keynote by prof. Wibren van der Burg
  • The keynote speaker will be Wibren van der Burg, professor of Legal Philosophy and Jurisprudence at the Erasmus School of Law. He expanded his own horizons through interdisciplinary research, research stays and teaching abroad, and switching between topics and different subfields of law and ethics. He will discuss both the benefits and costs of such a career. The main theme of his lecture will be how researchers can expand their horizons in their research and what this implies for research designs and methodologies.
• 11:30-13:00: Parallel workshops
  • Workshop 1: Interviews on Sensitive Matters – Ruben Timmerman
    This workshop provides an introduction and overview of interviewing as a form of qualitative research. We will first discuss the different kinds of interviewing techniques. We will then discuss the preparations that go into conducting a good interview, including how to design an interview guide. We will also discuss various challenges of interviewing, including how to build trust and rapport with respondents, talk about difficult or sensitive topics, and deal with difficult interview situations. Finally, we will discuss ethical dilemmas and your own positionality and social responsibility while conducting interviews.
    • Ruben Timmerman is criminologist and postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus School of Law. He teaches advanced research methods for the International Master’s in Advanced Research in Criminology. He has a wide range of experience conducting qualitative research, including in-depth interviewing, on sensitive topics, such as irregular migration, labour exploitation, drug trafficking, and corruption.
  • Workshop 2: Formulating Research Questions – Peter Mascini
    Although it is perhaps the most important step in the empirical research cycle, the literature on conducting empirical research devotes little attention to the research question. In this session, presentations on formulating an academically relevant research question and positioning it in a paradigmatic field will be followed by exercises in which you can apply the content to your own Ph.D. Study.
    • Peter Mascini is a professor of empirical legal studies at the Erasmus School of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is also an associate professor of sociology at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His research focuses on testing the assumptions underlying legal instruments and policies.
  • Workshop 3: Visualizing your Research – Merel Cornax
    Turn your research into a clear and engaging visual story! In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to design research infographics and posters using Piktochart. Merel will cover basic design principles (such as layout, colours, and clarity) and guide you step-by-step in creating your own visual. No prior design experience needed; just bring your research idea and creativity!
    • Merel Cornax (LLM, MSc) is a PhD fellow at the Business Studies department of Leiden Law School. In her research she focuses on themes at the intersection of organizational psychology and labor law. For her dissertation she conducts empirical-legal research on the responsibility for psychosocial wellbeing in the workplace.
• 13:00-14:00: Lunch
• 14:15-15:45: Parallel Workshops
  • Workshop 1: Designing Surveys – Aylin Aydin-Cakir
    In this workshop, Dr. Aylin Aydin-Cakir will guide students through the process of designing a survey tailored to a specific research purpose. Participants will begin by exploring the key issues of conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement and will learn how to develop valid and reliable survey questions. The workshop will also introduce participants to different types of survey and sampling methods enabling them to select approaches that best align with their research objectives. In addition, it will address key issues in questionnaire design and cover techniques for testing and improving the quality of questionnaires.
    • Dr. Aylin Aydin-Cakir is Assistant Professor of Law, Politics and Quantitative Methods at Erasmus Law School. Prior to joining Erasmus, she worked as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yeditepe University, Turkey (2014-2020). Between 2021 and 2023, she worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Political Science program at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research interests focus on law and politics, comparative political institutions and public opinion in public institutions. Methodologically, her research leverages several quantative approaches including observational data, experiments as well as other causal inference designs. Her studies are published in various journals such as the Journal of European Public Policy (JEPP); Political Research Quarterly; International Political Science Review; Law&Society Review; Democratization; International Journal of Constitutional Law (ICON); International Review of Law and Economics; and Global Constitutionalism.
  • Workshop 2: Making Sense of Interviews: Turning your Data into Research Findings – Anne Janssen
    This workshop builds on the basics of qualitative interviewing and discusses how to translate interviews into qualitative findings. Topics include data analysis strategies (such as: working with a code book, thematic  analysis) translating qualitative research into journal publications. Anne will discuss strategies for ensuring rigor and credibility in data collection and analysis. Participants will discuss during the workshop, based on their research design or research that they already conducted, whether these findings can be generalized and how they could be presented in a publication.
    • Anne Janssen, board member of the VSR, is a PhD Candidate at Utrecht University’s Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice. Her interdisciplinary research combines law and social psychology to examine how vulnerable litigants experience civil court procedures, focusing on fairness, trust, and participation. Anne has extensive experience conducting and analysing interviews and is actively involved in teaching and organizing training on qualitative research methods. Having been part of the PhD Days organisation for several years, she knows exactly what PhD candidates hope to get out of the PhD days and she is excited to share her experience and help participants take their interviewing skills to the next level.
  • Workshop 3: Presenting your Research – Robby Roks
    This workshop offers researchers a safe environment to practice their presentation skills in front of a limited audience. Not only does this workshop provide you with the opportunity to get feedback on the way you present your research, you also have the chance to discuss certain issues you encounter in your research with academics and get their views on it.
    • Robby Roks is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research interests includes youth crime, street culture, violence, digitization, and organized crime.
• 16:00:   Drinks!

DAY 2 (28 January)

• 9:00-9:30: Walk-in
• 9:45-11:00: Panel on ‘Expanding Horizons’ moderated by mr. Anne Janssen with panellists: prof.mr.dr. LouisVisscher, dr. Malouke Kuiper and Merel Driessen.
• 11:00-11:30: Short break
• 11:30-13:00: Parallel workshops
  • Workshop 1: Experimental Designs – Pieter Desmet
    Experiments allow researchers to isolate causal effects and understand how people behave, perceive, and interpret situations in legal contexts. This workshop introduces key experimental designs for empirical legal research (field, lab & vignette experiments), showing how the can be used to uncover the mechanisms behind law in action.
    • Pieter Desmet is a Full Professor and Joint Chair in Quantitative Empirical Legal Studies. His interdisciplinary research focuses on variety of legal domains, including the decision making of victims, perpetrators and judges, as well as behavioural ethics and managerial and consumer decision making and nudges.
  • Workshop 2: Presenting your Research – Robby Roks
    This workshop offers researchers a safe environment to practice their presentation skills in front of a limited audience. Not only does this workshop provide you with the opportunity to get feedback on the way you present your research, you also have the chance to discuss certain issues you encounter in your research with academics and get their views on it.
    • Robby Roks is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research interests includes youth crime, street culture, violence, digitization, and organized crime.
      Spots are limited for this workshop
  • Workshop 3: Systematic Literature Review – Els Vyncke
    TBA: More information will follow shortly!
• 13:00-14:00: Lunch
• 14:15-15:45: Parallel workshops
  • Workshop 1: Queer & Feminist Legal Methodology – Pieter Cannoot & Mary Spinoy
    Feminist and queer approaches have significantly shaped international legal scholarship, but in continental European contexts accessible methodological tools are still lacking. This workshop aims to offer a toolbox that enables researchers to critically interrogate the dominant norms of legal scholarship and to explore new ways of producing knowledge, taking into account feminist and queer perspectives. In doing so, the workshop aspires to open up space for imagination, transformation, and resistance, inviting us to see law not merely as an instrument of power but as a field that can be collectively and critically rewritten.
    • Pieter Cannoot (he/him) is an assistant professor with the Centre for Law and Diversity at Ghent University. His research focuses primarily on the relationship between law and gender, anti-discrimination law, and the rights of LGBTQI+ persons. Previously, Pieter was a legal clerk at the Belgian Constitutional Court and a visiting professor at the University of Antwerp. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Human Rights (Tijdschrift voor Mensenrechten, TvMR) and a member of the European Commission’s expert network on non-discrimination.
    • Marie Spinoy (she/her) is a researcher at the Leuven Centre for Public Law (KU Leuven), where she is preparing a PhD in discrimination law. She is also a part-time teaching assistant with the Centre for Law and Diversity at Ghent University. Her research focuses primarily on various aspects of discrimination law and on the rights of persons with disabilities. She is a member of the leadership team of the Disability Rights Working Group at the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law, and serves as an assessor of the Litigation Chamber of the Flemish Human Rights Institute.
  • Workshop 2: Employing Law and Political Economy and Critical Legal Studies in Legal Research – Federica Violi
    Law and Political Economy and Critical Legal Studies are two methodological interdisciplinary approaches to studying law. Further information will follow.
    • Dr. Federica Violi is Associate Professor in International Law at Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Dr. Violi received her master’s in law from the University of Messina and her PhD in international law from the University of Milan La Statale, with a thesis on land grabbing and permanent sovereignty over natural resources. She has been a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg and at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment in New York. Her research focuses in the areas of international economic law, sovereignty over natural resources, investment contracts, international investment agreements, due diligence and law & art. Dr. Violi actively lends her expertise to inform institutional practice and NGOs’ activities and has recently appeared as an expert before EU Parliamentary committee sessions, the Italian and the German Parliament.
  • Workshop 3: Communicating your research with the public – Jessie Pool
    How do you make sure your research resonates with audiences outside academia? This interactive workshop explores strategies for effectively communicating your research to diverse publics, from policymakers and practitioners to journalists and the wider society. In this workshop, you will learn and practice how to tailor your message to different audiences, how to convey complex findings in accessible and engaging ways, and what to consider when interacting with the media.
    • Dr. Jessie Pool is Director of the ELS Academy an Associate Professor of Insolvency Law at the Department of Corporate Law and Financial Law at Leiden University. Her empirical-legal research examines corporate and insolvency law, focusing on pressing issues such as sustainability, governance, and stakeholder interaction in times of financial distress. Drawing on interdisciplinary and empirical methods, she works closely with policymakers and legal professionals to ensure her research informs both scholarship and practice.
• 16:00-16:15: Closing