I am an associate professor in political communication in the department of Communication Science and at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam (UvA). I am a board member of ASCoR as well as of the Center of Politics and Communication (CPC). Furthermore, I'm a co-chair of the political communication division of NeFCA, the Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association.

In 2009, I have been awarded an NWO Veni-grant on from the Dutch science foundation. The project is called ‘ The contingency of media’s impact on national parliaments: a comparative study’. A short description of the project can be found under projects.

I’m involved in sereral other research projects, among which a project on politicization of political issues (funded by the NWO conflict and security scheme) together with several political scientists and communication scientists at the UvA.

From August 2009 until January 2010 I was a visiting associate professor in the department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark.

Previously, I was a Ph.D.-candidate in the department of sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and studied political science and social-cultural sciences at the same university. From September 2005 till March 2006 I was a Fulbright visiting researcher in the department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine.

My dissertation research involved the public debate on immigration and minorities’ integration in politics and media and its impacts on anti-immigrant party support in the Netherlands. I defended my dissertation October 26, 2007. The dissertation was awarded the annual dissertation award of the Netherlands School of Communication Research.

My other research interests include media-politics relations, media coverage of social movements, election campaigns, European integration, soccer hooliganism and time series analysis. I'm teaching in those and related topics at the University of Amsterdam.