About


iA student who has difficulty thinking of at least three sensible explanations for any correlation that he is really interested in should probably choose another profession (Arthur L. Stinchcombe)

Sociologist Jeroen van der Waal (Ph.D. Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2010) is full professor of Sociology of Stratification at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Fellow at Erasmus University College, a member of the Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities, and alumnus of Young Erasmus Academy. His research is predominantly located in the fields of political sociology and sociology of health.

Explaining why social stratification is linked to political attitudes and behaviour, and to health outcomes and health-related behaviour, in Western societies is the bedrock of his research program. Jeroen analyses how both economic and cultural stratification affect political attitudes and behaviour, and health outcomes and health-related behaviour, by means of very different mechanisms, and each in various ways.

In order to do so, he goes beyond providing 'explanations' by means of re-establishing well-established empirical generalisations. Instead, the approach applied in Jeroen van der Waal's research program considers such empirical generalisations mere starting points for research, that is, as patterns that need to be explained by uncovering the mechanisms that underlie these.

Jeroen's research has been supported by grants (Rubicon, Conflict & Security and personal VENI and VIDI grants) awarded by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and an EUR Fellowship. Also, he received funding for a PhD project by the Erasmus Initiative Smarter Choices for Better Health, and funding for Postdoc projects by the LEaDing Fellows Programme and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship Programme, in addition to several smaller grants.

You can view his Google Scholar profile here.

In addition to his research activities, Jeroen teaches courses on stratification and doing research at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology, and courses in political sociology in the Master program Polarisatie, Democratie en Samenleving.