Amber Vervaet

Amber Vervaet joined SMIT as a PhD-candidate under supervision of Prof. Dr. An Jacobs and works as a teaching assistent in the dutch program of Communication sciences. She is a VUB-alumni and graduated in both Sociology and Communication sciences. The underlying theme of both her previous master-theses and the current PhD topic is approaching social science through people-centered perspectives and a strong interest in digital technologies. 

Her scientific research area is focussed on the interactions between people, society and technology. Amber's personal approach to social science is the belief that the "totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts" (Aristotle). Concretely, she is interested in human-technology interactions, user experiences and using a people-empowered perspective to fully optimize and understand contemporary societal issues.

Currently she's working on quantitative research and analysis of user-typologies in digital practice based on SEURO-data. The main focus for the coming years will be fully developping her PhD-project in the field of Digital health & technology, specifically on self-management in order to help people from a user-experience based approach.