André Grow

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I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Sociological Research of KU Leuven. My current research interests lie in family sociology, social stratification, and agent-based computational modeling.

Between 2013–2017, I have been a member of the GENDERBALL project team at KU Leuven (principal investigator: Jan Van Bavel). In the context of this project, I have examined the implications of the shifting gender balance in education for reproductive behavior in Europe, mostly by means of agent-based computational modeling. A short overview of my research activities in this project can be obtained here. German speakers can learn more about our research in an article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the slides of a presentation that I have given at the Deutsches Jugendinstitut.

In my Ph.D. research at the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology at the University of Groningen, I have examined the emergence of status differentiation from small group interaction by means of agent-based computational modeling and social network analysis (supervisors: Rafael Wittek and Andreas Flache). I was particularly interested in the social construction of status characteristics such as gender, age, and ethnicity. A digital copy of my dissertation can be obtained here.

News and upcoming events

On 5 September 2018, I will give a talk on the empirical calibration and validation of agent-based models at the BEHAVE Summer School on Agent-Based Modelling for Social Scientists at the University of Brescia, Italy.
I am member of the program committee of the 2018 SocInfo conference, which will take place 25–28 September in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
In October 2018, I will present the paper 'Occupational Gender Segregation, Gender Norms, and Occupational Homogamy Across Europe' at the conference of the European Consortium for Sociological Research in Paris, France.

Past events

I have been awarded a travel grant by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) to present the paper 'The Income Cliff in Households: Insights from Agent-Based Computational Modelling' on 19 July 2018 at the XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology in Toronto, Canada.
I was a member of the program committee of the 2018 Annual International Conference on Computational Social Science, which has taken place 12–15 July at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
On 9 June 2018, I have presented the paper 'The Changing Importance of Women’s Labor Market Position for Union Formation: Evidence from European Cohorts Born between the 1940s and the 1980s' at the European Population Conference in Brussels, Belgium.
On 17 May 2018, I have given a talk on 'Agent-Based Modelling of Family Formation and Dissolution' at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany.
On 9 March 2018, I have presented my work on agent-based modeling in the workshop Sozialwissenschaftliche Simulationen und die Soziologie der Simulation (Simulation in the Social Sciences and the Sociology of Simulation), at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
On 27 February 2018, I have given a guest lecture in the Master course European Social and Population Issues at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.