THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPHERE:
from critical thinking to responsible action
Updated 22/1/2012

Participants' Bios

Agostini Stefano is a PhD student in Theory and Social Research at La Sapienza – University of Rome. Recently the Faculty Board of Communication Sciences of Ghent University approved a co-tutorship for his doctoral thesis: “Virtual Communities: online and offline connections”, conducted by a qualitative approach. He worked also on other qualitative and quantitative research under the supervision of his tutor in Rome.

Ambrosi G.M. is Jean Monnet professor ad personam and emeritus of Trier University, Germany, where, from 1992 to 2008, he had the Chair for European Economic Policy. After studies at Berlin and Cambridge, UK, he obtained his academic degrees from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. His publications are on federalism in the European context, on the European Payments Union, European social policy. He has also published and presently researches about topics in the history of economic thought (Keynes, ancient Greece).

Barani Luca obtained a PhD in European Studies at the Institute d’études européennes of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He was a GARNET Mobility Fellow at the Institut européen of the Université de Gèneve, dealing with the interaction between EU and WTO legal orders. After the publication of his PhD thesis on the supranational autonomy of the European Court of Justice, ha has been a Post-doctoral researcher for the EU-funded EUROSPHERE project. He is currently a Mâitre de conference at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Barlow Rachel is a PhD student at the School of Management, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. She is undertaking research on the accountability of business associations in the EU policy process. Rachel has presented on this and related topics at both UACES and ECPR venues. She has carried out short term teaching assignments on EU interest representation at Lille University and the College of Europe. Rachel has 15 years' experience of working with associations on their relations with EU decision making bodies.

Bekemans Léonce (BA in Philosophy, MA in International Studies and PhD in International Economics) has an international profile and interdisciplinary academic background with a broad and long-lasting research and multi-lingual teaching experience in European studies. Currently he is the holder of the Jean Monnet Chair “Globalisation, Intercultural Dialogue and Inclusiveness in the EU” at the University of Padua (Italy), academic coordinator of its Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “Intercultural Dialogue, Human Rights and Multi-level Governance” and collaborator of its Interdepartmental Centre on Human Rights and the Rights of Peoples. He is visiting professor at various European universities, an appreciated speaker at international conferences and an expert to the Council of Europe, the EU, Committee of the Regions, European Training Foundation, Anna Lindh Foundation and EMUNI in relation to European education, intercultural dialogue and multi-level governance issues. He is also secretary general of ECSA-World. His main research interests relate to the broad area of value-oriented integration studies with a focus on the relations between economy, polity, culture and society from a global, European and local perspective and their wider societal impact.

Belluati Marinella, PhD, is a lecturer in Sociology at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Turin, where she teaches ‘Sociology of the Media’ and ‘Media Analysis’. She is Director of the first level course degree in ‘Political and Social Sciences’. Her research interests are focused also on Political Communication and Intercultural Communication. She is a member of the Italian Political Communication Association and is part of the research team of the ‘Osservatorio sulla Comunicazione Politica’ of Turin

Bierhoff Jan, PhD, presently owns and runs Medialynx, a consultancy for strategic communication issues. Up till 2010, he acted as an associate professor at the Infonomics Research Group and directed the European Centre for Digital Communication (EC/DC), based at Zuyd University, Maastricht. Until 2000 he worked for the European Journalism Centre (EJC), an international mid-career training facility, as its founding director. Before moving to the EJC in 1993, Bierhoff had a journalistic career and lectured in media theory and communication strategies. Publications from his hand include textbooks on media structures and journalistic practices.

Bouza García Luis is a PhD student at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK, with a thesis on the contribution of civil society organisations to the emergence of a public sphere in the European Union. He holds a degree in political sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Master in European Studies from the College of Europe, where he has also worked as an Academic Assistant from 2007 to 2010.

Carpentier Nico is senior lecturer at the Social Sciences Department of the University of Loughborough, Associate Professor at the Communication Studies Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB - Free University of Brussels) and Lecturer at Charles University in Prague. He is also vice-president of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). His theoretical focus is on discourse theory, his research interests are situated in the relationship between media, journalism, politics and culture, especially towards social domains as war & conflict, ideology, participation and democracy. His publications include the following books (most recent): Participation and media production. Critical reflections on content creation (eds.)(2008); Discourse Theory and Cultural Analysis. Media, Arts and Literature (eds.)(2008); Democracy, journalism and technology (eds.)(2008), Communicative approaches to politics and ethics in Europe (eds.)(2009), Trans-reality television. The transgression of reality, genre, politics and audience (eds.)(2010) and Media and Participation. A Site of Ideological-Democratic Struggle (2011).

Crusafon Carmina is a senior lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communication at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). She holds a PhD in Communication Studies (UAB) and a DEA in European Studies (Paris 8). She is vice-chair of Communication Law and Policy section at ECREA. She is a researcher in Media Systems (global and supranational) and in Media Policy (European Union and Latin America). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Leeds (UK), the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA) (US) and SMIT-IBBT of Vrjie Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). She has been a guest lecturer in several Spanish and international universities.

Dajka Béla is Corporate Communication Manager at the European Commission. His portfolio includes communication on the EU's political priorities as well as overseeing communication activities of different Commission departments. Previously, he worked as a communication specialist for the Directorate-General for Information Society and Media and for the Committee of the Regions where he organised the first European Public Commmunication Conference (EuroPCom) in 2010. He is a former BBC editor and journalist and advised BBC management on public policy. He has a Masters degree in Media Management from the University of Leeds and a Masters degree in International Journalism from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Debyser Ariane is a Graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). She has been working for the European Commission as an official since 1994. From 1994 to 1997 she has been a Desk officer for the European Social Fund. From 1997 to 2001 she has been working for the Enterprise Directorate-General. Between 2001 and 2003 she worked for the Energy and Transport Directorate-General. Since 2003 she has worked for the Communication Directorate-General in the Eurobarometer team and became Head of Sector in January 2010.

de Castro Asarta Isabel graduated at the College of Europe and holds degrees in Communication and in Political Sciences. Her PhD at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, focuses on Participatory Democracy, Interest Representation and EU legitimacy.

Elsler Monika, M.A., is research associate in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' (within the project 'The Transnationalization of Public Spheres in the EU: Citizens' (re)actions') and member of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), both at the University of Bremen. Until 2006, she studied Modern Languages and Intercultural Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg at undergraduate level. In 2011, she completed her M.A. in Media Culture at the University of Bremen.

Fröb Sarah is writing her doctoral thesis (Université Paris I La Sorbonne & Universität Bayreuth,) on the construction of a European Identity through media-campaigns (Euro, Elections and European Capital). Since October 2011, she is working at “Toute l’Europe”, on online-media focusing on European Affairs and Information. She is also engaged in the Think Tanks Eurocité and Non-fiction, where she leads the Political section (Eurocité). She studied at the universities Lyon II, Weimar, Sydney and Strasbourg (2003 – 2009) and was invited as a guest-researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin (May - September 2008). Her main research interests lay in the construction of a “Political Culture” in Europe, the link between Economy and Identity, European Affairs and more generally, Political Philosophy, Sociology and Semiotics.

Gadras Simon is a lecturer at the University Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3. He holds a PhD in information and communication sciences. He is a researcher at University Stendhal – Grenoble 3, within the research unit specialised in communication (GRESEC). He is a specialist in digital communication technologies, political communication, local communication and the public sphere.

Gripsrud Jostein is professor of Media Studies at the University of Bergen. He has published extensively on a variety of artistic and journalistic media, genres and issues. Gripsrud has lectured and been Visiting Professor at numerous universities across Europe and the USA. He has led a string of national and international research projects, and has also been active in media and cultural policy debates in a number of ways. Among his recent publications are Media, Markets and Public Spheres (2009), Relocating Television: Television in the digital context (2010) and The Idea of the Public Sphere: A Reader (2010). He was International Francqui Professor in 2011.

Heft Annett is research associate at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests are the comparative study of political communication in Europe and questions of media, integration and migration.

Heinderyckx François is director of the Department of Information and communication sciences at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) where he teaches media sociology and political communication. He is also President of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) and President-elect (select) of the International Communication Association (ICA). His research interests include journalism, audience research, political communication and media literacy.

Hepp Andreas, PhD, is professor for media and communication studies at the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) and head of the project 'The Transnationalisation of Public Spheres in the EU: Citizens' (re)actions' within the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State'. His main research areas are media and communication theory, media sociology, transnational and transcultural communication, cultural studies, media change, methods of media culture research. She is involved in numerous research projects, (co-)author of eight books and more than 100 articles in journals and edited volumes.

Kent Stephanie Jo, is a doctoral candidate in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a nationally certified American Sign Language/English interpreter, a community interpreting trainer and a US Fulbright Fellow. She writes at www.reflexivity.us and is the founder of the Learning Labs for Resiliency™, an online learning community specializing in discourse diagnosis and design for systems change.

Laursen Bo, PhD, worked as a civil servant in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union from 1999 to 2009. He is now an Associate Professor in Strategic Communication at Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Denmark. His current research interests are corporate social responsibility, public and political communication, and the European Union.

Lingenberg Swantje is a postdoctoral research fellow in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' (within the project 'The Transnationalization of Public Spheres in the EU: Citizens' (re)actions') and member of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) since 2008, both at the University of Bremen. She completed her PhD at the University of Erfurt in 2009 on the audience level of the European public sphere. She studied Communication Science, Romance Languages and Economic Policy at the Universities of Muenster, Bologna and Sevilla.

Maniscalco Antonino has a Degree in Economics, University of Pavia. He is a research fellow at the course “Management of Public Services”.

Manova-Georgieva Desislava holds a Bachelor in Public Relations and a Master degree in European Studies and Intercultural Communication. Desislava is a PhD Student in Media & PR, at the UNESCO Chair “Communication and Public Relations”, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria. She is doing research on “Communicating Europe among the young people in the regions through the social media in Internet”.

Martignetti Luigi is Secretary General of the European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy (REVES) since 1999. REVES is a European body created in 1996 by local and regional authorities and social economy/third sector organizations and recognized by the Committee of the Regions as representative of Regional powers. He has contributed to the REVES reaction to the EC consultation concerning the “Green Paper on the modernisation of EU public procurement policy” and to the EC consultation on a “European Social investment funds”. He has also contributed to the REVES position on the proposed regulation on EU Cohesion Funds 2014-2020. Since 2002, he has been developing the TSR methodology, for substantial citizens’ participation in the decision making process at local level. He also developed the TQS methodology for a participatory definition of quality standards in local welfare policies.

McDonald Sean M., PhD, is an Associate Professor of Geography at Bentley University. Previously, he was an International Trade Specialist with the United States Department of Commerce and Director of the Consortium of American Business Programs in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. McDonald was a Visiting Professor at Lancaster University, UK, and has guest lectured at numerous other institutions. McDonald is a founding partner of The Additional Group, which trains and advises numerous public and private sector organizations in economic impact assessment and evaluation. He holds a doctorate in geography from Scotland’s Glasgow University.

Mollen Anne, M.A., is research associate in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' (within the project 'The Transnationalization of Public Spheres in the EU: Citizens' (re)actions') and is member of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), both at the University of Bremen. Until 2009 she studied Communication Studies and Political Sciences at the Universities of Muenster (Germany) and Leeds (UK).

Möller Johanna, Dipl.-Pol., is research associate in the DFG funded Collaborative Reserach Center 597 'Transformations of the State' (within the project 'Transnationalization of public spheres in Europe: Citizens' (re)actions') and member of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), both at the University of Bremen. She received a degree in Political Sciences at FU Berlin and has studied in Lublin and Kraków (Poland). Her research interests are elite media actors, Polish media and public sphere research. At present, Johanna Möller works on her PhD project, titled 'Transcultural Public Actors. A case study in Polish-German political communication'.

Moore Simon, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Information Design and Corporate Communication Department at Bentley University in Massachusetts. He writes on communication strategy in public affairs, issues and crisis management, and on global communication. He also explores the history of state communication in shaping politics and cultural identity. He has taught and consulted in Britain, Canada and United States, and is the author of three books. Moore has a doctorate in history from Oxford University.

Morganti Luciano is senior researcher at SMIT/IBBT VUB, adjunct professor at Vesalius College and the Chair of the Intercultural and International Communication section of ECREA. He has been a visiting professors at La Sapienza, Rome, the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and at the Development Office of the College of Europe in Bruges. His research interests concern the development of the (European) Public Sphere (especially in relation to new digital media) the governance of the Internet and (European) telecommunication policies and the new social spaces opened by the new digital media.

Offerhaus Anke, Dr., is postdoctoral research fellow in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center 597 'Transformations of the State' (within the project 'The Transnationalisation of Public Spheres in the EU: Citizens' (re)actions') and member of the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI), both at the University of Bremen. She is lecturer at the Institute of Media History, Media and Communication Studies (IPKM) at the University of Bremen. She received her Master degree in communication and media studies and cultural analysis at the University of Leipzig and completed her PhD on the professionalisation of German EU-Journalism in 2009 at the Free University of Berlin. Her main areas of research are in the fields of transnationalisation of media communication, science of journalism and sociology of professions.

Pauwels Caroline, PhD, is a full time professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She is director of IBBT-SMIT, a research center focusing on the social, cultural, economic and policy impact of ICTs. Within IBBT Caroline Pauwels heads the Digital Society department which consists out of two research groups: IBBT-SMIT and IBBT-MICT, employing more than 100 social sciences researchers. She lectures national and European media policy. She is part of different Boards in the media and cultural domain.

Pfetsch Barbara is professor of Communication Theory and Media Effects at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests focus on comparative analyses of political communication and the mediated public sphere. She has published several books, including “Politik in der Mediendemokratie” (Wiesbaden 2009) and “Comparing Political Communication” (New York/Cambridge 2004), and numerous articles and book chapters.

Plamen Petkov Peev, PhD, graduated in Law from the Sofia University, Bulgaria. He obtained his PhD at the Central European University (CEU) in 2011 with a thesis entitled ‘Local environmental governance and environmental rules on the ground in Bulgarian municipalities’. He has been working as environmental lawyer for more than 10 years. He was involved in institutional capacity building projects for national and local authorities, in drafting of national legislation and in approximation and implementation of EU environmental legislation in Bulgaria and South Eastern Europe. In 2005 he has been working for the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. Currently he is affiliated with the Centre for Environment and Security at the CEU and provides consultancy on environmental policy and law.

Rodriguez-Amat Joan Ramon, PhD, is postdoctoral researcher for Media Governance, Media Organisation and Media Industries at the Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft at the University of Vienna since May 2011. His research focuses on the intersection of discourses of nationalism, Media Governance and the Public Sphere. His PhD dissertation deals with “The symbolic public sphere”. His current research is dedicated both to legal regimes concerning authorship, and to the state policies of national identity.

Schultz Karoline, Magistra Artium, is a research assistant at the Institute of Media and Communication Science at the University of Technology in Ilmenau, Germany, since January 2010. She finished her studies in Communication Science in 2009 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena (Germany) with the minor subjects Intercultural Business Communication and Political Science. Her research interests are the fields of Online Communication, Intercultural Communication, Public Relations and Comparative Research.

Taulégne Bèatrice is European civil servant since 1994. She is Deputy-Director in charge of the Horizontal Policies and Networks Directorate of the Committee of the Regions which initiated and followed-up the current political process and reflection on multi-level governance. She is Doctor of European Law, and author of a thesis on the European Council published at the “Editions PUF” (France).

Terzis Georgios is associate professor at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium and senior associate member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, UK. He is the Vice Chair of the Journalism Studies Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association. His research focuses on European media governance, journalism education in Europe and the development of Pan-European media.

Thieule Laurent, is the Director of Communication at the Committee of the Regions.

Valentini Chiara, PhD, is associate professor in Public Relations and Political Communication at Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Denmark. Her research interests focus on public relations, public and political communication, crisis communication, new and social media, and the European Union.

Van Audenhove Leo is professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is the Program Director of the English language Master of Communication Studies - New Media and Society in Europe. He lectures on International Communication, the Information Society, Comparative Communication, Policy Analysis and Internet Governance. He is senior researcher at the centre for Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunication. Between 2001 and 2004 he worked part-time as a researcher/advisor at TNO-STB in Delft, the Netherlands. He has published widely in international journals such as Third World Quarterly, International Review on Education, Communicatio, Political Communication, Journal of Media Business Studies, Gazette, etc. and has co-authored two books on the digital divide.

Van den Brande Luc is a politician with a Flemish, Belgian and European career. A lawyer by formation, he initiated his political career in 1977 in the Belgian Parliament. From 1988 till 1992 he was federal Minister of Employment; from 1992 till 1999 minister-president of the Flemish government; from 1999 to 2009 community senator in the Flemish Parliament. Since 2006 he is also president of the “Liasion Office Flanders-Europe and the current chairman of the Flemish Broadcasting. He has held many European mandates and responsibilities. He has been president of the Committee of the Regions 2008-2010, and is currently the president of the CIVEX Committee of the CoR and special advisor to the EU Commissioner of Regional Affairs.

Velo Francesco, PhD, researcher at the University of Pavia. He has worked as expert for the Prime Minister’s Office of Italy, Departments of Public Administration and of Regional Affairs. He is member of the EP working group on Innovation and Access to Medicines. He collaborates with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of Pavia.

Vesnic-Alujevic Lucia, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Studies. Her research interests include political communication online, EU politics, public sphere and political participation. She has recently defended her PhD thesis in communication sciences at Ghent University, focusing on the role of the Internet in the electoral campaigning for the 2009 European Parliament elections.