José van Dijck receives honorary doctorate from Lund University

Prof. dr. José van Dijck. Foto: Ed van Rijswijk
Prof. José van Dijck. Photo: Ed van Rijswijk

On 24 May 2019 Prof. José van Dijck (Media and digital society) will receive an honorary doctorate from Lund University, on the recommendation of the Faculty of Engineering. Van Dijck is awarded the honorary doctorate for her scientific merits, in particular her research into the social aspects of digitalisation and the role of media technologies in society.

New perspectives

Prof. Viktor Öwall, dean of the Faculty of Engineering (University of Lund), made the following statement:

“It is great honor for the faculty of engineering, LTH, to establish links with our three new honorary doctors. They are all active in research areas that may contribute to solutions to major societal challenges. For example, José van Dijck links the technology of digitization with social aspects, which is highly topical today. The fact that she, as a researcher from the humanities, becomes an honorary doctor at the faculty in engineering, LTH, may bring us fresh and exciting perspectives.”

josé van dijck

José van Dijck has been appointed a distinguished university professor at Utrecht University as of January 2017. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1992. Van Dijck’s research area is media studies and communication. Her work covers a wide range of topics in media theory, media technologies, social media, and digital culture. Her book The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media (Oxford UP, 2013) was distributed worldwide and translated into Spanish (La Cultura de la Connectividad). With Thomas Poell and Martijn de Waal she published De Platformsamenleving. Strijd om publieke waarden in een online wereld (Amsterdam UP, 2016) The English version of The Platform Society. Public values in a connective world has been published by Oxford University Press in 2018. José van Dijck is also connected to Institutions for Open Societies - an interdisciplinary research area of Utrecht University focused on the development and expansion of healthy open societies everywhere.

The official statement of Lund University is available here.