Luc Pauwels

Luc Maria Alfons Pauwels (born 1957) is a Belgian visual sociologist and communication scientist, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and director of its Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi). He is known for his work on visual research methods.

Pauwels obtained his degrees in sociology, communication science and philosophy at the University of Antwerp and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1991 he obtained his PhD in Social and Cultural Sciences at the VU University Amsterdam with the thesis, entitled "Visuele sociologie? : de camera en de verbeelding van de wetenschap en de samenleving" (Visual sociology? : The camera and the imagination of science and society).

After graduation Pauwels started his academic career as associate professor in communication science at the University of Antwerp, Department of Political and Social Sciences, and was lecturer at the Maastricht University. In the new millennium Pauwels was appointed professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. In Antwerp he also directs the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi).

At the International Communication Association (ICA) Pauwels has been chair of the Visual Communication Studies Division, has been vice president of the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA), and served on the board of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA). Pauwels has also served on the editorial board of the journals Visual Studies from Routledge, Visual Communication from Sage Publications, and the Journal of Visual Literacy (IVLA).

Pauwels research interests are in the fields of "visual sociological research methods, film and image analysis, media analysis, analysis/evaluation of film policy, media historic research of exploitation and media reception." He came into prominence in the late 1990s for his research into "the specifics and the potential of camera-generated images as data (not merely illustration) for anthropological and sociological research."

...
Wikipedia