Jörg Matthes (PhD, University of Zurich) is Professor of Communication Science at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria, where he directs the Advertising and Media Psychology Research Group (AdMe). His research focuses on digital media effects, advertising and consumer research, sustainability communication, children & media, terrorism and populism as well as empirical methods. He has published more than 200 journal articles and his research activities received awards and honors from the German Communication Association, the International Communication Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the German Psychological Association, or the World Association for Public Opinion Research. He is also recipient of several top dissertation awards, i.e., by the German Communication Association, the Faculty of Arts of the University of Zurich, and the Swiss Association for Market and Social Research. In 2014, he received the Young Scholar Award by the International Communication Association honoring the most outstanding research career worldwide seven years past the PhD. Two years later, he received AEJMC's Hillier Krieghbaum Under 40 Award which honors scholars "under 40 years of age who have shown outstanding achievement and effort in all three AEJMC areas: teaching, research and public service". In 2019, he was honored with the UNIVIE Teaching Award and in 2021, he was elected as a Fellow of the International Communication Association. He was recipient of an Advanced Grant (2.5 Million Euros) by the European Research Council (ERC) in 2022.

He has served the field as Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Communication Methods & Measures, leading the journal to be ranked as #1 in the Social Science Citation Index in 2022. He also was Associate Editor of The Journal of Communication as well as Human Communication Research and since 2020, he is Associate Editor of The Journal of Advertising. He is currently sitting on the Editorial Board of more than 15 journals.

From 2012 to 2014 he was Vice Chair and then, from 2014-2022, Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna. Under his leadership, the Department rose to be ranked among the top 30 Departments for communication science in the world. He served as an evaluator and advisor for the quality assessment of higher education institutions and research programs in The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Bulgaria, or China.

Ana Jorge is Associate Professor at Lusófona University and Senior Researcher at CICANT. She holds a Communication Sciences PhD from NOVA University of Lisbon (2012), where she also conducted postdoctoral research on Media Education (2015), both with individual grants from FCT. Main researches on audiences, digital culture, children, youth and media, celebrity and influencer culture. She has acted as PI in funded projects Dis/Connect (2021-22) and On&Off (2023- ). Her scholarship appears in journals such as European Journal of Cultural Studies, Popular Communication, Social Media + Society, Journal of Children and Media, Celebrity Studies, and collections such as Celebrity and Youth (Peter Lang, 2019), The Future of Audiences (Palgrave, 2018) and Childhood and Celebrity (Routledge, 2017). She has co-edited Digital Parenting (Nordicom, 2018), Reckoning with Social Media (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021),  Audience Interactions in Contemporary Celebrity Culture: Approaches from across Disciplines (Lexington, 2024), and Atmospheres and Digital Media (BUP, 2026).

Education
PhD in Sociology, University of Białystok, Poland, 2016
MA in Ethnology, University of Debrecen, Hungary, 2002
Postgraduate Studies in Museology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, 2009
Postgraduate Studies in Cultural Management, Faculty of Management, University of Finance and Management in Białystok, Poland, 2018

Employment
2018–present
Assistant Professor (formerly Assistant), Department of Sociology, University of Białystok
2009–2019
Assistant, Curator, and Head of the Ethnography Department at the Białystok Village Museum (a branch of the Podlaskie Museum in Białystok), later renamed the Podlaskie Museum of Folk Culture
2004–2009
Assistant, Ethnography Department, Podlaskie Museum in Białystok

Research stays at home and abroad:
Research Fellowship: London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, 2025
Research stay: Zakład Socjologii i Kultury Wsi Instytutu Rozwoju Wsi i Rolnictwa Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Department of Sociology and Rural Culture, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Polish Academy of Sciences), 2017


Lectures and presentations

2025
Nieoczywiste pogranicze: o wieloznaczności kategorii i jej muzealnych reprezentacjach (The Unobvious Borderland: On the Ambiguity of a Category and Its Museum Representations) – paper presented at the National Scientific Conference “Is This (Not) an Open-Air Museum? And Other Recognised Yet Unresolved Dilemmas of Open-Air Museology”, 8–10 October 2025, Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park in Chorzów, Poland.

Muzea pogranicza jako przestrzenie negocjowania tożsamości i pamięci (Borderland Museums as Spaces for Negotiating Identity and Memory) – paper presented at the 19th National Sociological Congress “Tamed Risks? Contemporary Challenges”, 16–19 September 2025, University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland.

Borderland Museums in Poland: Narratives of Heritage, Identity, and Memory – paper presented at the LUPS–CESCI Conference “What Future for the Concept of Borderless Europe? Perspectives of Border Policies and Territorial Cooperation in an Age of Multiple Crises”, 13–14 May 2025, Budapest, Hungary.

Borderland Nation, Memory, Identity. Borderland museums - The Example of Poland – chair of the panel: “Reimagining Borders: Art and Culture in and Beyond `Borderlands” and paper presented at the World Social Science Association 66th Annual Conference / Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS ) Governing across borders: (Re)imagining people, place, and policy , 2–5 April 2025, Seattle, USA.

2024
Ethnicity in the Borderland. Ethical Issues – paper presented at the World Social Science Association 66th Annual Conference / ABS Panel “Research Practices in Border Studies: Approaches, Epistemologies, and Methodologies for Understanding Bordering Processes”, 3–6 April 2024, San Antonio, USA.

The Image of the Arabian Peninsula and Its Inhabitants in the Travel Reports of the Grand Mufti Jakub Szynkiewicz – co-authored with Daniel Gołębiewski, Symposium on Europe and the Arabian Peninsula, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, 4 May 2024, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Polish Muslims and the Migrant Crisis – paper presented at the 9th World Congress of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA), in cooperation with Collegium Civitas, 7–9 June 2024, Warsaw, Poland.

2023

The Role of Intermediary Groups in the Settlement Processes of Migrants in Bialystok: The Case of the Crimean Tatars – paper presented at the International Scientific Conference “Borderlands Facing a Polycrisis in the 21st Century: Resilience and Future Perspectives of Cross-Border Relations”, organized by the University of Wrocław and the University of Opole, 10–13 September 2023, Opole–Wrocław, Poland.

Polish Tatars: "Insiders" or "Outsiders"? Ethnic Relations in the Polish–Belarusian Borderland – paper presented at the ABS World Conference “Borders, Edges & Interfaces: Pluralities and Scales”, 13–18 February 2023, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.

Polish Tatars on the Eastern Borderland of Poland – presentation delivered at the international workshop “Ethnic Minorities in Border Regions”, organized by the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), 28 September 2023, Berlin, Germany.

2022
Legacy of the Polish Tatar Community – invited speaker in a public discussion panel organized by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, 29 November 2022, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Other information 

Member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM)
Member of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS)
Member of the Polish Sociological Association (PTS)
Member of the Polish Association of Open-Air Museums (Stowarzyszenie Muzeów na Wolnym Powietrzu w Polsce( (SMWPP)


Publications

Radłowska, Karolina. Rola i znaczenie muzeów w procesie mobilizacji etnicznej: studium przypadku Narodowego Muzeum Tatarskiego w Wilnie (The Role and Significance of Museums in the Process of Ethnic Mobilisation: A Case Study of the National Tatar Museum in Vilnius). Język. Religia. Tożsamość 2(32) (2025): 405–418.

Radłowska, Karolina. Borderland Museums in Poland: Towards a Critical Research Framework. Studia Sieci Uniwersytetów Pogranicza 9 (2025): 278–290.

Radłowska, Karolina. Muzea regionalne jako źródło wiedzy (nie tylko) o małych miastach. Problemy i wyzwania (Regional Museums as a Source of Knowledge (not Only) About Small Towns: Problems and Challenges). In: Małe miasta. Źródła wiedzy, ed. Mariusz Zemło. Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, 2025.

Gołębiowski, Daniel, Karolina Radłowska, and Magdalena Zawrotna. Polish Tatars: History, Legal Status, Religion and Identity. Dirasat 70 (2024).

Bieciuk, Mariusz; Krzyżanowski, Piotr; Radłowska, Karolina, „Powojenne migracje po 1945 roku na Ziemie Zachodnie w pamięci Tatarów polskich”(Post‑war migrations after 1945 to the Western Territories in the memory of Polish Tatars), w: Tatarzy na Ziemiach Zachodnich i Północnych Polski po 1945 roku, 2022, s. 139–154

Winiecka, Katarzyna, Janusz Mucha, Aleksandra Porankiewicz-Żukowska, and Karolina Radłowska. Migrants in the Cities of Eastern Poland – Settlement Processes and Relations with Intermediary Groups: Conceptualization of the Research Project. Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny 1(183) (2022): 199–221. https://doi.org/10.4467/25444972SMPP.22.004.15238

Abłażewicz-Górnicka, Urszula and Karolina Radłowska. Creative Ethnicity: Music as an Element of Ethnicity among Polish Tatars. Creativity Studies 10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3846/cs.2021.12320

Radłowska, Karolina. Etniczność w polskich muzeach – przyczynek do badań (Ethnicity in Polish Museums: A Preliminary Study). In: Kultura w Polsce w XXI wieku. Konteksty społeczne, kulturowe i medialne, 427–442. Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, 2020.

Radłowska, Karolina. Publiczność muzealna jako „wspólnota śmiechu”. Społeczny odbiór Muzeum Bimbrownictwa (Museum Audiences as a “Community of Laughter”: The Social Reception of the Moonshine Museum). Rocznik Muzeum Wsi Mazowieckiej w Sierpcu 10 (2019).

Radłowska, Karolina. Tożsamość Tatarów Polskich (The Identity of Polish Tatars). Studia – konteksty pogranicza 3 (2019).

Radłowska, Karolina. Tatarzy polscy jako grupa długiego trwania. Ciągłość i zmiana (Polish Tatars as a Community of Long-Term Continuity: Stability and Change). Białystok: Fundacja Sąsiedzi, 2017.

Radłowska, Karolina. Między grupą etnograficzną a narodem. Status Tatarów polskich w świetle dotychczasowych badań (Between an Ethnographic Group and a Nation: The Status of Polish Tatars in the Light of Existing Research). Pogranicze. Studia Społeczne 23 (2014): 155–166.

Manuscripts under review
Radłowska, Karolina. The Borderland Narratives in Polish Museums: A Comparative Analysis. Submitted to Journal of Borderlands Studies.
Radłowska, Karolina. Kresy jako dissonant heritage. Narracje muzealne wobec problematycznej przeszłości (The Borderlands as Dissonant Heritage: Museum Narratives Confronting a Problematic Past). Monograph submitted to the academic series “Monografie i Materiały MGPE”.

Ali Karakaya completed his undergraduate education at the Department of Philosophy at Uludağ University, his master's degree at the Department of Philosophy at Ege University, and his doctoral degree in the Journalism Department at the Faculty of Communication at Ankara University. He worked as a Research Assistant at Giresun University's Tirebolu Faculty of Communication between 2015 and 2018, and at Ankara University's Faculty of Communication between 2018 and 2022. He worked as a Research Assistant at Giresun University Tirebolu Faculty of Communication again between 2022 and 2023. Since 2023, he has been working as an Assistant Professor at the same faculty of the same university. His master's thesis is on the topics of science and political philosophy: The Concept of Freedom in Francis Bacon's New Atlantis. His doctoral thesis is on the topics of communication theories and philosophy of technology: Critique of Technology as a Form of Knowledge: Reading the Present of Communication Technologies in the Context of Technological Determinist Theories.

Ágnes Pethő is Professor at the Film, Photography and Media Department of the Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Romania, Cluj-Napoca. Her researches involve the relationship between film and the other arts, and the theory of cinematic intermediality. Her latest research project has been 'Affective Intermediality. Cinema between Media, Sensation and Reality'. She has been the convenor of several international film and media studies conferences in Cluj.

Dr Gábor Polyák works as a professor of media law and media policy, as well as the head of the Media and Communication Department at Eötvös Loránd University. He also works as a senior research fellow for the Institute for Legal Studies of the Centre for Social Sciences. Further, he is the founding researcher at Mertek Media Monitor, a Hungarian NGO focused on media policy issues. He was a research fellow at the University of Münster's Institute for Information, Telecommunication and Media Law from 2014 to 2016. His educational background includes studies in law and media at the University of Pécs, a Master of Laws degree in ICT law from the University of Vienna, and a PhD degree and habilitation from the University of Pécs. He teaches and researches media law, IT law, and media policy. In 2020, he was awarded the Voltaire Prize for Tolerance, International Understanding and Respect for Differences at the University of Potsdam. In 2020, he was awarded the Voltaire Prize for Tolerance, International Understanding and Respect for Differences at the University of Potsdam. In 2025, he was awarded the ‘Teacher of the Year’ prize in the ‘Exemplary Personality’ category in a vote organised by the National Students' Union. His last book is Medienpolitik in Osteuropa. Theoretischer Rahmen und mediale Praxis (Berlin: B & S Siebenhaar Verlag, 2018); Algoritmusok, keresők, közösségi oldalak és a jog – A forgalomirányító szolgáltatások szabályozása [Algorithms, Search Engines, Social Media - Regulation of Intermediaries] (Budapest: HVG-Orac, 2020).

Completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in the field of Public Relations and Publicity at Marmara University.
Completed his Ph.D. in the same field at Selçuk University.
Works in the fields of public diplomacy, communication sociology, new media, and consumer culture.

Dr. Arindam Das holds a Ph.D. in English from Vidyasagar University, West Bengal. He is a Critical Business Culture and Communication specialist with 22 years of experience, and his research interests are as diverse as Critical Communication Studies, Critical Marketing Studies, Consumer Culture Theory & Global South, Consumer Well-being, Macromarketing, Critical Advertising Studies, Critical Organizational Studies, Post/decolonial Discourses, Cultural Studies, Race Studies, and Literary Criticism & Theory.

 

Aneta Postek completed her PhD at Bournemouth University, where her research investigates dynamic transformations in virtual production workflows, with a particular focus on animatronics and in-camera visual effects (ICVFX). Grounded in phenomenological methodology, her project explores the lived experiences of practitioners engaging with emerging production technologies.