Scientific Advisory Board

Professor Banducci has 20 years of experience on international, collaborative projects (such as the New Zealand Election Study and the European Election Study). Recently she has been involved as principal investigator and co-principal investigator in research projects supported by the UK’S Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the European Commission. Consequently Susan Banducci is also widely experienced in scientific collaboration on an international level and has served on a number of review panels including the FP7 review panel in Brussels, the Independent Research Council of Denmark and the ESRC's Grants Assessment Panel. She has held a number of academic management positions at the University of Exeter, including her service as Director of the Centre for European Studies, Head of Department of Politics and Associate Dean of Education in the College of Social Science and International Studies. She is currently the director of the Exeter Q-Step Centre.

Leen d’Haenens is Full Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven. She holds an MA in Romance Languages, an MSc in Press and Communication Sciences (University of Ghent), and an MSc in Information Studies (University of Toronto). She is vice dean for international affairs of the Faculty of Social Sciences (as of 2012). Between 2007 and 2011 she was chair of the Communication Science program, responsible for implementing the academic integration of the journalism programs at the Antwerp and Brussels campuses into the Faculty of Social Sciences. Between 2002 and 2007 she chaired a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the Interdisciplinary Assessment of Initiatives for Public Governance. As of 2010 she is a member of the expert panel for social, political and communication sciences of the Research Foundation Flanders. She is vice-chair of the Chamber for Impartiality and Protection of Minors of the Flemish Media Regulator (as of March 2009) and board member of the Netherlands Press Fund (as of April 2006). Her current areas of research include digital media and youth, news media (e.g. portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the news, longitudinal studies on news diversity), media and ethnic minorities (e.g., ethnic discussion forums as a source of social capital for ethnic minorities), and western media policy and governance mechanisms.

Alan Irwin is a Professor in the Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and also the CBS Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. From 2007-14, he was Dean of Research at CBS. He was Acting President during 2011. Previously, he was Professor of Science and Technology Policy, and Dean of Social and Environmental Studies, at the University of Liverpool. His PhD is from the University of Manchester and he has held previous appointments at Manchester and at Brunel University. Currently, he is a member of the Strategy Advisory Board for the UK Global Food Security Programme. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and an Honorary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Alan Irwin has published over a number of years on issues of science and technology policy, scientific governance, environmental sociology and science-public relations.

Peter Pels is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Africa at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University since 2003. In 1993 he graduated in social anthropology at the University of Amsterdam on a study of interactions between missionaries and Africans in late colonial Tanganyika. Between 1995 and 2003 he worked at the Research Centre Religion and Society of the University of Amsterdam. He is a specialist in the study of religion and politics in situations of colonial contact, the history of anthropology, the anthropology of magic, and social science ethics. He was the editor-in-chief of Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale, the journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, between 2003 and 2007. He was advisor on religion and materiality to the Çatalhöyük archaeological project in Turkey. His new book entitled “The Spirit of Matter. Religion, Modernity and the Power of Objects” is under review and he currently coordinates research into modern conceptions of the future, museums, and heritage.