University of Antwerp

Charlotte De Backer (InFlOOD coordinator)

Charlotte De Backer (°1976) got a Communication Sciences degree (2001) and PhD in Communication Sciences (2005) (Ghent University, Belgium). She worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology (2005-2006 UC Santa Barbara, with a grant from the Belgian American Educational Foundation), and as Lecturer at the University of Leicester (2007-2008). In 2009 she left the academic world to work as a Senior Researcher at Innate Motion (Brand Research Company), to return to the academic world as a post-doc researcher at the University of Ghent (2009-2010) and later as Assistant (2010-18) and Associate (2018-current) Professor at the University of Antwerp, Dept. Of Communication Sciences. She is the program director of the Master in Communication Sciences, and Vice-Chair of the Ethics Commission fort he Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Antwerp. As a researcher she is a member of MIOS and her research focuses on interpersonal communication and (social) food studies. Charlotte coordinates a group of scholars who study food in the context of interpersonal and/or mass mediated relations. She currently supervises 7 PhD students, of which 5 focus on food topics. She also supervises one post-doctoral researcher (with Heidi Vandebosch) who studies the effects of celebrity bashing. Her research is currently funded by internal funds of the University of Antwerp, Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk onderzoek (FWO), Vlaams Fonds voor Innovatie en Ondernemen (VLAIO), and VLIR-UOS.

Charlotte De Backer is a non-funded member of the advisory board of Gezond Leven. Recipient of travel/accommodation expenses and small participation fee (<100€/meeting) as member of working groups of the Belgian Superior Health Council. From 2016-2019 she was a recipient of travel/accommodation expenses as member of the advisory board of the Danone Institute, from whom she received an award in 2016 (€2500, used to support research of MA and PhD students). She further is a recipient of honoraria as jury-member of reviewing  NARIC-files (foreign qualifications for those seeking a job in Flanders), foreign University Programmes (via VLIR), and EU-grants. And she sometimes receives honoraria for presenting her research at non-academic organizations. All honoraria are used to support research, including that of MA and PhD Students.

Kathleen Van Royen

Kathleen Van Royen (Ph.D.) is researcher and part time guest professor at the Department of Communication Studies, and also researcher at the Department of Primary Care and Interdisciplinary Care, both at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). She holds a master’s degree in communication sciences (University of Antwerp, 2009) and obtained a master’s degree in health education and -promotion (Ghent University, 2010). Kathleen worked as a researcher in the Department of Food Technology, Food safety and Health at Ghent university (2010-2012), where she worked on research projects in nutrition and health promotion.

In 2017, she obtained her PhD in Communication Sciences at the University of Antwerp. The focus of her dissertation was on automatic monitoring sexual harassment of adolescents on social media. After her PhD, she worked in the field of health promotion at the Flemish Institute for Healthy Living (Brussels). In 2018, she returned to the academic world, first as a research manager and since 2020 as post-doc researcher. Most of her research currently involves health literacy and health risk communication towards vulnerable populations. Kathleen is also actively involved as part time post-doc researcher in the InFlOOD research project. She has not collaborated yet with the (food) industry.

Sara Pabian 

Sara Pabian (Ph.D.) is a halftime Assistant Professor and halftime Postdoc Researcher at the Department of Communication Studies, research group MIOS (Media, ICT, and Interpersonal Relations In Organisations and Society) at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). She obtained her PhD in Communication Sciences at the University of Antwerp in 2015.

The focus of her dissertation was on adolescent perpetrators of cyberbullying. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher, funded by a personal mandate from the Research Fund For Scientific Research – Flanders (FWO), at the University of Antwerp from 2015 until 2019 on the topic of long-term outcomes of cyberbullying victimization. She has combined this mandate with an appointments as guest professor at the KU Leuven (academic year 2015 – 2016). Starting from October 1, 2017, she is a halftime Assistant Professor at the University of Antwerp where she teaches three courses that are related to strategic communication and she supervises master theses. Her FWO postdoc mandate ended on September 30, 2019. Starting from October 1, 2019, she is a halftime Postdoc Researcher on the InFlOOD research project. She has not collaborated yet with the (food) industry.

Karolien Poels

Karolien Poels is a full professor of Strategic Communication and Persuasive Technologies at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium and member of the research group MIOS (Media & ICT in Organizations & Society). Currently is the Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences (Ghent University, 2007) and worked as a post doctoral researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology (2007-2009).

Starting in the field of advertising research and emotions, her research has developed in wider, mainly ICT areas with a focus on online advertising and social media. Karolien studies how individuals use and experience ICT and how these insights can be applied by organisations for persuasive communication (advertising, health promotion, corporate communication) and their relations with  consumer/user protection and empowerment. The role of emotions in communication and how they interact with cognitive processes and behavior is still central in her research interest and inspiration. She teaches about these topics at both the bachelor and master level. 

Currently, Karolien is actively involved in research on online (commercial) media environments and 'complex' communication:  adolescents’ advertising literacy towards targeted online advertising (PhD Brahim Zarouali, 2018), online ad tailoring: the role of acceptance and privacy concerns (PhD Evert Van den Broeck, 2019), transparency and effectiveness in the implementation of native advertising (PhD Simone Krouwer, 2020), sustainable advertising strategies for online news media (PhD’s Dorien Luyckx and Luc De Cleir, ongoing), food advertising and online communication strategies (PhD’s Katrien Maldoy and Paulien Decorte, ongoing). Another line of research involves persuasive technologies (serious games, reflective interfaces,...) to tackle online transgressive behavior or promote healthy (coping) behavior: a serious game promoting positive bystander involvement in cyberbullying (PhD Sara Bastiaensens, 2016), automatic monitoring of sexual harassment on social media (PhD Kathleen Van Royen, 2017), online personal narratives and interface design targeted at adolescents' mental wellbeing (PhD Sofie Mariën, ongoing) and persuasive context-based health communication (PhD Michelle Symons, ongoing). 

Karolien is one of the founders and directors of the Antwerp Social Lab which focuses on psychophysiological and behavioral methods that capture human interactions in interpersonal and mediated contexts. https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/onderzoeksgroep/antwerp-social-lab/

From 2013-2018 Karolien was a board member of the Young Academy of Flanders. She is also a co-founder of DiGRA Flanders. Since February 2020, Karolien serves as the president of NeFCA (Netherlands-Flanders Communication Association): https://nefca.eu. 

Karolien Poels is associate editor of Behaviour & Information Technology (IF: 1.429), one of the leading journals on the human side of technology.

Related to the industry, Karolien is a regular expert for Vlaio (mainly KMO projects with communication/advertising/marketing/gaming related topics).

Heidi Vandebosch

Heidi Vandebosch (°1971) holds a master’s degree in communication sciences. She received a PhD in social sciences from the K.U.Leuven (1999) for her dissertation entitled “A Captive Audience: The Media Use of Prisoners.” After her PhD, she was awarded a postdoctoral grant from the Research Council of the K.U.Leuven (1999-2000) and from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (2000-2004). In 2004, she became an assistant professor at the University of Antwerp.

Currently, Heidi Vandebosch is a full professor in the Department of Communication Studies and a senior member of the research group MIOS. Since 2005, most of her research has focused on cyberbullying (prevalence, profiles of bullies and victims, impact, evidence-based interventions, the role of schools, the police and (news) media) and related online risks (online sexual harassment, sexting, hate speech, celebrity bashing). Apart from this, Heidi Vandebosch is involved in the development of (technological) evidence-based health interventions related to food consumption and physical activity.

Heidi Vandebosch teaches the courses Introduction to Communication Studies (1BA), Media: Audiences and Effects (2BA) and Health Communication (MA). She is internationally active. She was member of the MC of COST action I‪S0801 (“Cyberbullying: coping with negative and enhancing positive uses of new technologies, in relationships in educational settings”) and coordinator of WP4 of the Marie Curie Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) “HealthNar”. Currently, Heidi Vandebosch is involved in COST-action  CA18115 (“Transnational Collaboration on Bullying, Migration and Integration at School Level).  Furthermore, Heidi Vandebosch is part of the NeFCA board (co-chairing the Health Communication Division) and book review editor of “Communications. The European Journal of Communication Research”.  She was also elected as member of the Academia Europeae.

Paulien Decorte

Paulien Decorte is currently pursuing a PhD at the department of Communication Sciences, University of Antwerp. Having first obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and Literature in 2017, she completed her Master’s in Communication Sciences in 2020, both at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on the potential impact of food media and food endorsers on the food-related behaviors and eating habits of young adults, aged between 18-25. She is a member of the MIOS research group.

Isabelle Cuykx

Isabelle Cuykx is a PhD student at the University of Antwerp, Dept of Communication Sciences. She obtained her master's degree in communication sciences at KULeuven (2016). After her university studies, she obtained a post-graduate at the Belgian Advertising School and worked for a couple of years as a strategist at LDV United, a communication agency.

She currently works on the consumer-focused part of the InFlOOD project, researching what type of food media and endorsers adult consumers (26+) tend to use or follow and why.  Next, she also investigates how we can determine different consumer groups and how food media and endorsers influence them. Isabelle Cuykx is a member of the research group MIOS.