Mariek Vanden Abeele (PhD) is associate professor in Digital Culture at imec-mict, Ghent University, Belgium, and research associate on the DigiWELL project at Masaryk University, the Czech Republic. Mariek combines insights from media psychology and media sociology to explore the impacts of digital media usage on everyday life and societal dynamics. Recognized for her contributions, she was awarded a European Research Council Starting Grant in 2020 for her research on Digital Wellbeing. She leads multiple projects focusing on digital wellbeing and disconnection.

Mariek’s scholarly work has appeared in top tier journals within the field of communication sciences, including Communication Theory, Mobile Media & Communication, New Media & Society, and Media Psychology. Mariek has been honored with awards for both her teaching and research endeavors. In 2018, she was appointed as a fellow of the Tilburg University Philip Eijlander Diversity (PED) program, designed to promote the careers of exceptionally talented female scholars. In 2024, she received the Denis McQuail Award from the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, where she is currently also a McQuail fellow. Mariek Vanden Abeele currently also serves as the elected chair of the ICA Mobile Communication Division within the International Communication Association.

Awards

• 2024 The ASCoR Denis McQuail Award and ASCoR Denis McQuail Honorary Fellowship
• 2020 Top paper of the Mobile Interest Group at the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association
• 2017 Teacher of the Year of the Department of Communication & Cognition and of the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences
• 2008 Top Student paper at Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference