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!!PRESS RELEASE: April 8th - London

!!ACADEMIA EUROPAEA ANNOUNCES THE AWARD OF AN ERASMUS MEDAL to Professor Sonia Livingstone MAE
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The Board of Trustees of the Academia Europaea are pleased to announce that an ERASMUS MEDAL of the Academia Europaea will be presented to __[Sonia Livingstone|Member/Livingstone_Sonia]__, Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics.
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__Citation:__  The medal is made following a recommendation from an independent panel of academic experts appointed by the Board of Trustees, to a member who has maintained over a sustained period, the highest level of international scholarship and recognition by their peers.
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Sonia Livingstone is a world-leading scholar of Media Studies. She has made a stellar, international career merging original and pioneering research on audiences' meaning-making practices across a number of media (film, tv, computers, mobile phones, the internet) with theoretical innovations in public sphere theories, mediated risks and, increasingly, transnational media ethics. Few media scholars have a higher profile beyond the discipline, both in academia more generally and in public discourse.
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The medal presentation will take place at the Academia Europaea 31%%sup st/% annual meeting, to be held in [Barcelona, October 23-24, 2019|http://www.buildingbridges-acadeuro.org].
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Professor Kirsten Drotner MAE (University of Southern Denmark), a Trustee of the Academia Europaea, will give a laudation.
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Further information on the award, on Professor Livingstone and her accompanying medal lecture, can be found on the AE website. 
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!Background

The Academia Europaea (formed in 1988) is the pan-European academy of science, humanities and letters, with a membership of over 3600 eminent scholars, drawn from all countries of Europe, and all disciplines, nationalities and geographical locations.
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Full information on the Academia Europaea, its regional knowledge hubs and the Young Academy of Europe, together with information about all individual AE members, AE events and activity can be found via the website at: [http://www.ae-info.org]
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[{Image src='AE-logo-main-04.jpg' caption='' height='180' alt='AE' class='image_left'}]
[{Image src='Erasmus_Medal.jpg' caption='' height='180' alt='Erasmus Medal' class='image_right'}]
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!!Academia Europaea\\The Academy of Europe

Presentation of an Academia Europaea Erasmus Medal 
Wednesday 23 October 2019, at the ''Atenau of Barcelona''.

The Academia Europaea are pleased to award an Erasmus Medal to the internationally renowned Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

!!Professor Sonia Livingstone MAE

The medal is awarded on the recommendation of an independent search committee of the Board of Trustees, to a member who has maintained over a sustained period, the highest level of international scholarship and recognition by their peers.
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Professor Livingstone will also give the 2019 Heinz-Nixdorf Erasmus Lecture entitled:
!!Realising children’s rights in relation to the digital environment

__Sponsored by__ [{Image src='heinz_nixdorf.jpg' caption='' height='30' alt='' align='center'}]
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The laudation will be given by [Professor Kirsten Drotner|Member/Drotner_Kirsten] MAE, University of Southern Denmark Academia Europaea Chair of the Section Film, Media and Visual Studies.
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[{Image src='Livingstone_Sonia_cbeyreuther6650_small.jpg' caption='Photo: Conny Beyreuther' height='280' alt='Professor Sonia Livingstone MAE' class='image_left'}]
![Professor Sonia Livingstone MAE|Member/Livingstone_Sonia]
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__AFFILIATION:__ 
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Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science
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__LINK TO WEBPAGE:__
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[http://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/people/academic-staff/sonia-livingstone]\\ 
[Sonia Livingstone|Member/Livingstone_Sonia]
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__TITLE OF PRESENTATION:__ 
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''Realising children’s rights in relation to the digital environment''
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__ABSTRACT OF PRESENTATION:__\\
The key human rights framework for children is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It has been visionary, authoritative, comprehensive and influential. Yet it was written in 1989, when the internet was just beginning and its significance much underestimated. Since then questions have arisen as to whether and how the Convention applies in the digital age. This lecture critically evaluates the challenges for States, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other relevant stakeholders (including parents and children themselves) of interpreting and implementing a human rights framework that recognises children as independent actors and rights-holders in relation to the fast-evolving, complex and global digital environment. It draws on the voices of children, the views of experts, and the latest empirical research to suggest a way forward for realising children’s rights in the digital environment.
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__AWARD NOTE:__\\
Sonia Livingstone is a world-leading scholar of Media Studies. She has made a stellar,
international career merging original and pioneering research on audiences' meaning-making
practices across a number of media (film, tv, computers, mobile phones, the internet) with
theoretical innovations in public sphere theories, mediated risks and, increasingly, transnational
media ethics. Few media scholars have a higher profile beyond the discipline, both in academia
more generally and in public discourse.
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Her originality and her unique scientific contribution rest not with her invention or advancement
of a single concept or theoretical tenet. Rather, her research is distinguished, first, by her truly
original research questions – often asked well ahead of any academic trend, yet paving the way
for further studies. This is admirably demonstrated in her early work on audiences where she
asked critical questions on the relevance of public sphere theories for mundane television
routines and grounded her answers in systematic, qualitative studies.
Her inclusive methodological approach is her second mark of distinction. Unlike mainstream
media studies, Livingstone has advanced, and demonstrated the validity of, inclusive
methodologies basing her choices in an unbiased fashion on the research questions at hand, not
on prior notions of correct methodologies, be they textual analysis, ethnographic interviews or
large-scale surveys. She often mixes all of these.
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Last but not least, Livingstone’s scientific originality rests with her outstanding empirical work.
Media are transnational phenomena now as in the past; and to study transnational media requires
transnational research. Livingstone is one of the few media scholars who has acted on this
requirement rather than talking about it. She has directed a number of large-scale, transnational
studies on risks and opportunities of children’s internet use whose results have been agenda setting for scholars, policy-makers and industry alike. She currently directs the Global Kids
Online project (co-funded by UNICEF) which has developed a research toolkit for free use by
academics, governments and civil society wanting to conduct comparative, critical and
contextualized studies of children’s digital media uses. Always mindful of the ethical issues
involved when speaking in the interests of children, she grounds her advice and counselling on
robust research.
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Livingstone's unique contributions to international media scholarship have had wide societal
impact. She is an expert advisor to the Council of Europe on the digital environment, and her
advisory expertise has been exerted with UNICEF, ITU, OECD, the European Parliament, the
European Commission inc. membership of an advisory group for Horizon 2020 grand challenges
pillar. 
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Closer to home, Livingstone serves on the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child
Internet Safety (for which she is the Evidence Champion) and on the Internet Watch Foundation’s
Ethics Committee. In the recent past, she was special advisor to the House of Lords’ Select
Committee on Communications, she served on the UK Department of Education's Ministerial
Taskforce for Home Access to Technology for Children, just as she has advised the UK
communications’ regulator Ofcom, the Home Office and the BBC.
In 2014, she was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) “for
services to children and child internet safety.”
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She is an excellent and prolific, public speaker and runs a popular blog: [http://www.parenting.digital].
Livingstone’s exceptional and unique research record is equally acknowledged by the
international, academic community. She holds honorary doctorates from the University of
Montreal, Université Panthéon Assas, the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, University of the Basque Country, and the University of Copenhagen. She is past president of the International
Communication Association, the leading scholarly society within media and communication
studies (and only the second European to be elected to that position) and is an elected fellow of
the Association.
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In the UK, Livingstone is a fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Society for the Arts, the
Academy of Social Sciences, and the British Psychological Society.
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Taken together, these distinctions demonstrate that Livingstone is a world-leading scholar who
has not merely made truly ground-breaking contributions to Media Studies but has been
instrumental in carving out new vistas for the discipline impacting how we think about and act
on important phenomena well beyond the academy.
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!BIOGRAPHY:

__Academic education__
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*1987, D Phil in social psychology, University of Oxford. Doctoral research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK
*1982, BSc in psychology, University College London, honours
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__Academic career__
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*2003-, full professor at the newly founded Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
*1999, full professor, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
*1997, senior lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
*1993, lecturer, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
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__Research leadership__
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*Large-scale, comparative projects: Children and their Changing Media Environment (1995-2001), EU Kids Online (2006-14), Global Kids Online (2016- ), Preparing for a Digital Future (2014-17).
*Director, 2012-17, ECREA's (European Communication Research and Education Association)
*Children, Youth and Media Temporary Working Group
*Co-director, 2010-14, the European COST network, Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies
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__Honours and distinctions__
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*Fellow of the British Academy
*Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
*Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, UK
*Member of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK
*Member of the British Psychological Society, UK
*Fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, DK
*Fellow of the International Communication Association
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__Honorary doctorates__
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The University of Montreal, Université Panthéon Assas, the Erasmus University of Rotterdam,
University of the Basque Country, and the University of Copenhagen
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!!The Award is sponsored by the Heinz-Nixdorf Stiftung
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[{Image src='heinz_nixdorf.jpg' caption='' height='30' alt='' align='center'}]
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1. Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung is - together with Stiftung Westfalen - one of the two non profit foundations, which have been established from the assets of the estate of the entrepreneur Heinz Nixdorf, who died in 1986. The foundation promotes the following purposes:
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a) the (advanced) professional education, especially in the field of modern technology\\
b) the sciences in respect of research and teaching, especially in the field of information technology,\\
c) the liberal and democratic governmental system, especially the "Soziale Marktwirtschaft"\\
d) public health,\\
e) sports.
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The foundation realizes its purposes primarily in cooperation with other non profit institutions.
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Heinz Nixdorf Stiftung promotes among others the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn. This is a non profit istitution combining in a unique way the classic historic dimension of a museum with the current and future-oriented topics of a forum.
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Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum is the largest computer museum of the world.
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!Further information about the Heinz-Nixdorf Stiftung can be found at [http://www.heinz-nixdorf-stiftung.de]
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__DOCUMENTS__
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*[Press release|Erasmus Medal  press release April 8 2019 (Livingstone) (FIN).pdf]
*[Award Announcement|Erasmus medal 2019 Livingstone (FIN).pdf]