Public lecture & Panel debate - Honorary Doctorate

Public lecture & Panel debate - Honorary Doctorate
Prof. José van Dijck “Digital sovereignty for Europe? Public values in the era of Big Tech and AI”

In late afternoon on 27 May, from 17-19u, we welcome Distinguished University Professor José van Dijck (Utrecht University), who will receive a Honorary Doctorate from Hasselt University. The programme opens with a brief welcome by our Vice-Rector for Education, followed by a public lecture and a moderated panel discussion with invited experts from academia, industry, and policy.

Programme

Welcome: Prof. Elke Hermans (UHasselt vice-rector Education)
Public lecture: Prof. José van Dijck
Panel moderator: Prof. Jo Pierson (promoter Honoray Doctorate & Francqui Chair)
Panel members:
- Prof. José van Dijck (UUtrecht - UHasselt Honoray Doctorate)
- Prof. Stefania Milan (UvA - UHasselt Francqui Chair holder)
- Mrs. Lorelien Hoet (Microsoft - Government Affairs Director EU)
- Mr. Bart Becks (EIC European Innovation Council board member - Founder @ Genisys)
- Mrs. Kim Van Sparrentak (EU Member of Parliament)

Content

The growing dominance of two global platform ecosystems has left European countries to rely on American and Chinese digitale infrastructures. This dependency is not just affecting markets and labor relations, but is also transforming social practices, and affecting democracies. While two large ecosystems fight for information control in the global online world, the European perspective on digital infrastructures is focused on regulation rather than on building alternatives. With emerging technologies such as generative AI (ChatGPT, Bard) and geopolitical changes, the infrastructural perspective becomes more poignant. How can Europe achieve sovereignty in the digital world?

This public lecture and panel debate takes up two questions. First, what public values are fundamental to Europe’s platform societies? Values such as privacy, security, transparency, equality, public trust, and (institutional, professional) autonomy are important principles upon which the design of platform architectures should be based. Second, what are the responsibilities of companies, governments, and civil society in building an alternative, sustainable platform ecosystem based on those public values? 

Bio

Prof. José van Dijck is a distinguished university professor in Media and Digital Societies at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). Her research focuses on social media and the impact of media technologies and tech companies on digital culture. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Spinoza Prize by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the highest academic award in Dutch academia, and the C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy, by the International Communication Association (ICA).

She is the (co-)author and (co-)editor of ten books and two hundred journal articles and book chapters. Her books, "The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media" (2013) and "The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World" (2018, with Thomas Poell and Martijn de Waal), have been translated into Italian, Spanish and Chinese. Prof. van Dijck has a PhD from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). She was formerly chair and dean at the University of Amsterdam and, from 2015 to 2018, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Her visiting appointments include M.I.T. (USA), University of Toronto (Canada), Stockholm University (Sweden) and University of Technology, Sydney (Australia). She has received honorary doctorates from Lund University (Sweden, 2019) and the University of Oslo (2024). On May 28, 2026, she will receive an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University. 

This lecture and panel debate form the scholarly prelude to the official Dies Natalis ceremony on the following day, during which Hasselt University will confer the Honorary Doctorate 2025–2026 on Prof. van Dijck and four other distinguished scholars contributing to a caring society.

The public lecture and panel debate will be held in English.

Participation is free, but please register below, at the latest by May 26, 2026.