Research interests

Kirsten Drotner is professor of media studies and has been founding director of two national R&D programmes, Our Museum, and DREAM (Danish Research Centre on Advanced Media Materials). She is a leading researcher on children’s and young people’s interactions with media at present and in the past, on the formation of creative, digital media literacies, and on users’ engagements with museums, libraries and similar cultural institutions. Kirsten is author, co-author or co–editor of nine books in English, 31 books and reports in Nordic languages, and more than 150 scholarly articles and book chapters. 

Kirsten is a prolific public speaker at home and abroad. She has lectured and taught in more than 20 countries around the world, and she is on the editorial boards of leading, international journals in media and cultural studies. 

Kirsten has directed 15 externally-funded research projects and participated in a number of international research projects and networks on media audiences, media production and cultural innovation. 

She has been a Visiting Professor at universities in Norway and Sweden, and a Visiting Research Fellow at universities in Britain, Canada and the United States. 

She has offered extensive public service, e.g. as a trustee of the Academy Europaea's council, board member of the Clara Lachmann Foundation, of the Danish Film Institute, the Danish Radio and Television Board, Danish Cultural Agency's strategic museum panel, Danish Ministry of Culture Research Committee, and vice-chair of the Library Board at the University of Southern Denmark.

She has extensive experience in international and national research advice and assessment. She has served as chair of the Scientific Committee for the Humanities at Science Europe and chair of the section Film, Media and Visual Studies at Academia Europaea. She has been a member twice of NWO's Gravitation programme committee and FWO’s Odysseus programme committee, two ESOF scientific committees, HERA's Joint Research Programme Board, the Spinoza and the Ernst Solvay Price Committees, and she was international member of main panel D in the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014. In Denmark, she has served as board member of the Danish Council for Independent Research and chair of the Danish Council for Independent Research – Humanities. In addition, she served as founding chair of Danish Centre of Museum Studies and of the research communication site Videnskab.dk.

Kirsten has extensive teaching and counseling experience across all levels of university education. She has been primary supervisor of 15 and secondary supervisor of eight doctoral students and be active in programme and course development.

Kirsten is an elected fellow of the Academia Europaea, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the International Communication Association and recipient of the Academy's Applied Research Award.