Dr Tom Van Hout

Bio

I’m interested in how people do things with media and discourse. Key sites for studying such communicative contexts include popular culture, museums and news media. Three social practices anchor my current research interests:

Performing expertise: how people express intimacy with culturally valuable things such as wine, fashion, or fitness

Anticipating audiences: how organizations and institutions attract, maintain and position audiences semiotically

Representing social events: how migration, politics, capitalism and other social events of scale are mediated and mediatized across platforms and mediascapes.

Expertise

My background is in discourse studies. That means I study how meaning is produced (as well contested, altered, amplified, distorted and so on) in a range of communicative contexts.  

Teaching

I teach BA and MA courses on the Online Culture tracks. I have more than 20 years of experience in (re)designing, delivering, and assessing courses at undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels. 

Courses

• Social Groups in the Digital World
• The Digital Individual
• Digital Knowledge
• Media Provocateurs

Collaboration

I'm currently collaborating with law scholars from the University of Antwerp. The research project is funded by a FWO Senior Research Grant and is concerned with we call trojan horse discourse. The project is interdisciplinary in nature: it pairs legal analysis and discourse analysis to examine how authoritarian regimes (ab)use constitutional concepts to undermine fundamental rights protection.

I have previously collaborated with colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology, Ghent University, Leiden University, and Queen Mary, University of London.

Recent publications

1. Running by numbers: Exploring the semiotic dynamics of COVID-19 quant…

   Cotter, C., & Van Hout, T. (2021). Running by numbers: Exploring the semiotic dynamics of COVID-19 quantification. Unpublished. In Running by numbers: Exploring the semiotic dynamics of COVID-19 quantification

2. Farewell, Jan Blommaert

   Van Hout, T. (2021, Jan 12). Farewell, Jan Blommaert. Diggit Magazine. https://www.diggitmagazine.com/articles/farewell-jan-blommaert

3. People on the move - how museums de-marginalize migration

   Pelsmaekers, K., & Van Hout, T. (2020). People on the move: how museums de-marginalize migration. Social Semiotics, 30(4), 607-624.

4. Analisis etnografico del discurso

   Van Hout, T. (2019). Analisis etnografico del discurso. In Analisis sociologico del discurso : enfoques, metodos, procedimientos / Herzog, Benno [edit.]; et al. (pp. 199-223). Publicacions de la Universitat de València.

5. Tread carefully : managing identities and expectations in high-tech i…

   De Maeijer, E., Van Hout, T., Weggeman, M. C. D. P., & Post, G. J. J. (2018). Tread carefully : managing identities and expectations in high-tech industryacademia collaborations. Technology Innovation Management Review, 8(10), 29-43.