Doctoral Summer School – Research on Digital, Media and Information Literacy

Context

As our daily lives are increasingly shaped by digital, informational, and media environments, it has become common to understand these environments through the lens of the corresponding new literacies that people are expected to mobilize in order to navigate the social world.

In this context, literacies are increasingly under pressure.  The calls for populations to develop and exercise such literacies have intensified to the point where they are frequently presented as a universal remedy to the multiple crises shaking contemporary societies: post-truth politics, polarization of opinion, rise of populism, new oligarchies, weakening of democratic institutions, climate disruption, etc. Unrealistically high expectations are placed on literacies, as if they alone could solve the major challenges of the contemporary world. When these inflated hopes inevitably collide with reality, disappointment follows. Yet the policies and initiatives meant to cultivate literacies never seem to be given the means to achieve what they are expected to accomplish, as societies fail to provide them with resources that would be essential to deploy on a large scale, resources that they desperately need to educate, emancipate, critique, and propose alternatives. High hopes, insufficient means, growing disillusionment: literacies and the communities that sustain their development find themselves caught in the middle, suspended between ambitious societal expectations and the limited conditions currently available to fulfill them.

For its tenth anniversary, and in line with the long-standing philosophy of the summer school, ReDMIL2026 sets out to explore the idea that “being in the middle” does not have to be a liability; it can be a source of strength. From this strategic position, the actors and communities working to advance information, digital, and media literacies can engage in dialogue, join forces, and build a center of gravity strong enough to weigh on global issues. In this sense, new literacies offer a unique opportunity to build bridges.

The summer school foregrounds literacies rather than alternative concepts (digital skills, e-competence, …) because the concept offers breadth, depth, and connective capacity. First, literacies extend beyond instrumental skills: they attend not only to how people use digital technology, but to what those uses mean in relation to texts, symbols, and discourses, and to where they are embedded in social practices. Second, literacies bring theoretical and epistemological depth. They draw on a long tradition that integrates critical perspectives, questioning authorship and authority, tracing infrastructures and interests, and situating knowledge within cultural, historical, and political contexts. Finally, literacies function as a boundary object across disciplines and among communities and stakeholders. We identify three trajectories through which such dialogues can take shape.

At the disciplinary level, literacy research can drive fruitful alliances between fields such as communication and media studies, information science, law, psychology, engineering, education sciences, philosophy, and more, allowing for complex, multifaceted, and polyphonic solutions that match the scale and complexity of today’s societal problems.

At the level of stakeholders, literacy initiatives can bring together researchers, practitioners, industry actors, activists, and policy-makers around the same table, creating a space where agendas can be coordinated, needs and resources can be matched, and shared objectives can be collectively defined. Such coordination contributes to the broader effort of connecting educational initiatives aimed at fostering literacies with the development of regulatory frameworks that hold industry actors accountable for their content governance practices, thereby helping to ease the disproportionate burden placed on individuals to cope with the proliferation of problematic content.

Finally, at the intercultural and international level, literacies can provide a space for respectful encounters between diverse lived experiences and reflections emerging across the world in response to global technological platforms. They offer an opportunity to compare perspectives, negotiate meanings, and collectively build understandings that transcend local contexts. In doing so, literacies can contribute to fostering mutual recognition, supporting more inclusive global dialogues, and strengthening our capacity to respond collaboratively to the challenges shaped by transnational digital ecosystems.

“Literacies in the middle”, then: not attempting to catch every rebound, but assuming the role of a playmaker, orchestrating the flow of the game and helping the team stay connected.

Scope and goal of ReDMIL 2026 Literacy Doctoral Summer School

The ReDMIL 2026 doctoral summer school is an international training program that aims to contribute to the convergence between digital, media and information literacy research by bringing together researchers from all three communities, to foster the scientific debate and explore connections between them. 

The summer school alternates between framing presentations by senior researchers and the in-depth discussion of emerging research by participating PhD students. 

Five experts have confirmed their participation in the 2026 edition:

• Pr. Michael Dezuanni, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
• Pr. Renee Hobbs, University of Rhode Island, USA
• Pr. Maarit Jaakkola, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Pr. Hyeon-Seon Jeong, Gyeongin National University of Education, South Korea
• Pr. Jad Melki, Lebanese American University, Lebanon

These five experts will act both as keynote speakers and as mentors for participating PhD students throughout the summer school.

The summer school is organized from September 1st-4th, 2026, by the Groupe de Recherche en Médiation des Savoirs (Knowledge Mediation Research Group) at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, in partnership with the Canada Research Chair in Media Education and Human Rights (Université TELUQ, Canada). 

The goal of this summer school is to allow PhD students researching digital literacy, media literacy, or information literacy:  

• to benefit from the expertise of renowned researchers in their field, through theoretical and methodological presentations;  
• to present their own research to an audience composed of these experts, as well as other PhD students and researchers;  
• to work collectively towards the enhancement of their research work with other participants;  
• to improve their knowledge of the research undertaken by their peers.  

The Summer School will start with a poster session (Sept. 1st), followed by six half-day sessions (Sept. 2nd-4th) on the following topics:  

• theoretical frameworks in the study of digital, media, and information literacies;  
• epistemological issues in new-literacies research;  
• methods for observing, documenting, and assessing literacies and their associated educational practices and policies;  
• designing research with social relevance and valorizing research results in society.  

Each half-day session will open with one plenary talk by one of our invited experts, followed by presentations of the participating PhD students’ research work, approached from the perspectives developed in the plenary talks.

In addition to presenting an outline of their work at the opening poster session, each participating PhD student will have the opportunity to present their work in up to two sessions, on two different topics. In relation to the theme of the 2026’s edition “Literacies in the middle“, participants will be invited to discuss how their research cuts across different disciplines, brings together different stakeholders, or is situated at the intersection of different cultural contexts. 

The Summer School will also allow for numerous informal interactions between experts, researchers, and PhD students, including a networking dinner and a hands-on workshop on photography and research on literacies, led by Pr. Normand Landry (Université TELUQ, Canada).  

Participation and presentation from PhD students at the ReDMIL Summer School will be rewarded by 5 ECTS (or equivalent) for their doctoral training. 

Submission of applications  

The summer school is targeted at PhD students who develop their research in the following areas:  

• the study of new literacies: observing, documenting and/or assessing new literacies;  
• the study of educational initiatives in media literacy, information literacy or digital literacy practiced by a variety of actors (teachers and educators, employers, associations, parents, media and tech companies, …);  
• the study of public policies in the fields of digital, media and information literacies at any geographical level;  
• or any other topic related to digital literacy, media literacy, or information literacy.  

PhD students wishing to present and discuss their doctoral research at the summer school are invited to submit an application, including the following:  

• A brief curriculum vitae (one to two pages);  
• A written presentation of their doctoral research in a maximum of 1500 words (references not included), including the following four sections:
  1. Problem or societal issue that their thesis intends to address;  
  2. Research question, hypotheses (in the case of a hypothetico-deductive approach) and theoretical framework of their thesis;  
  3. Data collection and analysis method;  
  4. Expected results: the usefulness of their research, from an academic and/or societal point of view (e.g., for the world of education, for the political world, for the media industry).
• An abstract of the presentation of their doctoral research in a maximum of 300 words.  

Applications must be sent in the form of a single file (word or pdf) including CV, presentation and abstract to this address info-redmil@uclouvain.be by March 30th, 2026 at the latest.  

Candidates will be personally notified of the acceptance of their participation on May 4th.  

Registration

Students whose application is accepted and researchers (doctoral or not) wishing to attend the summer school without presenting their work will be asked to pay a participation fee of 120€ to partially cover the organizing costs of the events.  

The participation fee includes lunches, coffee breaks, and the mid-summer school dinner.  

Participants will have to cover their own travel, visa and accommodation costs. 

For participants affiliated with institutions based in the European Union, this summer school should fall within the conditions required to obtain ERASMUS+ travel funding. Participants are invited to get in touch with the ERASMUS+ coordinator of their home institution for guidance.  

Doctoral students for whom these costs would be an obstacle to participation can contact the organizers directly at info-redmil@uclouvain.be. The summer school is able to waive the participation fee and award up to three fellowships of up to 800€ each to help cover participation expenses.