The Academia Europaea is a functioning European Academy of Humanities, Letters, and Sciences, composed of individual members.  

Membership is established through invitation, with more than 5,000 current members, which includes leading experts from very diverse subject areas.  

By receiving this title, Professor Downey has joined the Academy’s mission to improve education in a variety of subjects across all of Europe. 

Professor Downey specialises in Comparative Media Analysis, having come to the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Loughborough in 2000. He was also Director of the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture from 2016 to 2019. 

His research focuses on the comparison of media institutions and content across time and space. His work seeks to develop the field of comparative media theoretically, methodologically, and empirically.

Some of his standout projects include analysing the BBC’s coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the BBC’s Governors in 2006. He also worked on a project for the BBC Trust in 2012 examining the BBC’s coverage of the Arab Spring.

Professor Downey comments on his recent appraisal: “It is a great honour for me to be invited to join Academia Europaea in recognition of the excellence of my research. Research is simultaneously an individual and collective pursuit. 

“I have been very fortunate to work with and be influenced by many eminent social scientists since my arrival at Loughborough over 20 years ago and I’m pleased to say that our research culture continues to thrive and develop.” 

The Academia Europaea was established in 1988, its object being the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences and so forth, for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages in Europe.  

The full list of the Academia Europaea members can be viewed here.