Dr. Anthony Loewstedt
Head of Department – Media and Communications
Background and Facts
After receiving his doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Vienna, Anthony Löwstedt worked at the International Press Institute (IPI) in Vienna from 1994–2005, focusing on press freedom, media monitoring, human rights research, documentation, publications, and consultation. He also edited the Africa and Middle East/North Africa sections of the annual World Press Freedom Review.
From 2004–2005, he served as Senior Consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at Miftah in Ramallah and Jerusalem. He began teaching at Webster Vienna in 1997 and has since held teaching and research positions at institutions including Birzeit University, Webster University Geneva, the Austrian Media Academy, the University of Leipzig, and the University of Innsbruck.
Löwstedt serves on the boards of OLive (Open Learning Initiative) at the University of Vienna and the International Cultural Diversity Organization, and works as a consultant and peer reviewer for international academic and media organizations. From 2018–2023, he was an external evaluator for Portugal’s Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and in 2018–2019 for South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF).
At WVPU, he contributes extensively to faculty selection, advising, student supervision, curriculum development, faculty development, and extracurricular academic activities. He was nominated for the Advising Excellence Award in 2020–2021, elected Teacher of the Year by WVPU students in 2007, 2008, and 2010, and received the Diversity in Teaching Award in 2023. He currently serves as a member of the University Senate.
His research focuses on communication ethics, transnational media regulation and governance, globalization, media diversity and freedom, media development, communication theory, and biocultural diversity and human rights. His Habilitationsschrift, Critique of Pure and Practical Communication, examines theoretical, epistemological, axiological, normative, and developmental aspects of communication.
Courses Taught
- ANSO 1010 Introduction to Anthropology/Sociology
- ANSO 1070 Cultural Anthropology
- ANTH 1100 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANTH 2890 Culture and Disease: African Situations and Solutions
- FLST 3170/ART 4920 Seminar in Visual Culture: Topics in Documentary Film Studies
- FRSH 1200 From Tattoo to iPad: Media and Cultural Development
- FRSH 1200 The Development of Communication
- GNST 1250 Freshman Seminar: Globalization
- GNST 1250 Freshman Seminar: Cultural Identity
- HIST 2000 Social History
- HIST 2450 African History
- HIST 3150 Economic, Political and Social Aspects of Globalization
- INTL 3600 Methods of Political Inquiry
- KEYS 4014 Social Movements and the Impact of Technologies
- MDST 1010 Media Foundations
- MDST 1050 Introduction to Media Writing
- MDST 2100 Media Literacy
- MDST 2200 Ethics in the Media
- MDST 2800 Media, Society and Diversity
- MDST 3260 Global Media Practice: Sustainable Development and International Communications
- MEDC 3260 Internationalizing International Communications
- MDST 3300 Media Law, Ethics and Policy
- MDST 3700 Topics in International Communications: Media Convergence, Governance and Regulation
- MDST 4100 Media Research
- MDST 4500 Political Communication
- MEDC 1010 Introduction to Mass Communications
- MEDC 1050 Introduction to Media Writing
- MEDC 1630 Media Literacy
- MEDC 2200 Ethics in the Media
- MEDC 2800 Cultural Diversity in the Media
- MEDC 3150 African Media and Culture
- MEDC 3190 Introduction to Media Research
- MEDC 3260/INTL 3260, Surveillance, Privacy and the Media
- MEDC 3260/INTL 3260 International Communications: The Media Wars in the Middle East
- MEDC 3260/INTL 3260 International Communications: Media Diversity, Culture and the Nation-state
- MEDC 3260 International Communications: Media Freedom and Power in the Arab World
- MEDC 3700 Topics in International Communications: Media, Globalization and Culture
- MDST 3700 Topics in International Communications: Media Convergence, Governance and Regulation
- MEDC 4100 The Law and the Media
- MEDC 5310/INTL 5600 Media and Culture: South Africa – A Historic Transition
- PBRL 4250 Media Relations
- PHIL 1010 Introduction to Critical Thinking
- PHIL 1100 Introduction to Philosophy
- PHIL 2110 Introduction to Ethics
- PHIL 2320 Contemporary Moral Problems
- POLT 3600 Methods in Political Science
- SPCM 2400 Persuasion
- SPCM 4600 Communication Theory
- VIDE 3150 Webcast Production
Education
- Habilitation (venia docendi) at the Department of Communication Science at the University of Vienna, 2025
- Doktor der Philosophie (PhD), Philosophie und gewählte Fächer, University of Vienna, 1994
- Magister (MA), Philosophie und gewählte Fächer (philosophy and selected disciplines: Psychology, Linguistics and Theory of Science), University of Vienna, 1986
- History of Ideas, Philosophy, and Theory of Science studies at the University of Göteborg
- Secondary school in Hong Kong and in Göteborg, Sweden