Prof. Mateja Rek, PhD
Lecturer
Research Area
Prof. dr. Mateja Rek is particularly active in researching and promoting the importance of media literacy and the need for smart digital media education. Her research examines the role of media and digital technologies in contemporary societies, with particular emphasis on media literacy, civic participation and democratic processes. Recently, she authored the monograph Media Literacy and E-Democracy in the EU, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and available at https://tinyurl.com/3a7x55h2
Curriculum
Prof. dr. Mateja Rek is employed as a professor at the Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto and the School of Applied Social Studies in Nova Gorica. She leads the Infrastructure Program – Data Collection, Management and Archiving on Media Literacy in Slovenia (2022–27), funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency. She is a researcher in the Developmental Processes and Interactions in the Digital Society (2024–2028) program at the Faculty of Information Studies, funded by ARIS. She is a work package leader in the Horizon Europe project Digital Transformation for Building Democratic Resilience (DIGI-ENLARGE), funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Programme (2026-29). She is also a member of the Jean Monnet European Network for Digitalization and e-Governance, a Jean Monnet Policy Debate project funded by Erasmus+ (2023–2026).
She led the project Media Literacy for Resistance against Online Fake News and Disinformation (MELI RESIST), which was partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy (2024–25), and she collaborated on the project Digital Citizenship in Educational Institutions – Strengthening Competencies for the Digital Society (DIGI.DR), which was co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Education, and the European Union – NextGenerationEU (2024–2026). In 2023, she participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange programme.
She is a full professor of sociology and a researcher in communication studies, regularly lecturing at domestic institutions and as a guest abroad. From 2009 to 2013, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Media in Ljubljana for two consecutive terms, and from 2016 to 2018, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Studies in Nova Gorica for one term.
After working in the civil sector at the Open Society Institute in the Southeast European region in the early 2000s, she decided to expand her knowledge and experience in the civil sector by engaging in academia. In 2008, she earned a PhD in Sociology, where she researched the role of social capital in shaping transnational civil society in the EU. She was a member of the international doctoral network on the involvement of civil society in European governance, led by Professor Dr. Beate Kohler-Koch from the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). She has worked on numerous projects with civil society organizations in the Southeast European region.
Recently, she authored the monograph Media Literacy and E-Democracy in the EU, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and available at https://tinyurl.com/3a7x55h2.