Biography 个人简介
Gwen Bouvier (PhD, University of Wales) is a Distinguished Professor at Shanghai International Studies University, Institute of Language Science. Her main research interests are digital communication and civic debate on social media. Professor Bouvier's publications have drawn on critical discourse analysis, multimodality based on social semiotics, and online ethnography. She is the Editor for Social Semiotics and Book Review Editor for Discourse & Society, and the Journal of Multicultural Discourses. Her latest publications include the book Qualitative Research Using Social Media (Routledge, 2nd edition forthcoming 2026) and the articles Cancel Culture and Trigger-Ready Fragmented Interest Groups (TV and New Media, 2025); Social Media and the New Canon of Use for Social Protests (Discourse, Context and Media, 2025); and Evaluating the American-Chinese Trade War on Chinese Social Media: Discourses of nationalism and rectifying a humiliating past (Critical Discourse Studies, 2025).
Memberships of associations and editorial boards
Social Semiotics - SSCI Taylor & Francis journal, associate editor, since 2013.
Discourse & Society - SSCI Sage journal, book review editor, since 2023.
Journal of Multicultural Discourses - Taylor & Francis journal, review editor, since 2016.
International research project Ignorance and Inequality in Sexual Health - South Danish University, member of advisory board since 2024.
International Journal of Marketing Semiotics & Discourse Studies - member of the editorial board, since 2020.
Media, War and Conflict - Sage journal, member of the editorial board, since 2008.
War and Media network - University of Sussex (http://www.warandmedia.org), member since 2004.
Research degree supervision
UG level: University of South Wales - PG
MA level: Leicester U, Zayed U, University of South Wales, Örebro U, Zhejiang U - PG
PhD level: Shanghai International Studies University (Jin Shangran, Dong Qixin, Emma Wang, Ye Jiaqi, Huan Menghan)
Conference Participation
Diversity in Sexual Health Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Apr 13-14, 2026. Plenary speaker. “Health Communication and the Digital Era.”
University of Bucharest, Romania, Feb 17, 2026. Invited speaker. “AI, the Spectacle, and Marx: Who is using the tech and for what purposes?”
Macau University, China, Nov 21, 2025. Invited speaker. “Cancel Culture: Judged by Social Media.”
12iCOM, Groningen University, Netherlands, Oct 28-Nov 1, 2025. “Cancel Culture, Transgression, and Trigger-Ready Fragmented Interest Groups: the case of Johnny Depp Versus Amber Heard.”
1st International Conference on Digital Humanities in Language and Literary Studies, Zhenzhou University, China, Oct 10-12, 2025. Keynote speaker. “Going beyond the AI spectacle and the role of the Humanities.”
CARP, George Mason University, USA, Mar 19-22, 2025. “Cancel culture: the victim as lightening rod for trigger-ready cancellers.”
CADAAD, Poznan University, Poland, Jul 10-12, 2024. Panel organizer and speaker: “The nature of discourse analysis studies in China.”
UML/QUB/MWC Workshop: The Politics of Narrating War. University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA, May 16-17, 2024. “Knowing conflicts through gender politics”.
4th International Conference on Frontiers of Discourse Studies, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, Dec 9-10, 2023. Keynote speaker. “Social media as a digital tool for changing the world: Online activism, symbolism and moral performance”.
10th International Symposium on New Discourse in Contemporary China (NDCC), Jinhua Zhejiang Normal University, China, Nov 3-5, 2023. Plenary speaker. “Symbolic Gestures as Social Activism”.
16th Pujiang Innovation Forum, Fostering an Open Innovation Environment: Innovation and Global Connections, Shanghai, China, Sep 9-11, 2023. “Social Sciences research training and grant resource allocation”.
18th International Pragmatics Conference (iPRA), Université Libre Belgique, Brussels, Jul 9-14, 2023. “Cute snacks for empowered Chinese middleclass women: How marketing colonizes ideological shifts”.
CARP, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Jun 21-23, 2023. “Symbolic Gestures as Social Activism on Social Media: Simplifications and Moral Performance as a Threat to Liberal Society”.
Digital Humanities and Digital Communication: AI and (new) literacies, UNIMORE Italy, Jun 12-16, 2023. “Understanding the quality of civic debate and coherence on social media hashtag networks: Twitter and Weibo”.
[speaking occasions before 2023 available upon request]
Administrative responsibilities
Director of PhD programme (Shanghai International Studies U & Maynooth U); MA co-coordinator; Department social media promotion of BA and MA programmes; Departmental library liaison; Second Year coordinator; Organiser PG research colloquium day 2018-19; Head of MA Journalism Connected (Director of programme); Member of MA curriculum revision team; Faculty Committee member; Graduate Study Committee member; Member of Mobile Learning Research group; Admissions; First Year Coordinator; Delivering open days; Delivering Major’s Days; Applicant interviewing; Advising students
Academic service
I review for many journals, amongst others Social Media + Society; Discourse & Society; Visual Communication; New Media and Society; Journalism Studies; Journalism Practice; Discourse, Context & Media; and Critical Discourse Studies.
