Gunhild Kvåle

Gunhild Kvåle is a Professor at the Department of Nordic and Media Studies, University of Agder, Norway. As of 2024, she serves as Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Humanities and Education (50% appointment). Her research focuses on multimodal, visual, and digital communication, particularly within educational contexts and broader societal applications. She has been affiliated with UiA for over 20 years, contributing to courses in the MA program in Social Communication and Norwegian language education for teacher training programs.

Research Interests:

• Critical literacy and digital media technologies
• Social semiotics and multimodal analysis
• Educational software critique
• AI-generated imagery and semiotic technologies
• Visual and digital communication in education

Key Projects:

• ReMeD (Resilient Media for Democracy in the Digital Age), funded by Horizon Europe (2023–2026)
• CritLit (Critical Literacy in a Digital and Global Textual World), funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2020–2023)
• Social Media as Semiotic Technology collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark (2015–2018)

Professional Roles:

• Chair of the Nordic Association for SFL and Social Semiotics (2019–present)
• Editorial Board Member of Computers and Composition (Elsevier)
• Co-editor of Visual Communication (SAGE, 2017–2020)

Her recent work emphasizes critical approaches to AI-generated imagery, digital stock images, and educational software's ideological underpinnings. She leads the CritLit project, developing frameworks for critical literacy in Norwegian schools.