Lisanne van Weelden

Dr. Lisanne van Weelden serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication within the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University. She is affiliated with the Language and Communication research group and the Humanities Institute for Language Sciences, where she focuses on visual communication and data interpretation. Her research examines how visual elements influence understanding across various domains including financial communication, legal contexts, and public policy.

Van Weelden's research interests center on visual communication, data visualization, and language processing. She investigates how visual forms affect metaphorical conceptualization, how shape influences semantic memory organization, and how visual representations impact decision-making processes. Her work has particular emphasis on the communication of complex information in pension systems, legal contexts, healthcare, and governmental communications, with significant contributions to understanding how visual elements can either clarify or obscure meaning.

Her publication record demonstrates consistent scholarly output with 23 research publications through 2025, showing an evolving focus from foundational work on visual metaphor processing to applied research on data visualization in real-world contexts. Recent work increasingly addresses practical applications of visual communication in financial literacy, legal systems, and public administration, with notable emphasis on pension communication and the use of icons in municipal communications. Her research bridges cognitive science with practical communication challenges, examining both theoretical aspects of visual processing and applied communication effectiveness.

Van Weelden actively collaborates with researchers across disciplines including cognitive psychology, legal studies, and public administration. Her work has been featured in academic journals such as IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Metaphor and Symbol, and Cognitive Science, as well as in professional and public-facing publications addressing practical communication challenges.