Maya Van Leemput

 MAYA VAN LEEMPUT completed her Ph.D. in media studies at the University of Westminster in 2001 with the thesis: Visions of the Future on Television, A Content Analysis and Production Study of Representations of the Future on British Television in the Mid- Nineties. 

She had previously been involved in ICT consultancy and academic research. During her doctoral studies she taught ‘Methods for Social Sciences’ for BA Media Studies and MA International Communication students at the University of Westminster and the City University. For participatory observation, she worked as a desk researcher on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.
Since 1998 her articles have appeared irregularly in the Flemish press. Maya coordinates the independent research project Agence Future (AF) in collaboration with visual artist Bram Goots. Within the project she is responsible for the collection and analysis of the research material and for communication. With this project she seeks to explore the content and make-up of non-mediated images of the future. AF was supported by the Fonds Pascal Decroos, the VUB and several commercial sponsors. After the field journey for AF, Maya worked as a consultant and in adult education.
She is currently in the second and last year of the Iris Futures research project funded by the Brussels Capital Region’s “Prospective Research for Brussels” grants, working in the POLI research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in cooperation with BruDisc. Iris Futures looks at futures thinking in Brussels to provide starting points for foresight in the region.