Jakob (in English)

In the beginning there was nothing!!!! But on September 12th 1973 a boy was born in Herning, a city in the heartland of Denmark! Jakob was his mother’s only boy and he was given a superb and stimulating upbringing. After many years in primary, secondary and high school, he went all the way to the  University of Aarhus, Denmark to study political science.

In the autumn of 1996 he spent half a year at University of Leicester, England. Besides politics and European studies he studied the country and the culture. It was a pleasure, not at least because Jakob is quite anglophile. Jakob has worked two years as a TA for younger students. In 1999 Jakob completed a degree in European Studies and in 2000 he became M.A. in political science. The final thesis was about the democratic consequences of the Internet.

For the next four years, Jakob worked on a Ph.D.-project on Internet and democracy., interrupted by realising an old dream working as a ski guide in the French Alps. Back home, the dissertation was handed in, and on April 29th 2005 it was well defended.

Two months later he got the information that he was appointed as assistant professor at the Department of Media Studies, University of Aarhus. Later that year, he got a wonderful new apartment and had his first trip to Asia, to Vietnam. 2005 was definitely Jakob’s Annus Mirabilis.

In 2008 Jakob lost his beloved mother, Annelise Linaa Jensen, who had struggled bravely against stomach cancer for four years. She is the person Jakob respects mostly for her eternal optimism and way of keeping up the spirits despite hard challenges!

From 2008-2015 Jakob was associate professor in media studies at Aarhus University.

In 2015 he moved from Aarhus University to a job as head of research at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.

But besides all this formal information, who am I who wrote about myself above?

I am a person with a huge number of interests, opinons and friends. I get new ideas all the time although very often, the day appears to short to realise all of them. Everyday I become more and more fascinated and in love with our beautiful and interesting world. But I hate dictators, polluters, negative people and everybody who try to destroy our common future! I am not very religious although I believe in God as a higher spiritual power which is everywhere and consider myself as a pantheist!

Among my interest I shall mention travel, skiing, photography, the Internet, politics, sociology, anthropology, beer, whisky, cooking, marine life and all kinds of outdoor activities, especially those related to mountains.

Privately, my family is not big but I have a lovely girlfriend, Mette, and a huge number of terrific friends and love to form new social relations.