Valérie Gorin is Head of Learning at the Geneva Center of Humanitarian Studies. She is also a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Lausanne and Unidistance. She was previously invited professor at SciencesPo Lille in France, visiting scholar at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) and a Senior Researcher of the Swiss National Foundation at the University of Lausanne.
Dr Gorin holds a Degree in History from the Faculty of Arts (October 2004), and a PhD in communication and media sciences at the University of Geneva in September 2013, where she had been a teaching and research assistant (2007-2013). Her PhD focused on the photojournalistic coverage of humanitarian crises in American and French news magazines from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Her areas of research focus on the visual culture and history of humanitarianism, humanitarian communication and the relationship with the media, and the evolution and uses of photojournalism. She is currently doing research on virtual reality and digital innovations, and the link between (eye)witnessing and advocacy strategies in humanitarian settings.
She has published extensively on photojournalism, visual culture and advocacy in Digital Journalism (2015), the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication (2017), Humanitarianism and the Media, 1900-2015 (Berghahn Books, 2018), L’humanitaire s’exhibe (1867-2016) (Georg, 2021). She also co-edited several publications about the responses to famine (European Review of History, 2015), the representations of the 2014-2016 migration crisis (Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies, 2018), the commemorations of the Russian revolution (Antipodes, 2017), humanitarian advocacy (Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, 2021) as well as the new edited volume (with B. Edgar and D. Martin Moruno) Making Humanitarian Crises: Emotions and Images in History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).
Fields of interest
- History of armed conflicts in the 20th century
- History of photography, photojournalism and the press
- History of humanitarian action
- The media and humanitarian action
- Humanitarian communication
- Citizen (photo)journalism
- Advocacy strategies
- Sociology of celebrity and celebrity diplomacy
- Visual Culture
Selected publications
- Edgar, Brenda Lynn, Valérie Gorin, and Dolores Martin Moruno (eds). 2022. Making humanitarian crises. Emotions and Images in history. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2022. « L’humanitaire en bulles. Les Médecins Sans Frontières dans la bande dessinée (2003-2019). » In L’humanitaire s’exhibe (1867-2016), édité par S. Farré, J-F Fayet et B. Taithe. Lausanne : Georg.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2021. “When ‘seeing was believing’: visual advocacy in the early decades of humanitarian cinema.” Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 3(2): 18-27.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2021. “Witnessing and témoignage in MSF’s advocacy.” Journal of Humanitarian Affairs 3(2): 28-33.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2019. “The visual politics of Red Cross and Red Crescent posters.” In Posters, edited by the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Milan: Silvana Editoriale, 57-61.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2018. “Advocacy strategies of Western humanitarian NGOs from the 1960s to the 1990s.” In Humanitarianism and the Media, 1900-2015, edited by Johannes Paulmann. New York: Berghahn Books, 201-222.
- Sacco, Vittoria, and Valérie Gorin (eds). 2018. “‘Journalistic practices in the representation of Europe’s 2014-2016 migrant and refugee crisis.” Special issue of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies 7(1).
- Gorin, Valérie (with G. Haver, JF. Fayet and E. Koustova). 2017. Le spectacle de la révolution. Histoire de la culture visuelle des commémorations d’Octobre, en URSS et ailleurs. Antipodes : Lausanne.
- Sacco, Vittoria, and Valérie Gorin. 2017. “Mediatized Conflict and Visual News Framing. How Swiss Audiences React to News Images from the Syrian War.” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication10 (2-3): 204-233.
- De Laat, Sonya, and Valérie Gorin. October 2016. “Iconographies of humanitarian aid in Africa.” HPG Working Paper: 15-29.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2015. “Innovation(s) in photojournalism: Assessing visual content and the place of citizen photojournalism in Time’s Lightbox photoblog.” Digital Journalism3 (4): 533-551.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2015. « L’enfance comme figure compassionnelle : étude transversale de l’iconographie de la famine aux dix-neuvième et vingtième siècles. » European Review of History22 (6): 940-962.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2013. « La guerre civile du Biafra au regard des enjeux humanitaires dans les médias français, américains et suisses (1967-1970). » Le Temps des Médias 2 (21) : 176-195.
- Gorin, Valérie. 2012. “Looking back over 150 years of humanitarian action: the photographic archives of the ICRC.” International Review of the Red Cross94 (888): 1349-1379.