Full professor of sociology of art and politics at the Research Center Arts in Society (Groningen University - the Netherlands) and at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (Antwerp University - Belgium). He is editor in-chief of the international book series ‘Arts in Society’. His research focuses on the institutional context of the arts and on cultural politics. Gielen has published many books which are translated in English, Korean, Portugees, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.