I explore how social media shapes our responses to crises—how we grieve, process trauma, and find resilience in digital spaces like Twitter and TikTok.
I study how social media shapes public and personal responses to crises—how we express grief, trauma, and resilience in digital spaces. My research examines the multimodal nature of these expressions and how different platforms, such as Twitter and TikTok, shape the ways people communicate in times of adversity, including terrorist attacks, wars, and social movements.
Beyond large-scale crises, I also explore how individuals navigate personal loss in public online spaces. My work on TikTok, for example, examines how algorithms connect people through shared experiences of mourning, fostering unexpected communities of support.
My research has been widely covered in the media—find a summary of my public outreach here.
I hold a PhD in Sociology from Umeå University, Sweden, and have been awarded docentship in Sociology. I am an Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies, affiliated with Humlab, a research infrastructure at the Faculty of Arts for digital research and DIGSUM, the Centre for Digital Social Research. I am serve as editor for the Journal of Digital Social Research (JDSR).
I teach theory, methods and research-specific courses at Umeå’s Media and Communication Studies programmes (BA and MA levels), including our Journalism and Strategic Communication students. I also supervise students writing their BA and MA theses.
