Moa Eriksson Krutrök

I research discourses on societal crises and the expressions of trauma, grief, and resilience on social media. I am interested in the multimodal elements of these discourses and the affordances of different social media platforms, such as Twitter and TikTok. This work has centred around the uses of social media in times of adversity, such as terrorist attacks, wars or social movements. 

I am also interested in ways of finding connections during personal crises, such as mourning the loss of a loved one. This work has focused on the ways individuals find connections with others on platforms that are inherently public, such as TikTok, where the algorithms allow you to find like-minded people.

My research has been featured in the media on several occasions. A summary of this public outreach can be found here. 

I hold a PhD in Sociology from Umeå University, Sweden, and have been awarded docentship in Sociology. I am 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 also editor of 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.