I research discourses on societal crises and the expressions of trauma, grief, and resilience on social media. I am interested in both the textual and visual 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.
I hold a PhD in Sociology from Umeå University, Sweden. I am an Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Umeå University, affiliated with DIGSUM, the Center for Digital Social Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humlab, a research infrastructure at the Faculty of Arts for Digital Research. Additionally, I am one of the Journal of Digital Social Research (JDSR) editors.