Guest Researcher Programme
The department welcomes visiting scholars and visiting doctoral students who want to join the department for a limited time to conduct research in journalism, media studies or communication studies.
The visiting researcher is expected to have a research profile that aligns with any of the department's current research themes and to share interests with several of its researchers.
We provide a diverse and dynamic interdisciplinary research and teaching environment, regular higher seminar series, mentoring opportunities, and a workplace known for its convivial atmosphere. During their stay, visiting fellows will contribute to this vibrant community and are expected to present their work in a departmental higher seminar, offer guest lectures to students, and participate in the day-to-day life of the department.
Stays vary between a few weeks to several months. As a visiting scholar, you will be offered a desk in a shared office, and access to the library, IT, and other university services.
We encourage expressions of interest from researchers willing to explore or collaborate on research themes within our environment. If you're interested in this opportunity, please contact us for further information.
Current and previous guest researchers
Contact
Jesper Falkheimer
Professor of Strategic Communication
jesper [dot] falkheimer [at] iko [dot] lu [dot] se (jesper[dot]falkheimer[at]iko[dot]lu[dot]se)
Mats Heide
Professor of Strategic Communication
mats [dot] heide [at] iko [dot] lu [dot] se (mats[dot]heide[at]iko[dot]lu[dot]se)
Helena Sandberg
Professor of Media and Communication Studies
helena [dot] sandberg [at] iko [dot] lu [dot] se (helena[dot]sandberg[at]iko[dot]lu[dot]se)
Hao Xu
Spring semester of 2025
Hao Xu is a Lecturer in Media and Communications (Marketing Communications) at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research covers corporate communications, corporate social responsibility, corporate activism, and crisis communication. His ongoing studies are centred on consumer responses to corporate engagement in socio-political issues, and corporate digital responsibility and public opinion on artificial intelligence governance. He has published in Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Relations Research, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Communication Management, among others.
Bjorn Nansen
Spring semester of 2025
Bjørn Nansen has a background in communication and digital technology studies and works with interdisciplinary approaches in researching the social and embodied impacts of digital interfaces, platforms, and data, focusing on family settings and experiences. He has recently joined the Human-Computer Interaction Group in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne for a 3-year secondment. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and is the author of Young Children and Mobile Media, and co-author of Death and Digital Media and Digital Domesticity: Media, Materiality, and Home Life.
David Coppini
Spring semester of 2025
David Coppini is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver. His research is in political communication and journalism, focusing on the relationship between political polarization, media consumption and media trust in the United States and Italy. He has worked on projects examining the quality of local news in Colorado and the level of trust towards news organizations in the state. At the University of Denver, he teaches classes in strategic communication, media and politics, and research methods.
Olu Jenzen
Autumn semesters of 2022 and 2024
Olu Jenzen is a Media and Digital Culture Professor at the University of Southampton, UK and the Deputy Head of Research at the Winchester School of Art. She previously directed the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender at the University of Brighton. Her research covers digital media and cultural studies, gender and sexuality, with a particular interest in LGBTQ+ digital activism. She is the co-editor of The Aesthetics of Global Protest and has published in journals such as Convergence; Gender, Place and Culture; and Social Movement Studies. She is the co-editor of the special issue ‘Global Feminist and Queer Visual Activism’ for the Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change.
Tatu Matilainen
Autumn semester of 2024
Tatu Matilainen is a PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki, focusing on journalism ethics and animal rights, and studying journalism’s codes of ethics through discourse analysis. His forthcoming articles include “A communicational ontology inspired by Peter Singer” and “Why isn’t there more news about animal suffering? Interviewing journalists”. He is a founding member of the International Animal Journalism Association (IAJA) and has a decade of experience in the book industry.
Daniel Hallin
Autumn semester of 2024
Daniel C. Hallin is a Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. In Spring 2019, he was promoted to Distinguished Professor for his extensive contributions to the field and years of service at U.C. San Diego. Hallin’s research is widely known in the Nordics and highly important to media and communication studies, not least media and health studies. He has written about the media and war, television coverage of elections, and the rise and decline of journalist professionalism. He is globally acknowledged for his attention to the comparative analysis of media systems, focusing on Western Europe and Latin America.
Anne Nørkjær Bang
Spring semester of 2024
Anne Nørkjær Bang is a PhD student from the Department of Culture and Language at the University of Southern Denmark. Her current research is situated within the research project ‘Endocrine Economies: The Cultural Politics of Sex Hormones”. Building on feminist STS and cultural studies scholarship, Anne’s PhD project investigates how the birth control pill is imagined in contemporary Denmark and the role sex hormones play in these imaginaries, as they unfold in mainstream media entries, creative workshops with Pill users, and in campaign material for new contraceptive startups, envisioning contraception ‘beyond’ The Pill.
Anette Grønning
Spring semester of 2024
Anette Grønning is an Associate Professor at the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science, University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Her research has focused on digital communication and social media, primarily in workplace settings. Her research interests include various aspects of digital communication such as mediated discourse, memory and temporalities, participation and social presence.
Amalie Søgaard Nielsen
Autumn semester of 2023
Amalie Søgaard Nielsen is a postdoctoral researcher visiting from the Department of Design, Media, and Educational Science at the University of Southern Denmark. Amalie works on the HAIDI project – Healthy Aging in a Digital World with researchers from Lund University and the University of Eastern Finland. Her background is in healthcare digitization. This involves working with video consultations in substance abuse treatment in Greenland, mental health applications and internet-based cognitive therapy at the Center of Digital Psychiatry in the Region of Southern Denmark, as well as implementing electronic medical record systems in the Capital Region of Denmark.
Hanna Varjakoski
Autumn semester of 2023
Hanna Varjakoski is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. Her dissertation examined the Finnish media landscape of the 2000s and what it produces and challenges regarding cultural imageries and understandings of ageing, older individuals and later life. Hanna’s research interests are in cultural gerontology and she has worked as a researcher in a project that examined older adults’ neighbour relations and age diversity in the neighbourhood. She teaches courses that address ageing, media culture, digitalization and health.