My research focuses on human crisis and lifeline communication - that is, how people communicate and turn to media in connection with various forms of “biographical interruptions” and life disruptions related, for example, to illness, the body, or shame. Theoretically, I am interested in digital media, affect, narratives and discourses, and participatory culture.
More specifically, I am currently working on three research projects:
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The use of anonymous counseling services in connection with various experiences of vulnerability. In the project Rådvild, which is supported by the Velux Foundation, I am investigating - together with three colleagues and a number of external collaborators - the frequent use of anonymous counseling services from both an organizational perspective and a user perspective.
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Experiences and narratives of illness related to the use of direct-to-consumer genetic tests. This project is supported by DFF. In it, I, along with a colleague, examine the experiences of different user groups with direct-to-consumer genetic testing as well as the complex temporal experiences of illness - experiences that are linked both to the past as a genetic legacy and to the future as a possible, yet-to-be-realized diagnosis - that these tests create.
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The significance of experiences of powerlessness for the use of online groups concerning chronic illness. This project is supported by the Velux Foundation, and in my subproject I focus on the experiences of bodily, social, existential, and systemic powerlessness that can be associated with living with a chronic illness, as well as on how people with chronic conditions interact online to share and process these feelings of powerlessness in various ways.
