Visiting research fellow programme

The purpose of the Visiting Research Fellow Programme is to enhance JMG’s international profile and strengthen research collaborations. The programme offers international researchers the opportunity to spend time at the department conducting research, giving seminars, and developing partnerships within the framework of JMG’s research agenda.

The programme is primarily designed for short stays (approximately 2–3 weeks), but these can be combined with longer visits, for example in connection with joint research projects.

Visiting research fellows are expected to have expertise relevant to one of JMG’s research areas. The JMG researcher hosting the fellow ensures that the visit is grounded in an ongoing or planned collaboration and is responsible for organising the programme during the stay. The programme should include seminars or other activities aimed at the wider research environment, including opportunities for interaction with doctoral students.

Visiting research fellows are provided with a workspace at the department, as well as access to the library and other services. The department covers travel and accommodation costs, as well as a welcome lunch and dinner.

Visiting research fellows are invited following nomination by their host. Nominations are submitted to the department’s management team, which makes decisions based on recommendations from the advisory board. The advisory board meets four times a year (February, May, September, and November). Nominations must include a brief justification, the nominee’s CV, and the proposed timing of the visit. Nominees should therefore be consulted in advance. Within the framework of this programme, JMG aims to invite one visiting research fellow per semester.

2025

Alexandra Feddersen is a Professor of Political Communication and Media at the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of Fribourg. Her research focuses on the interaction and influence between politics, the media, and public opinion.

Rubén Cuéllar Rivero is a PhD student in the programme Rule of Law and Global Governance at the University of Salamanca, Spain. His dissertation focused on the role of media and media use in processes of affective polarization, and he had also worked on strategic political communication and election campaigning.

2024

Vilde Ellingsberg, PhD at the University of Bergen, visited JMG in November. Her doctoral project examined changes in skill requirements, priorities, and recruitment within journalism.

Johanna Eggers, PhD at the Digital Democracy Center and the Department of Business & Management at the University of Southern Denmark, was a guest at JMG between September 11 and October 18. She held a master’s degree in media and communication, and her research interests focused on the interplay between AI and the media public, as well as the resulting implications for democratic societies.

Beatriz Jordá, PhD at Saint Louis University, Madrid, conducted research using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, focusing on persuasion-based processes in social media related to political and social issues.

2023

Augustine Pang, Professor of Communication Management at Singapore Management University, was a guest researcher at JMG in October, where he collaborated with Bengt Johansson and Orla Vigsø. He also presented his research at the seminar on political communication. 

Kiki de Bruin, a doctoral student at Utrecht University, visited JMG in October and returned home at the beginning of November. She worked together with Jesper Strömbäck.

Noelle Lebernegg, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna and part of the KR project, visited JMG from November 6 until the end of November/December.

Marianna Patrona visited JMG from April 22 to June 3, 2023, as part of the Visiting Research Fellow Programme. She is Associate Professor in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hellenic Army Academy in Greece. She has published extensively in various discourse and communication journals and edited volumes and is the editor of Crisis and the Media: Narratives of Crisis across Cultural Settings and Media Genres (John Benjamins, 2018, Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture series).

Her research interests included media discourse and communication; discourse and politics; broadcast interviewing; changing communication practices in broadcast news; political communication, journalism and crisis; and populism and the news media.

During her stay, she presented her research at two seminars at JMG: Snapshots from an Information War: Propaganda, Intertextuality and Audience Design in the Russia–Ukraine Conflict (May 9, 13:15) and The Reporting on Far-Right Scandalous Talk in Greek News Discourse (May 23, 15:15).

2022

Miriam Bernhard, a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Technische Universität Ilmenau in Germany, visited JMG in December. She taught the MA class in Strategic Communication and met with researchers at JMG. In addition to her academic work, she had worked for various publishing houses, such as DIE ZEIT and Condé Nast.

Dr. Fabian Thomas from the University of Koblenz-Landau was a JMG Guest Researcher in October 2022. He specialized in methodological approaches in media effects research and joined the research project Varieties of Media Effects (VARME) during his stay.

Kim Backström, who was pursuing a PhD in social sciences at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, visited the SOM Institute from October to the end of December 2022. He was writing a dissertation on the effects that different legitimizing strategies may have on citizens. He was an aspiring survey methodologist and joined the SOM Institute’s methodology team during his stay.

Philip Katz, a PhD student at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, visited JMG in October. He was writing about political cartoons in Rudé právo and discussed his work with Professor Orla Vigsö, as well as presented it at the doctoral seminar.

Dr. Deanna Sellnow, Professor of Strategic Communication at the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida, USA, visited JMG and Professor Bengt Johansson in May 2022. Her research focused on instructional communication in multiple contexts, particularly risk and crisis communication.

Timothy L. Sellnow, Professor of Strategic Communication at the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida, USA, visited JMG and Professor Bengt Johansson in May 2022. His research focused on risk and crisis communication.

Linas Kontrimas, a researcher at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania and a doctoral student in politics, visited JMG and Professor Jesper Strömbäck in May 2022.