Research

Tina Askanius, born 1978, is a PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at Lund University. She holds an BA in Language and Communication from Aarhus University and a MA in Media and Communication studies; from Lund University; Her doctoral work is concerned with contemporary web-based political activism. Clamping down on the moving images and audiovisual imageries in contemporary video activism against neoliberal globalization, she analyses the nature and affordances of the moving image used as a political tool to level a social critique in public debate and, further, raises questions of how the normative exigency and demand for action in this critique is constructed in the process of mediation. In addition to her doctoral studies, she teaches undergraduate classes in audience analysis and cultural studies and functions as supervisor of student papers in strategic communication as well as media studies. Elisabet Björklund, born 1983, is a Ph D candidate in Film Studies at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University. She holds a Master of Arts in Film Studies from Lund University. Her doctoral work will examine Swedish sex education through audiovisual media in the 20th century. The films in her study are to be analyzed both in the context of the Swedish Welfare State, and in relation to issues of globalization. Nils Gustafsson, born 1979 in Simrishamn, Sweden, is a Ph D Candidate in Political Science at Lund University. He holds a Master of Political Science as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lund University. His dissertation project deals with how blogs and microblogs, video sharing sites, social network sites, virtual worlds, MMOPRGs, picture sharing sites – in short, social media – have redefined the way we see political participation and mobilisation. Zeenath Hasan is a PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University. Her doctoral work is a practice based exploration into the role of digital networked media in a democracy. In collaboration with open source software developers, grassroots advocacy groups and local communities,her endeavour is a participatory understanding of the role of digital networked media for governance in the south Indian state of Karnataka. She also assists in the supervision of student works in the Communication for Development program and the Culture and Media under-graduate programme at Malmö University. Furthermore, along with peers from the performance and media arts, she engages in the practice of social art for inclusiveness and integration. Zeenath Hasan's website: http://webzone.k3.mah.se/K3ZEHA/user_cmt02/default.asp She has an MA in Media Studies from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland and an MS in Communications from Manipal Institute of Communications, Karnataka, India. Emilia Ljungberg, born in 1983, is a PhD Candidate in Press Studies at Lund University. She holds a Master in Press Studies from Lund University. Her doctoral project deals with contemporary travel writing and the discourses of globalization. She takes an interest in issues of mobility, class distinction in travel and the construction of place, in travel writing as well as other journalistic texts. She is currently studying the Swedish travel- and lifestyle magazine RES.