一本道

22 May 2025

On May 19, 2025, Dr. Anastasia Menshikova successfully defended her dissertation, 鈥淐ultural Change: Studying Interdependencies in Public Discourse with Computational Text Analysis.鈥 This marks the second PhD completion in our VR-funded research environment Mining for Meaning.

Anastasia Menshikova defends PhD thesis on social interdependencies in immigration discourses Photographer: Vsevolod Suschevskiy

Dr. Menshikova’s thesis applies computational text analysis to advance sociological understanding of how public discourse reflects and shapes cultural change. Focusing on the Swedish immigration debate, it explores how discourse shifts in response to disruptive events and political crises.

Across four essays, the dissertation examines (1) individual vs. compositional drivers of online discourse shifts after terrorist attacks, (2) the limited impact of terrorism on European public opinion despite high media salience, (3) a convergence in how immigration is discussed in newspapers and online forums during the 2015–16 refugee crisis, and (4) links between everyday interests and political preferences in Sweden's multi-party system. Together, the studies demonstrate how computational methods can reveal mechanisms of cultural change.

The thesis has been supervised by Marc Keuschnigg, Selcan Mutgan, and Måns Magnusson. We thank Ozan Aksoy (University College London) for serving as opponent, and the grading committee: Milena Tsvetkova (LSE), Hernan Mondani (Södertörn University), Moa Bursell (Mälardalen University), and Friedolin Merhout (Copenhagen University).

Contact

Latest news from LiU

A woman in a yellow lab coat and blue gloves.

Dysregulated immune cells cause silent inflammation after heart attack

People with narrowing of the coronary arteries have low-grade, uncontrolled inflammation in the body, even when symptom-free. The findings suggest that some immune cells drive a silent inflammation that may increase the risk of further heart attacks.

En grupp m盲nniskor som sitter vid ett bord framf枚r en folkmassa.

Participants in UN climate meetings want greater focus on implementation

UN climate negotiations are often criticised for moving too slowly. A new study published in Nature Climate Change examines what changes government delegates and other participants at the COP29 UN climate conference would like to see.

Neil Lagali vid utrustning f枚r att unders枚ka 枚gonen.

Eye problems after COVID-19 can now be explained

Mild COVID-19 can cause severe and long-lasting eye problems, according to a study from LiU. The study also explains why it has been difficult for sufferers to get help: the abnormal eye behaviour cannot be detected by standard methods.