Curriculum vitae

I am a postdoctoral researcher in memory studies, study democratic strength and resilience through a mnemonic and semiotic lens. I am currently based at the University of Tartu's Department of Semiotics, where my work is funded by a grant from the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation through the Finnish Foundations' Postdoc Pool. I remain affiliated with the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism, and Polarisation as a visiting researcher. 

I completed my PhD in political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, in June 2025. My dissertation research focused on the relationship between populism and liberal democracy using case studies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I also have a background in history and Central and East European area studies, and I am particularly interested in the political use of history, memory, and contested historical spaces, and how all of this shows up on social media. My further research include visual political communication, pseudohistory, conspiracy theories and other 'alternative epistemologies', and tribalism.

I previously worked as a journalist, focusing mainly on American politics. I also worked in the Department of Education at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague from 2014-2022, where I co-created the educational website Socialism Realised: Life in Communist Czechoslovakia, 1948-89. Alongside my research, I have also taught/designed/guest lectured in courses on populism, both in CEE and as a general political phenomenon; popular science communication for academics; politicized media in CEE; ideology and discourse analysis; and conspiracy theories in the media. 

Along with three fellow PhD students, I also co-founded the Banana Populism blog, which explores the banalities of populism through a humorous lens. We recently published our first article on banana populism in Social Media + Society.

Europaeum Scholars Programme, 2020-21 

Kone Foundation grant recipient, Now-Time, Us-Space project: May 2020 - August 2021

EDUFI Fellowship: August 2019 - April 2020

Lecturer, Department of Education, Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes: December 2014 - August 2022

News & Politics Writer, Bustle Digital Media: September 2016 - June 2019

Erasmus Mundus Scholarship Recipient for the International Masters in Russian, Central, and East European Studies at University of Glasgow and Corvinus University of Budapest, 2012 - 2014

Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, Liberec, Czech Republic, September 2011 - June 2012