New Assistant Professor at the Department

My name is Tanja Marie Hansen. In January, I started as an assistant professor within the STANDBY project (Standing by: Pro-social Bystander Reactions to Online Political Hostility) led by Lasse Lindekilde. The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of why, when, and how people stand up to hate speech on social media platforms (E.g. reporting, counterspeech, liking counterspeech). Though currently only a few people “stand up”, early evidence suggests that their pro-social actions mediate some of the negative consequences for quality and participation in online political debates caused by hate speech. Hopefully, as the project matures, we will learn how to motivate more people to engage in this positive behavior when discussing politics online.

I earned my PhD in political science titled “Terrorism: Why Not Claim It While You’re at It?” from the University of Southern Denmark in May 2021 and have spent the last half year caring for my 8-month-old son. With a background in terrorism research – especially online – and an interest in multi-method research, I bring with me experience in studying online behavior at the fringes of politics, in a research area where data quality is often low. In my research, I do everything from thematic content analysis to machine learning, but when push comes to shove, I have a particular fondness for quantitative methods. In my spare time I play second division volleyball and play Taskmaster: The Board Game with my similarly geeky friends. My office is 1331-313, so please come by for a chat on volleyball, comedy, terrorism or whatever interests you!

I look forward to meeting everyone.