Hi Alexandra, what is your background and job role at AU?

I am from Vienna (Austria) and my education was originally in Romance Studies (French and Italian) from Vienna University, where I also achieved my PhD and "Habilitation". But I have always been interested in the phenomenon of human languages in general, and in addition to my insight into various Romance languages, moving to Denmark (in 1994) opened also the world of Nordic languages to me.

I am Associate Professor at the Dept. of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics (subdept. of Linguistics)

What are your main areas of research?

My main areas of study have always been text linguistics, particularly semantics and pragmatics, but also aspects of language and cognition and language evolution. Lately, I have been studying social media discourse, particularly vaccination discourse, together with Rebekah Brita Baglini, Ana Paulla Braga Mattos, Byurakn Ishkhanyan from my own Institute, and with Marie Louise Tørring from the Dept.  of Anthropology.

Are you involved with any teaching at the moment?

Yes, among others a class on "Danish grammar and linguistic diversity", and a writing workshop for students doing their BA thesis, which is very gratifying, as it makes you witness a plethora of different ideas take form and yield interesting results. I will also teach a class in "Social media and communication" in the new ARTS Supplementary "Social Minds" in the coming spring, which I very much look forward to.

How did you hear about Cognition and Behavior Lab?

Through the Interacting Minds Centre (IMC).

Have you used the Lab? If so, what are the benefits for researchers?

I have not had the opportunity to use the Lab for studies, but I was very grateful of being granted the chance by Dan Mønster to use the facilities and the equipment to have my colleague Fabio Trecca give a practical demonstration of eye-tracking for my students from a class on text processing and the psychology of reading. My colleague Byurakn Ishkhanyan, who is doing experiments in our vaccination project, has used the Lab for such a study. The lab is great because it supports a lot of different technologies, has a very dedicated and service-minded staff and a high ethical standard.

Is there a particular recommendation you would like to pass on to other researchers? Something you wish you had known before you started, or just a useful trick.

Collaboration: better results, more fun!

Could you recommend one academic book to fellow colleagues that you think is of great interest?
I just read Annette Markham's "Life Online" from 1998, and even if it has been written two decades ago, it still contains interesting observations on internet behavior, but also on ethnographic methods. I also very much enjoyed the popular mediation book "Everybody lies. Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are" by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (2017).

Away from your research, what do you enjoy doing?

Hiking and travelling (not now!); spending time with family and friends - and animals; going crazy to good music; binge-watching series!

Finally, which Associated Researcher would you like to see under 'Spotlight' next time?

Daina Crafa