22 May 2025

On May 19, 2025, Dr. Anastasia Menshikova successfully defended her dissertation, “Cultural Change: Studying Interdependencies in Public Discourse with Computational Text Analysis.” 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. Anastasia Menshikova with her opponent Prof. Ozan Aksoy of the University College London.

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

En kvinna sitter vid ett skrivbord och läser en bok.

American poets society

Literary scholar Elin Käck is probably the only person who has done her work experience programme with a poet. She enjoys spending her summers in various archives and has recently presented her research on American poets’ travels in Europe.

En kvinna sitter i snön med en handväska.

Political polarisation blocks more sustainable transport

Trains and planes have become part of our polarised social climate one is often set against the the other. This political gridlock hinders progress towards a more sustainable transport system. This is the conclusion of a doctoral thesis at LiU.

En man står framför en byggnad.

Digital services can increase exclusion

When public agencies introduce digital services, one goal is to improve accessibility for citizens. But for residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, this may create new barriers to integration. This is shown in a doctoral thesis from LiU.