Aarhus Universitets segl

New postdoc - Jessica Gabriele Walter

Jessica Gabriele Walter is a Postdoc at DATALAB - Center for Digital Research under Anja Bechmann

Jessica Gabriele Walter 

Jessica (b. 1984) is a Postdoc at DATALAB - Center for Digital Social Research. She is mainly associated with the EU-funded research projects SOMA (Social Observatory for Disinformation and Social Media Analysis) and EDMO (European Digital Media Observatory). The aim of these research projects is to fight online disinformation. In addition, she is associated with various research projects, which relate to the disclosure of disinformation as well as social media behavior.  

Strong professional background  

Jessica is a graduate of Mannheim University, where she studied social sciences - a combination of political science, sociology, empirical methods for social sciences, social psychology and psychology. She has spent two semesters in the United States, where she became acquainted with life in the Midwest and experienced the different education system in the country.  

Her first employer was GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences in Mannheim in 2010, where she was working at her PhD, which deals with "measures of gender role attitudes which are used in social surveys." At the same time, Jessica worked for the German General Social Survey. 

The PhD was completed in 2018, where she chose to continue working for GESIS until she became part of DATALAB at Aarhus University in June 2020. Learning Danish has continuously become a side project for her. Whether her colleagues have teased a bit with "rød grød med fløde” (red porridge with cream), her email does not say anything about. 

DATALAB as a driving force for research at Aarhus University 

Jessica states that she chose Aarhus University because she wanted change and new areas of responsibility. It was especially the opportunity to join DATALAB that interested her. First, she was interested in gaining more knowledge about social media and methods that are used to analyze data from social media. In addition, the projects to which she is now affiliated address important issues of social media. Finally, Jessica believes that Aarhus University can contribute to her personal development. 

Enjoying nature in spare time 

When Jessica is not at work, she always finds something to
do that makes her relax. It can be a good book or be on walking, swimming, and hiking in the summer. Furthermore, she likes to be creative with sewing and knitting as well as being with family and friends. 

In the future, Jessica hopes to be able to further contribute with her research to a better understanding of society and strives to engage in projects that can develop and challenge herself. 

 

We would like to warmly welcome Jessica here at Aarhus University.