About me
Kristina Stenström has a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University.
She is currently active as a qualitative researcher in the project “Life quality among older adults in contemporary Sweden: Financial conflicts, relationship quality and equality” headed by Ann-Zofie Duvander and Linda Kridahl. She is also a part time lecturer in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Gävle.
During 2018-2020, Kristina studied how existential process relating to involuntary childlessness materializes in online settings in the postdoctoral project “Spaces of loss and becoming: Involuntary childlessness online” at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University. She has also researched the relationship between embodiment and media through dimensions of production, spectatorship and participatory culture.
Publications
A selection from Stockholm University publication database-
Article Involuntary childlessness online2020. Kristina Stenström. New Media and Society
Platformed sociality has become an elemental part of existential processes and struggles. Previous research has shown that digital contexts offer lifelines of support and a sense of belonging based on shared vulnerabilities. By combining phenomenological and ethnographic approaches, this article explores involuntary childlessness (IC) online in so-called trying-to-conceive (TTC) contexts on Instagram and in blogs. The analysis is driven by the following questions: What are the particularities of digital lifeline communication in the context of IC? Can lifeline communication shape what is coming into being in the context of wished-for children and/or motherhood? Can (digital) life be challenged, extended, or created in this context? Drawing on interviews and online posts from 260 Instagram accounts and three blogs, I argue that digital lifeline communication in TTC environments facilitates digital existence and “digital life” as the notions of motherhood and longed-for and lost children attain a form of digital materiality through posts and discussions.