Reviews from students

The PhD course on media engagement was a rich learning experience, successfully mixing lectures, student presentation and feedback sessions that put the students’ research at the center. It helped open up the concept of engagement and show its relevance to the range of topics that the diverse cohort of international PhD students were working on. Outside the great learning outcomes, the course also helped facilitate a great international network among the PhD cohort through a rich social programme in beautiful Gränna.

I recommend the course for anyone looking to gain more in-depth insights on the topic of media engagement as well as get competent sparring on their current research by world-leading scholars and PhD peers.

Jakob Freudendal

PhD student Aarhus University, Denmark.

Making the time to think 'slowly' becomes a privilege when doctoral candidates, like myself, have to juggle personal and professional responsibilities. It can, even then, be isolating and wracked with self doubt. The PhD summer course on Media Engagement not only gave me the time to think through the conceptual arguments and empirical analysis of my dissertation research, but it has provided camaraderie and self confidence at a time when many doctoral candidates are likely questioning themselves. It's like that one song: we get by with a little help from our friends, some of whom just happen to be leading thinkers in media and political engagement, cultural citizenship, and transmedia storytelling.

There are days with lectures, and there are days in which Annette Hill switches things up. We would prepare dinner together in her kitchen or walk-and-talk along the coast of Vättern lake, during which we would have these emergent conversation based on what we had just learned from Hill and other visiting professors. We would discuss how conceptual frameworks for media engagement fit with other theoretical traditions and consider the range of methodological approaches to such a fluid, multifaceted phenomenon. Doctoral students/candidates would also exchange personal stories, commiserate over our anxieties and struggles, share in each other's excitement and ambitions. Months later, we still get together on video calls across time zones.

If the candy shops on every other corner of the quaint lakeside town of Gränna hasn't already convinced you, take my word for it and join this PhD course on Media Engagement."

Jian Chung Lee

PhD student University of Calgary, Canada

Learning about a theoretical framework - from the people who actually designed it - is of course very rewarding. Annette Hill ran the course together with invited researchers and as a PhD student you had the opportunity to present your project and get feedback on it both from other PhD participants and experienced researchers. The examination task is well adapted to your personal project, right where you are in the process.

The course participants were PhD students from literally all over the world - each with their own particular perspective on what they would use Media engagement for. Thanks to the structure of the course, we had the opportunity to experience togetherness both to each other, to nature and to interesting places around Gränna. This course was something more than a course.

Sofia Odin Cederwall

PhD student Karlstad University, Sweden

I attended the Media Engagement summer course at Jönköping University’s Gränna campus in August 2024. This was my first experience with an academic summer course and the bar has been set very highly. There were two things I most appreciated about this course. First, the deliberate slow approach to academia which encouraged us to spend time thinking and talking about various themes, issues, and theories related to our various projects. This was a marked counterpoint to the time stress and deadline pressure that seems to characterise so much of academia today. Second, was the cohort itself. It was wonderful to mix with such a diverse group of PhD candidates from different parts of the world and working on such a range of projects. As we were all theoretically and conceptually situated in different scholarly areas, we were brought together by our interest in media engagement and our different perspectives enriched our conversations.

I benefitted greatly from such time and conversations. I would encourage future PhD candidates interested in media engagement to apply for this course so that they can also benefit from the time and care that Annette has put into creating a such a warm and vibrant academic space, all packaged in a most beautiful town and natural environment.

Kai-Ti Kao

PhD Student Curtin University, Australia

The Gränna Media Engagement course was a very special week for me. It helped me to expand my methodological horizons and look at my work in a fresh way. The time spent in the beautiful location at Gränna was a retreat from regular life that helped me to relax while also to re-engage with my own work at a moment when I felt utterly stressed and stuck. This made an enormous difference in my motivation and focus for the upcoming semester. I learned most from listening to senior researchers talk about their own experiences – and struggles – with research in their own careers.

Most valuable of all: I walked away from the course with a new network of fellow PhD students also interested in media engagement but from a wide range of different methodological and disciplinary perspectives. Many of us are still in touch, exchanging ideas and supporting each other whenever possible as we progress in our work. I would recommend the course to any PhD student interested in media engagement and longing for a breath of fresh air. Annette’s kindness and attentive support throughout the event and Gränna’s quiet beauty made it a week of rest, thought, writing, and connection that I will always remember.

Sara Messelaar Hammerschmidt

PhD Student Amsterdam University, The Netherlands

The Media Engagement Summer School provided an informal yet academically enriching space for PhD students to connect with senior scholars in both professional and informal settings. We had engaging discussions on various topics, but it wasn’t all about work—we also went on forest walks and visited islands, enjoying the beautiful Swedish scenery.

What I loved most was the small and diverse group of around 15 PhD students. It was amazing to share our struggles and experiences as PhD students while learning about how things work at different universities and in different countries. I also made some great friends during the program, and we even met up again at a conference afterward. Overall, it was such a rewarding experience.

Lingyu Li

PhD Student, Amsterdam University, The Netherlands

If you’re a student of media and communications or journalism, I highly recommend applying for the Summer School in Media Engagement at Jönköping University—even if your doctoral thesis doesn’t currently have an engagement angle. By the end of the course, you might find yourself reconsidering whether adding a chapter on engagement could enrich your work, or, like me, perhaps you’ll feel inspired to write a journal article based on what you learned.

At Jönköping University’s Summer School, it’s not just about what is taught but how it’s taught. Led by Prof. Annette Hill, who welcomes you each morning with a warm smile, the course offers a rich, personal, and immersive experience. The week is filled with engaging lectures, informal conversations, walking discussions, and even excursions to nearby islands. The campus itself is stunning, with beautiful greenery and fruit trees all around.

And if all of this isn’t convincing enough, consider this: Annette personally reads and provides feedback on the chapter or article you write as part of the course. You’ll make incredible friends and, as I like to say, Annette’s a vibe—you’ll definitely want to be around her!

Sumithra Prasanna

PhD student, Catholic University of Lisbon, Portugal

Media Engagement is a useful analytical concept for my PhD project on Russian anti-war activism, which allows one to grasp the bonding process between activists and publics, since it emphasises a communicative dynamic between these two pools. Engagement always, as Dahlgren and Hill note, in some way touch upon ‘the political’, involves affect and is intertwined with the cultural sphere. They bring up five parameters which highlight the relational and dynamic character of engagement. Building on this in my study I explore how activists organise modalities of public attention by using media technologies, and how this leads towards trajectories of public engagement. Simply put, the concept of engagement broken into five interrelated parameters, allows me to zoom in on the process of how anti-war activist tactics are seeping into the public sphere in a Russian authoritarian context. Engagement in this regard, becomes a key category that shows the interrelation between connective and collective actions of actors.

The course had a clear focus, introducing media engagement as a theoretical concept related to the cultural studies approach, and intersecting with critical and materialistic perspectives in media studies. At the same time, it was organized in a flexible manner, and as a participant I could work through specific parts of theory applicable my Phd project. At the same time lectures were accompanied by group discussions, which helped to broaden understanding of the concept and its implications. I would strongly recommend the course to Phd students studying of civic cultures across political and cultural perspectives. Thank you to Professor Annette Hill and all those involved in organising this great experience of academic community in Gränna campus, at Jönköping University!

Svetlana Chuikina

Phd Student Karlstad University, Sweden

This was my first time attending a PhD summer school, and it was full of surprises and valuable takeaways. It offered a fantastic opportunity to engage directly with leading scholars in media and cultural studies, and it helped early-career researchers connect with a supportive community and like-minded peers, fostering meaningful discussions and networking. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in media engagement. Professor Annette, the program leader, and the entire organizing team were incredibly welcoming – it’s an experience not to be missed!

Wei Zhao

PhD student Amsterdam University, the Netherlands

I came across the PhD summer course on Media Engagement through an email sent by the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network. Initially ignoring the email, I re-read it and discovered that it might be a missing link in my PhD. After further research, I realized the importance of media engagement to my own work, especially with regards to the concept of cultural citizenship. I discovered this was merely a gateway to something much more interesting and engaging, and a greater perspective on media engagement than solely a quantitative measurement, and that our engagement with media also has an emotional impact. Admittedly, it is a course that I feel sincerely fortunate that I applied for and attended.

I would recommend this course to any PhD media students who may be remotely interested in the subject matter, and it would be beneficial to any who may feel that their research has even the slightest connection. Annette managed to create a course that was interesting, engaging, and with a fantastic ambience. A great week was spent with many other talented PhD students and leading researchers, great friends made, many interesting conversations had, in the most wonderful of locations. An experience I will always cherish and may hopefully repeat. Many thanks to all who organized the course, and to everyone else who was involved, attended, and engaged.

Brian Martin

PhD Student Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland

Ever since I started my PhD, the concept of media engagement have always been a key component of my research, albeit slightly diffuse in nature. Now in the final phases of my doctorate research, it was through this course that I managed to gain the confidence to place the concept solidly in my thesis. Throughout this course, we were given insightful lectures from leading scholars in the field of media and communication studies whom all had unique and progressive perspectives in tackling the idea of engagement. Shying away from the market-oriented approach where individuals are reduced to just data, this course encourages us to look beyond numbers and find meaning in the human aspects both individually and in a societal context.

Furthermore, the course was structured in a way that was very special, both inspiring and calming at the same time, but also welcoming and warm. We were given ample time to work on our individual projects but also ample opportunities to have galvanizing conversations with other students in the course, with Annette as the course leader, but also with the esteemed invited scholars.

I highly appreciated the global reach of the course as well, as there were students not just from European universities, but also from Canada and Australia for example. It goes without saying that friendships were also formed and it has further expanded my network around the world. Plus, Gränna is such a beautiful town that it adds to the value of the overall experience. With that said, I wholeheartedly would recommend this course to any PhD students that are even at the slightest, interested in the notion of engagement in a broader sense.

Hario Priambodho

PhD student, Lund University, Sweden

What a lovely experience for my first PhD summer course! The week in Gränna had everything: deep discussions about our research, silly nerd jokes, wonderfully welcoming hosts, and a surprisingly relaxing environment. Even though by the end of the day my brain was happily shutting down after the enriching talks, presentations, discussions, and feedback, I could refresh myself instantly in the beautiful lake, making this trip both business and pleasure. I recommend this course to people whose PhD has anything to do with media engagement and participation, to early career researchers looking for intellectual stimulation in a safe and soothing atmosphere, and to those looking for a community of lovely like-minded people. That's what I left with and these gifts are still with me. It's worth it even just to meet Annette who will charm you personally and inspire you academically!

Kristiina Raud

PhD student, Tallin University