I was awarded my doctoral degree in February 2018 at the University of Vienna and I am currently on maternity leave. Prior to my maternity leave, I was holding a post-doctoral research position at the Advertising and Media Effects Research Group (Chair: Prof. Dr. Jörg Matthes) of the Department of Communication at University of Vienna. Starting from January 2020 I will work as a FWO postdoctoral research fellow at the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research (Chair: Kathleen Beullens, PhD) at KU Leuven.

In my dissertation I studied the content and effects of sexualizing media. My research topics of interest are strongly related to gender and sexuality, particularly in the context of social media use and smartphone use. In my academic work, I focus on investigating different aspects within the fields of media psychology (e.g., stereotypes, subjective wellbeing) and body image research (e.g., self-objectification) by applying a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach.

My published in leading SSCI-ranked journals in the fields of communication research, women’s studies, and psychology (e.g., Communication Research; Psychology of Women Quarterly; Media Psychology; Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking) and my work has been awarded with several competitive prizes (e.g., ICA Kyoon Hur Dissertation Award, Austrian Award of Excellence, Sowi-Doc.Award). 

I’m currently involved in research projects dealing with the consequences of smartphone use in children’s and adolescents’ everyday lives. Other research projects I am involved in aim to investigate the effects of ideal media messages on social media on subjective wellbeing and behavior-related outcomes.