Line Nybro Petersen

Line Nybro Petersen is an Associate Professor in Media Studies at the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. She currently leads the Horizon Europe-funded project 'Social Media Narratives: Addressing Extremism in Middle-Age' (2023-2026), focusing on conspiracy theories, misinformation, and extremism targeting middle-aged populations. Petersen previously held positions at the University of Southern Denmark and completed postdoctoral research on ageing and media at the University of Copenhagen.

Her research explores:

• Fan culture and digital activism dynamics
• Social media platform studies and extremist content dissemination
• Mediatization of culture and religion
• Participatory culture across age groups
• Political fandom and conspiracy theories

Petersen's publications show strong focus on evolving digital phenomena, with recent works examining extremism propagation mechanisms, transmedia fandom psychology, and methodological approaches to analyzing online radicalization. Her research consistently bridges fan studies with critical analysis of emerging social media threats.

Awards include:

• FMKJ's travel grant (2010)
• Horizon Europe grant (2.8M EUR, 2022)
• Velux Foundation co-recipient (6.5M DKK, 2013-2016)

She actively supervises PhD candidates including Katrine Pedersen (2024-2027) researching ideological grooming, and previously supervised Freja Sørine Adler Berg (2019-2022). As Principal Investigator of the SMIDGE consortium, she coordinates eight international partners studying social media extremism.