A north-east academic is to travel Down Under to take on a new role in Australia.
Professor Sarah Pedersen, from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University (RGU), will be a visiting professor at the news and media research centre at the University of Canberra until July.
She will be working with digital sociologist Professor Deborah Lupton on a project investigating “digital parenthood’.
Professor Pedersen said: “This is based on my own work on parents’ use of the internet, for example blogs and discussion forums such as Mumsnet, and Professor Lupton’s similar work on parents’ engagement with digital technology.
“We plan to build on our individual work in order to investigate the way in which parenthood in the western world has been transformed by the internet.
“While previous generations of parents tended to seek advice and support from family, the post-modern world has meant that new parents have often moved away from their families in search of education or work.
“Thus when they become parents it is less easy for them to access support from more traditional networks. Instead, they are likely to seek such advice and support online.”
Professor Pedersen has also been invited to visit Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne to give a seminar on her research.
