A digital visitor to AMLife demonstrates how flexibility and creative work solutions can be useful long after the pandemic.

Miguel Varela is many things – a consultant in international relations and community development, an adjunct professor, a photographer, and as of early 2020, a PhD student in cancer communications (University of Valladolid, Spain). In late 2021, he was also a visiting scholar in the AMLife research group – with a modern twist. Miguel carried out his entire international visit online.

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Audiences & Mediated life (Research Group)

By: Ceridwen Amy Boel Kjeldsen

Originally a sociologist by training, Miguel is interested in understanding people. This led to the development of his interest in social media. Though he doesn’t consider himself an intensive user, Miguel is a social media native. He says, “I’ve lived in it, and I’ve always thought that surely this has an impact on people’s lives and the way that we express ourselves.”

Cancer communications (public health and how we understand cancer) are typically investigated through text – instead, Miguel uses images.

“There’s a dominant discourse on cancer, and it’s based on a very biased way of looking at it – it’s called the discourse of survivorship. [It] paints patients as survivors and fighters, and optimistic - this typical image we see, especially of women with breast cancer. You see them flexing muscles and smiling”, he says. But he also points out that this isn’t necessarily the case. Some images are the total opposite. “So sure, images of positivity and optimism are dominant - but they’re not necessarily the ones people appreciate the most”.

Miguel came to AMLife by way of a recommendation from his PhD director, who referred him to group co-leader David Mathieu for some training and expert insights into how people consume social media. When asked about the highlight of his visit, he talks about the team meetings and how challenging they were, but in the best possible way. “The feedback was so positive. I could feel that they genuinely had in interest in what I was doing”, he says. Beyond the long discussions with David and other members of the AMLife group, Miguel appreciated the different research group culture in Denmark, describing it as more connected, open, coordinated, and interactive than he is used to.

Despite the geographical distance, Miguel felt very connected to the group in Denmark and says that the stay completely changed his PhD.

“I know a virtual format is not the preferred method, but for those of us who can’t afford it either in time or money, to still be able to contribute something is very useful. At the end of the day, it’s just about working with other people. When I tell people I did an international stay but it didn’t travel, they look me like ‘huh…?’ But I spent my time working with people from another country, which is what I would have been doing if I was there.”

Miguel would love to visit the group in person someday, but is extremely positive about his virtual experience and happy that it allowed him to maintain his other work and life commitments at the same time.