Mgr. Marie Heřmanová, Ph.D.

Marie Heřmanová is a social anthropologist with a focus on digital anthropology and anthropology of social media. She graduated in social and cultural anthropology at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University. Since 2019 she is a researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, where she implemented a postdoctoral research project "(Re)production of gender stereotypes within the phenomenon of influencers in the Czech virtual space" (2020 – 2022). Since 2022, she is a junior researcher within the SYRI project (research group Communication, Risk and Uncertainty). In 2021 she was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, Loughborough University, UK. In 2024, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for a residency at the Center for Information Technologies and Public Life, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, USA. She has a long-standing interest in social media content creators, their role in political communication, authenticity and authority in online environments, and gender stereotypes in internet culture. In 2025, she is conducting a research project "Content Creators on TikTok and the War in Ukraine: Authenticity and Authority in Online Communication" at University College London, UK as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow.

Monographs

Chapters in monographs

• Heřmanová M. (2023). ‘I’m Always Telling You My Honest Opinion’: Influencers and Gendered Authenticity Strategies on Instagram. Cultures of Authenticity (pp. 231-245).

Articles

• Kuřík B., Heřmanová M., & Charvát J. (2024). Living hated: Everyday experiences of hate speech across online and offline contexts. Communications, 49(3), 378-399. UT-WOS link
• Hroch M., Carpentier N., Heřmanová M., Malečková D., Janoščík V., & Tremčinský M. (2024). Roundtable discussion: Perspectives on the Futures of Platforms and Democracy. Central European Journal of Communication, 17(1), 125-140.

Contributions in the conference proceedings

Anthropology of Social Media, Digitalized Societies 

2025 – 2027: Content Creators on TikTok and the War in Ukraine: Authenticity and Authority in Online Communication, HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships, University College London

2025 – 2028 Gender aspects of disinformation dissemination and reception from the perspective of the theory of social media performativity and identity theory, Czech Science Foundation grant, co-investigator

2022 – 2025 Systemic Risk Institute, no LX22NPO5101, funded by European Union -  Next Generation EU (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, NPO: EXCELES), junior researcher, member of research group 1 (Crisis, risk, and communication) and 9 (Social Impact of the Pandemic)

2020 – 2022  Gender stereotyping and the notion of authenticity among female influencers on Instagram, Support of perspective human resources programme, Czech Academy of Sciences, sole investigator/ postdoctoral researcher¨

2019 - 2021  Cultural Capital: Legitimation Mechanisms and the Reproduction of Cultural Hierarchies (Czech Science Foundation grant), co-investigator

anthropology of social media, influencer cultures, political communication, authenticity and authority in online communication, gender inequalities, digital ethnography