Much of our faculty and graduate student research falls under the following three broad topic areas: Data, Media & Society; Diversity & Social Justice; and Strategic Communication. See below for more information about specific faculty expertise and read about our Groups and Centers to learn more about opportunities for collaboration with/in the CIC.
| Jennifer Arns construction of knowledge in public and private settings; organizational theory; communication theory; public library governance and operations; program planning and evaluation; cultural heritage institutions |
| Shannon Bowen ethical decision making within corporations, pharmaceutical firms, governmental entities and the public relations industry, leadership and management decision making, internal communication, and issues management |
| Nina Brook educational technology and writing instruction |
| Kenneth Campbell First Amendment legal history; media coverage of lynchings; representation of African Americans in the media including news, advertising and entertainment programming; collective memory and framing; cultivation analysis |
| Shirley Staples Carter women and leadership; diversity issues in journalism and mass communication higher education; multicultural images in the media |
| Nicole Cooke human information behavior, fake news consumption and resistance, critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship (with an emphasis on infusing them into LIS education and pedagogy). |
| Clayton Copeland equity of access to information for underserved populations; literacy; facilities planning; information behavior |
| Randy Covington digital media and how news organizations must change to compete in a new media world |
| Kelly Davis public health policy, corporate social responsibility, and ethics in public relations practice. |
| Candice Edrington strategic communication, social movements, visual rhetoric, social networks, activism and advocacy, social media, and racial and ethnic groups through a public relations lens. |
| Jabari Evans creative industries and the innovation economy, connected learning, digital media literacy, Black communication and technology, digital inequity, hip-hop culture and civic media |
| Scott Farrand publication; print design; visual communication; informational graphics |
| Mary Anne Fitzpatrick Impact of media and information technology on development, maintenance and deterioration of social and personal relationships and media effects on children and family mediation strategies |
| Valerie Byrd Fort family literacy, community literacy, school libraries, children’s literature, youth services programming |
| Darin Freeburg knowledge Management; innovation; information literacy; intangible capital |
| August Grant new communication technologies; media audience behavior; convergent journalism; radio and television broadcasting; applications of network analysis to the study of media organizations and audiences |
| Lucy Santos Green school librarians as instructional designers and instructional partners, guided inquiry, technology-enabled learning, school-based librarianship in international settings, inclusive school library practices |
| Sabrina Habib the creative process, creative advertising education, and the intersection of creativity and technology in higher education; visual communication of complex issues |
| Kevin Hull sports media; social media; business of television news; how athletes communicate with fans and media |
| Jungmi Jun tobacco/cancer risk communication, social media surveillance of emerging tobacco products (e-cigarettes and heated tobacco), health information disparities, PR practices of tobacco control organizations and healthcare providers, media framing of medical tourism |
| Amir Karami data science; text mining; social media analysis; medical and health informatics; computational social science |
| Dick Kawooya the role of intellectual property in fostering innovation; the role and impact of intellectual property rights in the exchange of innovation between formal institutions and informal businesses or sectors in Africa; the ethical and legal barriers to information access |
| Sei-Hill Kim the intersection of the media and social issues; how issues are presented in the media and the effects on the audiences; public health; science; politics; public relations |
| Vanessa Kitzie information practices; health; lgbtqia communities; social informatics |
| Van Kornegay visual communications; international journalism |
| Elise Lewis cultural institutions; service-learning; information literacy |
| Jacob Long Political communication; social identity; public opinion; stability and change; research methodology |
| Carmen Maye the intersection of law and expression; commercial speech; intellectual property; access; role of visual communications in shaping public policy |
| Denise McGill photojournalism with a focus on migration, faith and multicultural issues |
| Brooke McKeever strategic communication, including public relations, health communication, nonprofit advocacy and fundraising; media content and digital communication about health and social issues, and related effects; campaigns and strategies that mobilize publics and improve health and social conditions |
| Robert McKeever the persuasive effects of mass media content, particularly as applied to pro-social topics such as mental health advocacy |
| Ehsan Mohammadi data analytics, webometrics, social media, scholarly communication, science of science, research evaluation |
| Tara Mortensen visual communication; media sociology; de-professionalization of visual journalism; amateur photography; user-generated visual content |
| Leigh Moscowitz news constructions of social issues; LGBTQ issues in news and popular culture; media, sport and society; reporting on gender and sexuality; media and social movements; gender and crime reporting |
| David Moscowitz cultural identity + politics, diversity and intercultural/intergroup/international media, film and media criticism, gender and the body, public and visual culture |
| Kirstin Pellizzaro social media, journalistic identity and self-presentation online, emotional labor and parasocial interaction, health communication by journalists and their influence on audiences understating of health |
| Jason Porter
animation, motion design, post production, content creation, augmented reality, virtual reality, interactive literacy |
| Marcia Purday integrated strategic communications, including advertising, public relations, telecommunications, manufacturing, nonprofits, K-12 schools, universities, government organizations; social media including Google Ad certifications; internal communications in organizations; crisis communications; media relations; speech writing and publishing |
| Susan Rathbun-Grubb the intersection of education, training, and careers in library and information science; career progression across the life course; job satisfaction; the evaluation of pedagogical strategies in library and information science education |
| Tom Reichert advertising and media content and effects; issues and concerns regarding the uses and effects of advertising on professional practice and culture; political communication |
| Brett Robertson disaster preparedness, environmental communication, natural disasters, organizational
communication, risk communication, social media
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| Eric Robinson media law and policy, particularly involving the internet and social and other new media |
| Laura Smith electronic journalism in the 21st century; multi-platform journalism and convergence; newsroom practices, processes, structure and influences, representation issues & news diversity; FCC media ownership policy and media consolidation; journalism education & pedagogy |
| Jenna Spiering school libraries; adolescent literacies; critical youth studies; children’s and young adult literature; graphic novels |
| Kim Thompson information poverty; information access; social information behavior and practices; women and technology adoption, enjoyment, and use; diversity, equity, and inclusion |
| Feili Tu-Keefner health information services; consumer health literacy; medical informatics; health sciences librarianship; virtual information/reference services; and the use of social media, information technology, and the Internet to deliver high-quality health information and services to health professionals and the general public |
| Taylor Wen role of mood and emotions in persuasion related to brand advertising, health and risk communications, and digital media; psychophysiological measurement of emotions; visual attention and memory; consumer psychology |
| Linwan Wu advertising psychology, communication technology, persuasion, consumer behavior and strategic communication |