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.
| Shannon Bowen ethical decision making within corporations; pharmaceutical firms; governmental entities and the public relations industry; leadership and management decision making; internal communication; issues management |
| Nina Brook educational technology; 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 |
| Mónica Colón-Aguirre information behaviors of Spanish speakers; academic library administration; community engagement in libraries; LIS education; DEI in LIS; services for diverse users; social justice in information science |
| Nicole Cooke human information behavior; fake news consumption and resistance; critical cultural information studies; 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; ethics in public relations practice |
| Candice Edrington strategic communication; social movements; visual rhetoric; social networks; activism and advocacy; social media; 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, knowledge work, information behavior, public libraries, information literacy |
| 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 |
| 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 broadcasting; business of television news; how athletes communicate with fans and media |
| Jungmi Jun health communication focusing on control of cancer, tobacco, and other substance use; Anti-Asian biases and communicative coping of racism; mixed-methods |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Ryan Rucker online course design; technology adoption; use of instructional technologies; education pedagogies |
| 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 |
| Wesley Stevens the commodification of Black identity; creative economies and influencers; social media platforms and algorithms; activism and discourse in digital spaces |
| Kim Thompson information poverty; information access; social information behavior and practices; women and technology adoption, enjoyment, and use; diversity, equity, and inclusion in the library and information science workplace |
| 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 |