Programs › Atlanta, GA
Studies terrorism, propaganda, and political violence, including women and children in terror groups and QAnon, through ethnographic fieldwork in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Analyzes from a critical/cultural perspective how media construct nonhuman animal and environmental issues, and strategic communication and ethics for animal rights and social justice movements.
Studies psychological aspects of media uses and effects, including media and mental health, parasocial relationships with media figures, presumed media influence, and emotional responses.
Applies persuasion and health behavior change models to terrorist propaganda and radicalization, using experiments and analysis of extremist magazines, music, images, and videos.
Studies language development in children with severe communication disorders and tests augmentative communication interventions, including a caregiver app in South Africa.
Studies communication and conflict through rhetorical analysis of presidential foreign policy rhetoric, argumentation, visual images, and online extremist propaganda.
Studies how communication sustains or challenges age stereotypes, from patronizing speech and ageist language to portrayals of older adults in film and advertising.
Examines how public argument and rhetoric shape citizenship, political judgment, and law, using rhetorical criticism and theory of legal and democratic discourse.
Works on rhetorical theory and criticism, argumentation, and public deliberation, connecting rhetoric with critical theory and political philosophy.
Studies persuasion, social influence, and message effects in health communication and social marketing, including violence prevention, tobacco control, and parental mediation in Vietnam.
Studies political persuasion, resistance, and media activism in illiberal contexts, comparing China and Russia through ethnography and in-depth interviews with journalists and officials.
Uses computational methods such as network analysis and machine learning to study political extremism, health and science misinformation, and framing in online text and visual content.
Conducts community-engaged health communication research in urban Atlanta and Los Angeles, studying storytelling networks, healthcare access, health media content, and entertainment-education.
Studies how Black speakers and Black popular culture, especially Black horror, use visual and discursive rhetoric to challenge the white gaze and reshape understandings of race and power.
Studies journalism, misinformation, and media trust in Kenya and the United States, including journalists' working conditions, AI in news, and audience responses to misinformation.
Studies users' experiences with video games, social media, virtual reality, and AI and these technologies' potential to promote health and well-being, with interests in gender and quantitative and mixed methods.