News from the Department of Communication at Cornell University
Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Fall 2019/Spring 2020 2 Chair’s Letter 3 Building for Our Future 4 Staff & Advisory Board News
5 Undergrad News 8 Grad News 12 Lab News 13 Department Initiatives 14 Faculty News
Editor: Kelli Carr
Photography: Kevin Lam
Message from the Chair
GREETINGS TO ALL. I hardly know how to begin. We throw around words like “unprecedented” and “uncertain,” which certainly describe much of this past year, but they don’t tell the whole story. In this “new normal,” faculty challenged themselves to find new and ingenious ways to connect with students both inside and outside formal classes. Students, in turn, displayed remarkable resiliency in adapting to these new modes of learning. Our staff rapidly adapted to this “new world” too by connecting with students, working with university administration, and assisting faculty—from their living rooms and kitchens. And throughout this “uncertainty,” we maintained our cutting-edge research; we produced award-winning scholarship; we won competitive grants and awards; and we contributed to the university through important leadership roles. In this way, we’ve had another terrific year. One might say “unparalleled.” Although we were not able to hold a commencement ceremony this year, we nonetheless proudly graduated 96 undergraduate students. This number includes three interdisciplinary studies students—communication remains a popular major to integrate into interdisciplinary studies. Despite the uncertainty of the job market, many have gone on to exciting careers at firms such as Amazon, American Express, Capital One, Google, IBM, PepsiCo, and the U.S. Senate, just to name a few. They’re working in mergers and acquisitions, marketing, accounts management, brand management, and government communications. Others have gone on to graduate and professional studies. At institutions such as University College London, New York University, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell, they’re pursuing law, management, information science, film and video studies, and of course communication. 2 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Speaking of grad students—what a year for them! Seven students delivered 18 papers at conferences of leading organizations such as the National Communication Association, International Communication Association, and Society for Risk Analysis. Seven students published their research, each in top-ranked journals of our field including New Media & Society, Communication Studies, and the Journal of Environmental Communication. Two students received CALS Teaching Assistant awards; one student received the Provost Diversity Fellowship; and still another received a Graduate Scholarship Award. Finally, grad students received more than $100,000 in grant funding. We’re also pleased to announce that we have two new Doctors (of Philosophy) in the house. Our faculty are also thriving. They won top-paper, mentoring, research, service, and community engagement awards. They received millions in research grants from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Nature Conservancy, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They published in flagship communication journals and leading journals of auxiliary fields. They delivered lectures and papers at institutions and leading conferences in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. They developed community outreach and peer-mentoring programs, as well as new courses. And they accepted influential, high-level leadership positions at Cornell. Finally, our Advisory Board is growing and changing. Last year, we developed three committees to better serve the department: Career Training, Development, and Membership. The Career Training committee is working to mentor students and prepare them for the workforce they soon will be joining. The Development committee aims to engage alumni and other friends in charitable giving to the department. The Membership committee is tasked with growing and shaping the membership composition of the Advisory Board. As I write this letter, I’m astounded by how much we accomplished this year. Our achievements would have been remarkable in any given year—and this was not any given year. But more than this, I’m incredibly proud of the heroic efforts of our COMMunity and deeply grateful for the support of all our friends.
Building for Our Future
Do you want to name a space? We may have one with your name on it! Contact Poppy McLeod at plm29@cornell.edu.
The Hub
$1,000,000
Flex/Shared Research Space
$350,000
Intercultural Comm Lab
$325,000
Northwest Team Space
$125,000
Media Effects Lab
$200,000
Northeast Team Space
$125,000
Central Flex Space
$250,000
Research Interactive Display
$125,000
Graduate Stations (2–8 Students each)
$75–125,000
Faculty Offices (22)
$75,000
Research Team Space
$100,000
Research Carrels (single or group)
$50–75,000
Did you know? We just celebrated the 5th anniversary of our state-of-the art offices in Mann Library. It seems like we just got here! Every day, as we work from home, we’re reminded of what a terrific work space we have. We look forward to the day we can again gather around the family table. Fall 2019/Spring 2020 3
Staff News In February 2020, Rebecca Tucker joined the Department of Communication as Business Administrator. Rebecca came to us from the Cornell Botanic Gardens, where she served as Administrative Manager since 2016. She brings more than 20 years of business and finance experience to the University, having held a variety of finance and management positions in the for-profit sector before joining Cornell. She holds a bachelor degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and a minor in economics. She enjoys running, hiking, snowshoeing, and all things outdoors. Katy Miller, Social Media and Virtual Embodiments Labs manager, left for graduate studies at MidAmerica Nazarene University to pursue a Master of Arts in Counseling.
Katy!
After 21 years as department Business Administrator, Ann Bianchi retired. She had worked at Cornell for 43 years when she left!
Advisory Board News Following his retirement from Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime was appointed inaugural Leader in Residence at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.
Peggy Koenig was honored with an Outstanding Alumni Award. She is a member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, where she chairs the Research and Innovation Committee. Peggy is pictured in red.
Melissa Wasserman received the Department of Communication’s Outstanding Service Award. The award is glass, so it’s not very prominent—but she’s holding it! 4 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Undergraduate Student News Congratulations to Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Graduates! IDS: Interdisciplinary Studies Ethan Andersen Laura Bagwell Katalinich Lillian Barber Celia Berman Jakub Bobrowicz IDS Rachel Brozina Vanzel Burnett IDS Victoria Castellano-Wood Olivia Chatain Concetta Angelina Ciarlo Lydia Clemente Matthew Collins Sophia Cook Brianna Cox Anna Cummings Amy Curlew Elisa'Beth Davis-Frost Olivia Daytz Julia Dixon Demarest Donnan Keymani Dunkley Carley Eschliman Andrew Faber Karen Felix Mitchell Fessenden John Fitzgerald Emily Flyer Brenna Garcia Synclair Gonzalez Kelsey Gordon Cameryn Gottlieb Claire Gravante Bennett Gross Daniel Haber Jayla Hall
Jamie Har Yizhuang He Joseph Hines Cole Hunter Khala Hurd Ioannis Kaldis Alexis Kemp Nia Khaan Hye Won Kim Jonathan Klobus Kevin Lam Jessica Lee Clarissa Lee-Ngai Sijia Liu Deanika Lontoc-Preuss Tinghe Lu Hannah Luchs Taylor Luck Xiaoyuan Ma Maxwell Mandell Daniel Maron Gabrielle Maurice Zachary Mays Ryan McDonald Liam Milligan Trevor Mills Cecelia Montanaro Christopher Morales Samantha Muscarella Alice Nam Colin Noonan Nickolas Null Justin Park IDS Lara Patz William Pickett
Steven Pierce Taylor Reed Julian Robison John Roscoe John Rutkauskas Ana Schonander Philip Sha Victoria Shin Sophie Slutsky Daniel Soyfer Serena Stern Rachael Sternlicht Collin Stockton Kelly Stone Sidney Switzer Jeffrey Teat Alana Udwin Kiana Vidal Kynzie Watahomigie Samara Watkins Ashley Win Danielle Wolleman Cathy Xie Keun Hee Youk Emily Yu Yangqi Zhang
Fall 2019/Spring 2020 5
Undergraduate News Awards, Competitions, Honors & Scholarships
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With the generous support of our alumni, the Summer Grant Program provided monetary assistance to students with unpaid summer internships. Students can apply the funds to travel or housing, allowing them to pursue opportunities that would otherwise be cost prohibitive. Alexandra Ellis, PR and Social Media Support, Bond Moroch, New Orleans Hannah Garcie, Operations, Marketing, and Analytics, Goalden Hour, Inc. Narklie Gervil, Sales and Marketing, Modern Luxury Daniela Lee, Publishing and Social Media PR, Native American Advocacy Foundation Ariel Roldan, Marketing, Optonline Yifei Wang, Research, Department of Communication, Cornell University
The Woodford Persuasive Speaking Contest is open to all Cornell students. Contestants, nominated by their Oral Communication class peers, compete in an auditorium with hundreds of spectators. In total, participants won $2,600. • 1st place, Tyler Sturdivant argued for maintaining • • • •
affirmative action for college admission decisions. 2nd place, Emmy Chen spoke for restorative justice instead of prison. 3rd place, Grace Paletta argued for granting voting rights to the incarcerated. Honorable Mention, William Kandalaft argued for federal approval of the Death with Dignity Act. Honorable Mention, Caleb Trieu spoke in favor of replacing restaurant tipping with a hospitality charge. Left to right: Caleb Trieu, Emmy Chen, Grace Paletta, Tyler Sturdivant, and William Kandalaft.
Congratulations to the following students wrote senior honors theses.
Bennet Gross, "JUUL is cool: Is Peer Pressure to Use Tobacco Products Sneaking Back?" Sophie Slutsky, "Generation Facetune: Gender and Body Aesthetics in Perceptions of Instagram Photo-Editing." Kelly Stone, “Teenagers' Expectations and Self-Efficacy of Social Media in Simulation: A Formative Evaluation of Social Media TestDrive." Keun Youk, "What Kind of Student Leads? A Social Network Perspective on Leader Emergence in Student Group Projects." 6 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Undergraduate News The Department of Communication awarded ten students more than $16,000 in scholarships. We received many applications, all exceptional. We want to give special thanks to our donors for helping us recognize these deserving students. Edward L. Bernays Primus Inter Pares Award: Hannah Luchs & Alana Udwin Bernays awards are given to students who demonstrate outstanding achievement and participation in the area of Public Relations and complete a superior essay. The award commemorates the “Father of Public Relations,” Edward Bernays ‘12. Kenneth J. Bissett Award: Kelly Stone Bissett awards are given to students with the best portfolio of design and written material. The award commemorates Kenneth Bissett, Cornell class of ‘90 and a participant in the Syracuse-in-London program for study abroad, who was aboard Pan Am Flight 103 when it was destroyed by terrorists. Chester Freeman Award: Mia Seun Eun Lee Freeman awards, established in the name of a late Communication Professor Emeritus, recognize juniors who best exhibit the interdisciplinary character of the Communication Department. Anson H. Rowe Award: Isabella Armas-Leon, Nikita Forrester & Bennett Gross Rowe awards are given to seniors and juniors majoring in Communication, with preference given to students specializing in interpersonal communication, public speaking, radio, or television. Alfred N. Schwartz Award: Yifei Wang Schwartz awards promote excellence in agricultural journalism and are open to CALS students. Sheila Turner Seed Award: Emily Dawson & Amelia Zohore Seed awards are given to junior women communication majors. Sheila Turner Seed was a young writer and photo-journalist who died suddenly.
COMM-Unity Project (CUP) WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE our new peer mentoring program! The COMM-Unity Project pairs mentors with the department’s first-year Black, Latinx, Native American, and first-generation university students. Student mentors are sophomore-level and above, who take a leadership class to prepare them for the role, and in recognition of their important work and leadership, they receive special cords for graduation. This year we have four mentors, themselves underrepresented minorities and first-generation students. At the beginning of the process, Professor Lee Humphreys and Undergraduate Program Coordinator Heather Crespin worked with faculty to identify and nominate potential mentors. They also reached out to students who had assisted with focus groups in the early stages of planning. For future iterations, we will utilize an application system. In preparation for the fall 2020 inauguration of the program, Lee and Heather worked last fall and spring to develop the program. But it was truly a collaborative effort with the college and the department! They solicited input from Assistant Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., who is also consulting on CALS peer mentorship programs, and they worked closely with the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. They also engaged current comm majors—and it was they who came up with the name of the program! The original idea for this program came out of meetings with the CALS Peer Mentorship Program Task Force, of which Heather is a member. Fall 2019/Spring 2020 7
Graduate Student News Awards & Grants
The CALS Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award recognizes graduate teaching assistants who have provided invaluable support to students and faculty. Oliver Ngai Keung Chan, Motasem Kalaji The Glass Family Fellowship, established in honor of Dr. Royal Colle, an esteemed emeritus professor in the Department of Communication, recognizes a graduate student who exemplifies leadership and service to the department, graduate field, and Cornell University. Chelsea Butkowski, Megan Sawey The Anson E. Rowe Award recognizes graduate students (one early career, one late career) who have shown excellence in research and teaching, and have contributed to the communication field. Promising: Bharathy Premachandra Advanced: Oliver Ngai Keung Chan, Shruti Sannon The Hsien and Daisy Yen Wu Scholarship recognizes graduate students for their academic ability, performance, character, and financial need. Oliver Ngai Keung Chan
Milestones 2nd-Year Projects • Cat Lambert, “Earthquake Country: A Qualitative Analysis of Risk Communication
via Facebook” • Swati Pandita, “Expectations of the Self in Virtual Reality: A Qualitative Analysis of Individuals’ Experiences When Creating Virtual Avatars” • Melissa Seipel, “Parasocial Trust and Belief in Scientific TV Dramas” Jobs! • 2019 Ph.D. Nanyi Bi recently took a postdoctoral research fellowship at IoX Center,
National Taiwan University. • 2020 Ph.D. Alex Hinck is a new tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at San Francisco State University. • 2020 Ph.D. Jason Holley recently took a position as Director of Communications at J. A. Green & Company. • 2019 Ph.D. Kaylee Kruzan just began a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Techniques, where she will research intersections of mental health and human-computer interaction. 8 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Graduate News Milestones, continued A Exams
Congratulations to the students who passed their A Exams: Julie Cannon, Wen Duan, Motasem Kalaji, Catherine Lambert, and Melissa Seipel. The A exam consists of a written examination and an open oral examination by the Special Committee, with specific details arranged in advance between the students and committee. Upon passing the A exam students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.
Ph.D. in progress LOADING... B Exams Is there a doctor (of philosophy) in the house? Yes! In fact, we have two—Alexandra Hinck and Jason Holley, who recently passed their B Exams, the final hurdle for Ph.D. candidates. Also known as the dissertation defense, the B Exam is an oral examination based on the dissertation. During the examination, students present their dissertation work in a public forum, with opportunities for questions by the special committee and other graduate faculty.
DON’T MAKE ME USE MY
Ph.D. VOICE
Fall 2019/Spring 2020 9
Graduate News News Grad students were on fire this year! Chelsea Butkowski • Chelsea won a $15,000, P.E.O. Scholar Award and a $5,000, Einaudi-Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Program. Both grants support her dissertation project on how women represent themselves on social media during elections, specifically focusing on the 2020 U.S. election: “Displays of Democracy: Representing Voting in Digital Spaces.” • She presented four conference presentations: “Express Your Selfie!: Tensions of Misrepresentation on Instagram,” National Communication Association; “Read Your Feed: Studying Social Media News In-situ with Feed Analysis Interviews,” Michigan Symposium on Media and Politics, Online and Engaged: Political News in a Digital Media Environment; “Computing Colorism: The Modality of Online Retail Photography,” International Communication Association; and “Singular Solidarity? “I Voted” Selfies as Connective Visions of the 2016 U.S. Election,” International Communication Association. • Chelsea co-published “Quantifying the Feminine Self(ie): Gender Display and Social Media Feedback in Young Women's Instagram Selfies,” New Media & Society. Oliver Ngai Keung Chan • Oliver received three awards: CALS Outstanding T.A., Anson E. Rowe, and Hsien and Daisy Yen Wu. Alexandra Hinck • Alex received the Cornell University’s Provost Diversity Fellowship for Advanced Doctoral Students. • She delivered three conference papers: “Express Your Selfie!: Tensions of Misrepresentation on Instagram,” National Communication Association; “Re-Imagining Support Needs for Successful Re-Entry into our Communities,” National Communication Association; and “A Community of Survivors: Managing Stigma of Courtesy Incarceration Online,” National Communication Association. • She is Co-Principal Investigator on a $50,000 Well-Being and Safety Research, Facebook Research Grant, entitled "Tensions between Privacy and Support on Instagram and Prison Talk Online.“ The grant seeks to explore relational stigma management through online communication by focusing on one specific group: significant others of incarcerated persons. • Alex co-published two journal articles: “Advancing a Dual-Process Model to Explain Interpersonal versus Intergroup Communication in Social Media, Communication Theory, and “Connecting and Coping with Stigmatized Others: Examining Social Support Messages in Prison Talk Online,” Communication Studies. Motasem Kalaji • Mo received a CALS Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. • He delivered two conference presentations. The first, “‘If He Can Do It, Then I Can Too’: Visual Information in Weight Loss Body Transformation Images,” International Communication Association, is based on his 2nd-year project. The second is “Effects of Varying Size and Use of Pictorial Imagery in Health Warning Labels on Smoking-Related Outcomes Among Youth,” International Communication Association. • Mo also passed his A Exam, qualifying him to move on to dissertation work. Catherine Lambert • Cat won the Marcelo Lippmann Graduate Scholarship Award from the Geothermal Resource Council. She also won an International Travel Grant from the Einaudi Center for International Studies. These awards are in support of her dissertation research on public attitudes towards geothermal energy projects. 10 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Graduate News Catherine Lambert, continued • She delivered two conference papers: “Earthquake Country: A Qualitative Analysis of Risk Communication via Facebook,” National Communication Association, and “Public Attitudes about Energy Transitions and Enhanced Geothermal Heating: The Influence of Place Meaning, Identity, and Attachment,” Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. • She published “Earthquake Country: A Qualitative Analysis of Risk Communication via Facebook” in the Journal of Environmental Communication. • She conducted substantial research with Katherine McComas on the Environmental Defense Fund grant “Assessing the Influence of Coastal Risk Perceptions on Responses to Climate Change.” • Cat also passed her A Exam, qualifying her to move on to dissertation work. Swati Pandita • Swati delivered three conferences papers: “Affective Embodiment: The Effect of Avatar Appearance and Gesture Representation on Emotions in VR,” IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces; “Affective Embodiment: Embodying Emotions through Postural Representation in VR,” IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces; and “Hands-On Workshop in Immersive Technology for Beginners,” Immersive Media in Medicine Symposium. She also participated in the panel discussion “VR for Beginners” at the Immersive Media in Medicine Symposium. • She co-published two papers: “Clinical Applications of Virtual Reality in Patient-Centered Care,” Technology and Health: Promoting Attitude and Behavior Change, and “Ready Student One: Exploring the Predictors of Student Learning in Virtual Reality,” PLOS One. Bharathy Premachandra • Bharathy received the Anson E. Rowe Award for Promising Graduate Students. Shruti Sannon • Shruti received a Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant. Microsoft received 230 applications and only awarded ten grants. Her dissertation will examine privacy, security, and safety risks for workers with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities. Megan Sawey • Megan delivered two conference papers: “The Valuation of (In)Visible Labor in the Social Media Industries" and “’Attractive Girls’ and ‘Accomplished’ Men: The Making and Marketing of Sugar Dating Roles,” both at the International Communication Association. • She also received the Anson E. Rowe Award. Yiwei Xu • Yiwei received CALS Alumni Association Grant Funding for independent research. • She co-published “Testing Strategies to Increase Source Credibility through Strategic Message Design in the Context of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy” in Health Communication. An earlier version of this article was accepted at the 2020 International Communication Association conference. Chao (Vincent) Yu • Vincent delivered the paper "Socio-Linguistic Differences between Reviewing People and Reviewing Goods: A Relational Message Production Logic of Crowdsourced Reviews on Airbnb” at the International Communication Association. • He also taught two classes this year: Oral Communication (COMM 2010) and Communication and Technology (COMM 2450). Fall 2019/Spring 2020 11
Lab News Social Media Lab IN AUGUST 2019, TESTDRIVE LAUNCHED nationally to approximately 50,000 users from all over the word to date! The Social Media TestDrive Project is a national educational program for teaching digital citizenship and online prosocial behaviors. The goal of this program is to prepare young people for real-life experiences in the digital world through learning and practicing within a realistic social media simulation. The TestDrive modules, developed by the Cornell Social Media Lab (SML) in partnership with Common Sense, have been integrated into Common Sense’s newly updated Digital Citizenship curriculum, which is represented in 55% of US schools. (Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all kids and families by providing trustworthy information and education.) Since their national release, TestDrive modules have been accessed by almost 50,000 users from all over the world who, on average, spend 10 minutes on the TestDrive platform. TestDrive has received substantive media coverage, including by the Cornell Chronicle; Cornell Daily Sun; Newswise; Psychology Today; WCNY TV program Mandy Purington and Yoon Choi participated in the “Connect NY”; national and international associations’ Program for Research on Youth Development and e-newsletters, Common Sense Educator e-newsletter; Engagment (PRYDE) Career Explorations event. Cornell Cooperative Extension; and Connected Learning Alliance. It has been featured at keynote presentations at the CALS Alumni Association; Human Ecology Alumni Association; Citizens and Technology Summit; and Cornell Cooperative Extension Jefferson County’s Annual Meeting. It has also been promoted during Common Sense’s Digital Citizenship Week, demoed at the Connected Learning Summit, and piloted with schools and programs in New York State and across the country (including Tompkins County, Jefferson County, New York City, Bay Area, Los Angeles, etc.). Finally, it has been featured as part of WideOpenSchool, a global curriculum for online, home learning during the COVID-19 crisis. In other news, the SML delivered two papers to the 2020 International Communication Association conference (virtually, of course): “Always Available, Always Attached: A Relational Perspective on The Effects of Mobile Phones and Social Media on Subjective Well-Being” and “Behavioral Contagion in Social Media: Effects of Social Norms, Design Interventions, and Critical Media Literacy on Self-Disclosure.” The second paper won the Top Paper Award for the Communication and Technology Division. Congratulations to Philipp Masur and Dominic DiFranzo, former members of the SML, and Natalie Bazarova!
Philipp Masur delivers a conference paper in the time of COVID-19. 12 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Department Initiatives Diversity, Equity, Inclusion TO HONOR CORNELL’S FOUNDING PRINCIPLE to be a place where “any person can find instruction in any study,” the Department of Communication recognizes that we must make persistent and proactive efforts to ensure all are welcomed and treated with respect. Achieving these goals requires consistent self-examination, strategic planning, and most importantly, strategic actions. To this end, the Department of Communication instituted a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force. Comprised of faculty, staff, and graduate students, the task force is chaired by Connie Yuan with Diane Bailey, Aparajita Bhandari, Lauren Chambliss, Heather Crespin, Sue Fussell, and Jon Schuldt as members. They took as a guiding principal the conviction that our department can only sustain excellence if we incorporate the perspectives of those from across our global community and the marginalized communities that are often overlooked within the United States. Fostering a diverse community is more than simple numerical representation. Following is a list of initiatives. COMM-Unity Project Research—including that of our own faculty members—shows that first-generation and historically underrepresented racial minority university students benefit from learning communities, which share tacit knowledge, reduce barriers, and create earlier and more equitable access to resources. To put that research into action, the department recently developed and implemented COMM-Unity Peer Mentorship Program. (See page 7 for details.) Syllabus and Curriculum Review Faculty members are engaged in a holistic review of the entire curriculum and each course’s syllabus to correct blind spots and biases in teaching and to ensure that the course content is representative of the broader global population, especially minority groups that are too often overlooked. Research and Community Engagement Many of our faculty are currently conducting research and community-engaged projects focused on recognizing and addressing social inequality in its many forms and exploring ways to increase mutual understanding and success of collaboration across cultural boundaries. Enhanced Efforts to Recruit Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color Graduate Students The Graduate Program Committee (GPC) is developing a strategic plan to enhance recruitment of outstanding candidates from historically underrepresented populations, investing a significant amount of resources to offset systemic oppression in current educational, economic, and social systems. Holistic Review of Graduate Program Applications To reduce bias, the GPC overhauled the graduate application review process. The committee addressed application materials, new evaluation rubrics and criteria, potential bias in standardized testing, and the pandemic’s impact on students’ abilities to take such tests. The GPC suspended the GRE requirement for 2021 and will revisit this decision in future cycles. Our Advisory Board is also working to diversify. One aim of our new Membership committee is to increase its ethnic diversity representation in line with initiatives developed by our task force. We also aim to recruit young alumni (within 10 years of graduation); people from a range of professional backgrounds, expertise, and industries; and people from outside the “Cornell Pond” such as parents, industry leaders, and colleagues from other higher-education institutions. Did you know? A group of our faculty met regularly this summer to read and discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Antiracist. This was part of a larger university project initiated by President Pollack. Fall 2019/Spring 2020 13
Faculty News New faculty WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE Diane E. Bailey, the inaugural Geri Gay Professor of Communication in the Department of Communication. Diane studies technology, work, and organization with research interests including artificial intelligence, computational technologies, digital artifacts, and ICT4D (Information and Communications Technologies for Development). With an expertise in organizational ethnography, she conducts primarily large-scale, team-based empirical studies. Her research methods blend measurements of industrial engineering with ethnography, which has made her a leader in the field of work and technology. Her past research has made her one of the preeminent experts on the impacts of the introduction of workplace technologies. With her current and planned research, she hopes to engage with colleagues in technology design so that, in an age that portends considerable algorithmic decision-making and robotic co-workers, we can create jobs, workplaces, and a society that reflect human values and meaning for all. Diane co-authored the MIT Press book, Technology Choices: Why Occupations Differ in Their Embrace of New Technology, which was based on a ten-year, eight-country study. Diane has won multiple teaching awards at three universities and two leadership awards. She has also received best paper awards across several fields, including communication, management, engineering, and library studies. Early in her career, she received the prestigious NSF CAREER award. She has received 16 research grants—including nine National Science Foundation grants—totaling approximately $5 million, with funding from General Motors Corporation, Philips Corporation, and the Institute of Museum an d Library Services. She has been an invited expert on eight occasions at such organizations as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; AFL-CIO; and Microsoft. Since 1999, she has served on nine NSF review panels for multiple divisions. Prior to joining Cornell, she served on the faculty of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin and on the engineering faculties at the University of Southern California and Stanford University. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley. Diane is a member of the Department of Communication’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion task force. Her first two course offerings are Visual Communication, which she taught in spring 2020, and Presenting Information Visually.
Did you know? Diane’s recent co-authored conference paper, “Pathways of Enactment to and from Organizing Visions: Evidence from Three South American Countries’ Embrace of ICT4D,” based on data collected from Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay, was selected by the Organizational Communication and Information Systems division of the Academy of Management as its 2020 nomination for the all-Academy Carolyn B. Dexter Award for international papers. 14 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Faculty News What a faculty—what a year!
EVERY SPRING, WE ASK FACULTY to send us their greatest accomplishments from the year (and we’re always impressed), but we didn’t know what to expect this year in light of the many challenges we all faced. Well… we were (again) impressed—and not just a little pleasantly surprised—at all they’ve achieved. With awards and grants, promotions and leadership appointments, and teaching and research, they’ve continued to excel. We invite you to read about their many triumphs. Fall 2019/Spring 2020 15
Faculty News Diane Bailey • DIANE CO-AUTHORED the article, “Pathways of Enactment to and
from Organizing Visions: Evidence from Three South American Countries’ Embrace of ICT4D,” which was selected for the Best Paper Proceedings at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS) division. The Academy of Management also nominated it for the Carolyn B. Dexter Award out of ~20,000 members. It was the sole nominee from the OCIS division consisting of approximately ~800 members. • She co-authored “Beyond Design and Use: How Scholars Should Study Intelligent Technologies,” published in Information and Organization. • She is also co-authoring “Translating National Discourse into Teaching and Learning Outcomes: Portability and Connectivity in Developing Countries’ ICT in Education (ICT4E) Initiatives,” in New Media and Society. • Editor’s note: She joined the department as the inaugural Geri Gay Professor of Communication.
Dominic Balog-Way • DOMINIC CO-PUBLISHED four articles: “COVID-19: Reflections on Trust, Tradeoffs,
and Preparedness” and “Effects of Public Trust on Behavioural Intentions in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Data from Six European Countries,” both in the Journal of Risk Research; “Pharmaceutical Benefit-Risk Perception and Older Age: A Pilot Study” in Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science; and “Pharmaceutical Benefit–Risk Perception and Age Differences in the USA and Germany” in Drug Safety.
Natalie Bazarova • NATALIE WON two awards. She received the Top Paper Award from the
International Communication Association’s Communication and Technology Division for her paper, co-authored with former SML colleagues Philipp Masur and Dominic DiFranzo, entitled “Behavioral Contagion in Social Media: Effects of Social Norms, Design Interventions, and Critical Media Literacy on Self-Disclosure.” She also received the 2019 CALS Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. • She received an $280,000 NSF EAGER grant for her project “Social Media -Related Cybersecurity and Privacy Risks with Experiential Learning Interventions.” • In August 2019, she launched TestDrive nationally to approximately 50,000 users from all over the world. (See page 12 for details.) • Natalie was selected for the leadership team of the Communication and Technology Division of the Communication Association as an International Liaison. 16 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Faculty News Christopher Byrne • CHRISTOPHER WAS A FEATURED speaker for the Young Presidents Organization,
Next Generation (YNG) webinar on personal branding for the Hyderabad, India, chapter. YNG is an international youth leadership organization for business professionals. • Christopher is a newly elected member to the CALS Support of Teaching and Learning Committee for a two-year term. • He is also a new radio DJ with WVBR where he hosts the “Drivetime”
show on Thursday evenings. Sahara Byrne • SAHARA RECEIVED a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/Food & Drug
Administration to research “The E-Cigarette Population Paradox: Testing Effects of Youth-Targeted Population Warnings for E-Cigarettes among Two Key Populations.” • She co-published two articles: “’I Quit’: Testing the Added Value and Sequencing
Effects of an Efficacy-Focused Message among Cigarette Warning Labels” in the Journal of Health Communication and “Testing the Effects of Certain versus Hypothetical Language in Health Risk Messages” in Communication Monographs. • As Co-Director of the Cornell Center for Social Science, she launched an emergency
funding program for social science research projects examining pressing issues of COVID-19, including stigmatization of victims, credible/reliable knowledge of the disease, environmental impacts of the pandemic, and risk perceptions. • Sahara was re-elected to the CALS Faculty Executive Committee.
Lauren Chambliss • LAUREN CREATED a stand-alone, online version of our core course Writing
about Communication (COMM 2310). The course teaches professional writing skills to our majors and has the distinction of being the first online writing course offered by CALS (long before COVID-19). A summer, online version has expanded its reach beyond our department’s majors—in its second summer (2020), the enrollment doubled! • Her co-taught course, Sustainability and Environmental Communication: From the Lab to the World (COMM 3080/81), is now part of the department curriculum. It was originally an Engaged Cornell-funded course.
Did you know? The department is undergoing its ten-year external review in 2021, which the university describes as our “department’s portrait of itself and blueprint for its future.” We’re currently preparing our self-study statements on excellence in research, scholarship, and creativity; faculty excellence; teaching excellence; and excellence in public engagement. In fall 2021, a group of top communication scholars will participate in a site visit, comment on the program’s strengths and weaknesses, and make recommendations about future directions. Fall 2019/Spring 2020 17
Faculty News Jodi Cohen • JODI EXPANDED her ongoing work with New York 4-H to include the Eastman-Rice
Communication & Community Engagement Award (formerly a department competition), better serving the award’s mandate “to foster communication between Cornell and the surrounding agricultural community.” Each fall, students deliver two-day workshops to the Communication Institute, a collaboration among the department, NY 4-H, and Cornell Extension. • She recently restructured the Oral Communication course (COMM 2010) as a weekly, instructor-led, 50-minute discussion along with smaller, two-hour discussion/lab sections. The change centralizes the course content, flips the classroom to minimize lecturing, and integrates more critical listening skills through discussions of contemporary rhetoric. Brooke Duffy • BROOKE CO-PUBLISHED two articles: “Navigating Visibility and Vulnerability in
Social Media Contexts: Instagram’s Authenticity Bind,” International Journal of Communication, and “’Gaming the System’: Platform Paternalism and the Politics of Algorithmic Visibility,” Social Media + Society . • She co-edited a special collection of 14 papers on the platformization of cultural production, “Platform Practices in the Cultural Industries: Creativity, Labor, and Citizenship,” in Social Media + Society. She’s working on a second special collection, which will be out later this year. • She was quoted or featured in Vice, The Atlantic, LA Times, Wired, Psychology Today, Financial Times, Fast Company, Vanity Fair, Vox, Washington Post, and The Verge. • Brooke was promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure and invited to join the core faculty of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies! Danielle Eiseman • DANIELLE RECEIVED the Postdoc Achievement Award for Excellence in Community
Engagement from the Office of Postdoctoral Studies and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. • She received a Podell Endowment Award for Research and Scholarship for the interactive website design of her forthcoming book, Our Changing Menu: How Climate Change is Affecting the Foods We Love and Need. • She co-published two articles: “Public Concern about Climate Change Impacts on Food Choices: The Interplay of Knowledge and Politics” in Agriculture and Human Values and “Leveraging the Coffee Experience as a Tool for Engagement with Climate Change” in Qualitative Market Research. She solo published “The Coffee Drinking Experience: Contributions to Pleasure, Well-Being and Consumer Engagement,” in Food and Experiential Marketing: Pleasure, Wellbeing and Consumption in the “Routledge Interpretative Marketing Research” series. • She recently launched the eCornell course, Food and Climate Change (CALS 101 and 102) with the goal of educating mid-level managers in the food industry on the potential risks and opportunities climate change poses to their business. 18 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Faculty News Amelia Greiner Safi • AMELIA RECEIVED a $200,000 grant from The Nature Conservancy and the Atkinson
Center for a Sustainable Future for the project “Assessing Progress and Barriers to Ecological Restoration of State Property Buyout Programs.” • She coordinated a Cornell symposium: “Understanding Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Animal Agriculture: Finding from Epidemiology, Economics and Social Science.” • She developed a new course entitled Public Health Communication. • Amelia co-published two articles: “New York State Dairy Farmers’ Perceptions of Antibiotic Use and Resistance: A Qualitative Interview Study” in PLOS One and “Comparing in Person vs. Internet Methods to Recruit Low-SES Populations for Tobacco Control Policy Research” in Social Science and Medicine.
Lee Humphreys • LEE DELIVERED five(!) papers at the International Communication
Association conference (virtually, of course), two as co-presenter and three solo: “Computing Colorism: The Modality of Online Retail Photography”; “The Tinder Games: Mobile Dating App Use and Gender Conforming Behavior”; “Qualitative Sampling and Internet Research”; “CAT is the New Mass Comm”; and “What Empirical Qualitive Research Has to Contribute to the Crisis of Replicability.” • She is Co-Principal Investigator on a seed grant from the Migrations Task Force at Cornell entitled “Giving a Voice to Migrants: Mapping Their Use of Public Space in Europe.” • Lee helped develop the peer mentoring program, Comm-Unity Project. (See page 7 for details.) • She published “Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Temporalities: Or How the Past Is Represented as Relevant through On-this-Date Media” in New Media & Society, and she co-published “Mobiles in Public: Social Interaction in a Smartphone Era” in Mobile Media & Communication.
Bruce Lewenstein • BRUCE RECEIVED the State University of New York Chancellor’s Faculty Service Award. • He received $500,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation, Kavli
Foundation, and Engaged Cornell. The projects are: “Ethics-in-the-Making: Changing Practices in Data Science,” “Workshop on Defining Community Science Literacy,” and “Applied Science Communication Minor” respectively. • He co-edited the book Communicating Science: A Global Perspective. • He co-published two articles: “Science Stories as Culture: Experience, Identity, Narrative and Emotion in Public Communication of Science” in the Journal of Science Communication and “Science Recreation Workshops Groups in Mexico: A Study on an Emergent Community” in the International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement. • Bruce also published the editorial introduction to a special issue of Journal of Science Communication: “The Need for Feminist Approaches to Science Communication.” Fall 2019/Spring 2020 19
Faculty News Neil Lewis, Jr. • NEIL RECEIVED five grants, totaling more than $300,000, two from the Mindset
Scholars Network and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and one from SUNY Open Education Resources Funding Initiative, Engaged Cornell, and CALS—all as Principal Investigator. The projects are: "The Longer-Term Effects of Cultural Relevance: Evidence from an Ethnic-Studies Curriculum”; "Learning Environments and the Mindsets and Performance of Students within Them”; "Open Educational Resources for Teaching Courses on Persuasion and Social Influence”; "Are Mobile Research Laboratories Effective Vehicles for Engaging Underrepresented Populations in Social Science Research?"; and "Can the Digital Patient Activated Learning System Increase Racial Minority Engagement with Health Information? A Multi-Site Pilot Examination in New York State." • He was an invited panelist for the opening plenary address to the International Communication Association's conference. • Neil was appointed to the advisory boards of the National Science Foundation's Modern Meta-Analysis Research Institute and the Data Archive for Interdisciplinary Research on Learning. • He developed a new course entitled Behavioral Science Interventions (COMM/INFO 4800).
Drew Margolin • DREW PUBLISHED “The Theory of Informative Fictions: A Character-Based Approach
to False News and Other Misinformation” in Communication Theory. • He also co-authored two articles: “Comparing Audience Appreciation to FactChecking Across Political Communities on Reddit,” WebSci ’20, and “Testing Strategies to Increase Source Credibility through Strategic Message Design in the Context of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy,” Health Communication. • He led the subcommittee that revised our graduate admissions process, which promises to be more systematic and inclusive. (See page 13 for details.) • Drew is the new Director of Undergraduate Studies. • And he was promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure! J. Nathan Matias • NATHAN CO-PUBLISHED “Whose Death Matters? A Quantitative Analysis of
Media Attention to Deaths of Black Americans in Police Confrontations, 2013–2016” in the International Journal of Communication. • He launched the Citizens and Technology Lab. It’s now completed citizen science studies in six languages and on four continents. • Nathan designed and taught the new class Design and Governance of Field Experiments (COMM 4940). • He also launched the Upworthy Research Archive, an open dataset of thousands of A/B tests of headlines conducted by Upworthy from January 2013 to April 2015. Currently, it’s the largest open-access collection of randomized behavioral studies for research and education. • He notes commuting to the office up Buffalo Street on his bicycle as a notable accomplishment! 20 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Faculty News Katherine McComas • KATHERINE RECEIVED A
$116,000 Environmental Defense Fund grant for the project, “Assessing the Influence of Coastal Risk Perceptions on Responses to Climate Change.” • She completed her term Poppy McLeod as President of the Society for Risk Analysis. • She co-published two articles: “COVID-19: Reflections on • POPPY AND STUDENTS from her Group and Trust, Tradeoffs, and Preparedness,” in the Journal of Risk Interpersonal Communication Research lab Research and “Scared Yet Compassionate? Exploring the received the Best Student Paper Award from Order Effects of Risk Messages Communicating Bat Rabies the National Communication Association’s and White-Nose Syndrome,” in Science Communication. Group Communication Division for the paper Above: Katherine, pictured with Michael Drake, chair of the “Effects of Avatar Gender on Negotiation in a Virtual Environment.” board of directors of the Association of Public and LandGrant Universities, accepts the C. Peter Magrath Community • She co-published the article “Hacking Teamwork in Health Care: Addressing Engagement Scholarship Award on behalf of Cornell. Adverse Effects of Ad Hoc Team Composition in Critical Care Medicine” in Health Care Management Review. Jeff Niederdeppe • JEFF RECEIVED a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health & the
Food and Drug Administration for the project “The E-Cigarette Population Paradox: Testing Effects of Youth-Targeted Population Warnings for E-Cigarettes among Two Key Populations.” • Jeff also received the Research and Extension Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Science and Public Policy from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. • He co-published two articles: “Estimated Televised Alcohol Advertising Exposure in the Past Year and Associations with Past 30-Day Drinking Behavior among American Adults: Results from a Secondary Analysis of Large-Scale Advertising and Survey Data” in Addiction and “Testing Strategies to Increase Source Credibility through Strategic Message Design in the Context of Vaccination and Vaccine Hesitancy” in Health Communication.
It’s been quite a year for faculty reappointments and promotions! Jodi Cohen was reappointed to a second five-year term as Senior Lecturer, and Neil Lewis, Jr., was reappointed to a second three-year term as assistant professor. (Next stop for Neil is tenure.) Brooke Duffy and Drew Margolin were promoted to associate professor with indefinite tenure. And Lee Humphreys and Jeff Niederdeppe were promoted to full professor. Hearty congratulations to all! Fall 2019/Spring 2020 21
Faculty News Norman Porticella • NORMAN RECEIVED a grant from the Cornell Atkinson COVID-19 Sustainability Rapid
Response Fund for his research project, “Mapping the Flow and Efficacy of COVID-19-related Information in Tompkins County.” The project aims to provide immediate support for current efforts to disseminate information related to the COVID-19 outbreak and build knowledge to inform One Health initiatives. To assure the project would benefit the local community, he reached out to local health leaders for input and support. • He assembled an advisory board for the Tompkins County ScienceHub, which includes such notable organizations as Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County, Groton Public Library, Sciencenter, Cayuga Lake Watershed Network, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Paleontological Research Institution, Cornell University Libraries, Ithaca City School District.
Dawn Schrader • DAWN DELIVERED an invited talk, “How Technological Evolution Influences Mindful
Revolution in the Psychologies of Youth,” at the Digital Youth–Growing up in a Novel Social Space conference at Leibniz University. In tandem, she presented a day-long invited workshop entitled "Moral Education for the Digital Age: Challenges of Context, Connection and Ways of Knowing." • She co-delivered “Virtual Reality Realism and the Trolley Problem: Exploring Emotions, Decision Making and Action” at the Association for Moral Education conference. • She co-organized the 45th Annual International Conference of the Association for Moral Education; the theme was Morality and Ethics for the Digital World. Participants (from academia, public education, and industry) came from more than 30 countries. • Dawn completed her first year as Faculty-in-Residence at Court-Kay-Bauer, where she co-taught the Learning Where You Live course “Wonder Women.” The course, aimed at first-year women, brought in successful women to talk about their careers and lives.
Jon Schuldt • JON CO-PUBLISHED three articles: “Shifting Views on ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Climate
Change’ in the United States,” the Journal of Environmental Psychology; “Public Concern about Climate Change Impacts on Food Choices: The Interplay of Knowledge and Politics,” Agriculture and Human Values; and “Beliefs about Whose Beliefs? Second-Order Beliefs and Support for China’s Coal-to-Gas Policy,” the Journal of Environmental Psychology. • He co-organized the Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology; its theme was the Social Psychology of Climate Change. • Jon is the incoming chair of the International Communication Association’s division of Environmental Communication. • Jon just completed his first year as Faculty-in-Residence of Clara Dickson Hall. 22 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
Faculty News Katherine Sender • KATHERINE RECEIVED a Department of Communication AV Fund grant to
complete her co-produced documentary, “Threads: Sustaining India’s Textile Legacy.” • She published “Selling Cosmopolitanism: Same Sex Materials in Museums in Asia, Europe and the US” in Gay and Lesbian Quarterly and “Creative Practice as Queer Media Pedagogy” in Queer Communication Pedagogy, an edited collection. • She co-published two articles: “Queer Immaterial Labor in Beauty Videos by LGBTQ-Identified YouTubers,” International Journal of Communication, and “Author Meets Critics: Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement,” Advertising and Society Quarterly. • ANDREA RECEIVED a Cornell Center for the Social Sciences Faculty Fellowship. • She received a donation of 35 Oculus Go headsets for her Communication
in Virtual Worlds course. • She co-chaired the Immersive Media in Medicine and Education Intercampus Research Symposium at Weill Cornell. • She co-published two articles: “Supporting Self-Injury Recovery: The Potential for Virtual Reality Intervention” and ”Again, Together: Socially Reliving Virtual Reality Experiences When Separated,” both in Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Andrea Stevenson Won
Y. Connie Yuan • CONNIE RECEIVED the Outstanding Service Award from Communication
Research for best review of communication research. • Connie is a faculty and field member in Cornell's newest department,
Global Development. • She is a new member of Cornell's University Hearing and Review Board, the Cornell China Center, and CALS Diversity Committee. • She co-published three journal articles: “Beliefs about Whose Beliefs? Second-Order Beliefs and Support for China’s Coal-to-Gas Policy” in the Journal of Environmental Psychology; “Judging Expertise through Communication Styles in Intercultural Collaboration” in Management Communication Quarterly; and “Talk and Let Talk: The Effects of Language Proficiency on Speaking up and Competence Perceptions in Multinational Teams” in Group & Organization Management. Did you know? Our faculty are in leadership roles across Cornell. Check out what they’re doing! Sahara Byrne: Co-Director, Cornell Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) Lee Humphreys: Director, CCSS Institute for Qualitative and Interpretive Research NEW Bruce Lewenstein: Co-Chair, Academic Affairs Committee, Board of Trustees Katherine McComas: Vice Provost for Engagement and Land-Grant Affairs Jeff Niederdeppe: Co-Director, Cornell Center for Health Equity NEW Dawn Schrader: Chair, CALS Academic Integrity Hearing Board Fall 2019/Spring 2020 23
Graduate students gathered for a group picture at the holiday party—at the end of the fall term.
24 Fall 2019/Spring 2020
The annual family picture!
Department Chair, Poppy L. McLeod, plm29@cornell.edu 450 Mann Library Building Ithaca, NY 14853 607.255.2601 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. Visit us at communication.cals.cornell.edu.