DR. ANDREAS MILES - NOVELO BLENDS HIS OWN PASSIONS, EXPERTISE TO MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY FACULTY ROLE

One of Media Psychology program’s newest faculty additions is Andreas Miles-Novelo, PhD. Dr. Miles-Novelo started his Fielding journey as an adjunct faculty member and began full-time in August 2022 after earning his PhD in psychology and humancomputer interaction from Iowa State University.

Dr. Miles-Novelo's interest in Fielding’s cutting-edge Media Psychology program began after a moment of serendipity. He became aware of Fielding after learning that current faculty member Karen Shackleford, PhD, was a former graduate student of his adviser at Iowa State. When an adjunct position opened, he jumped at the opportunity to work at Fielding.

“I really started to consider Fielding as a place that I would want to stay,” he said. “I was really excited about the process — not only for the remote capacity of it — but that Fielding is forward thinking with distributed learning. I also really believe in the commitment to DEI and social justice issues and how those are a central part of the curricula, research programs, and the way faculty think and present themselves. I couldn’t imagine being at another institution where I wasn’t always thinking about those.”

Dr. Miles-Novelo began his career and emphases of study in the realm of sexual assault, but his areas of interest and expertise expanded throughout his graduate and doctoral journey. As he worked on his dissertation, “Media Effects Research: Examining Violent Video Game Effects in a Publicly Available Sample,” he began to weave his long- standing affinity for video games with media psychology theories, new technologies, and research methods.

Dr. Miles-Novelo is particularly interested in broad media effects as they pertain to behavioral outcomes such as aggression, stereotype formation, and political attitudes. His research has focused on virtual reality, video games, and the climate crisis.

“I really try to think about human behavior from a causeand-effect standpoint,” he said. “I’m really interested in external factors that influence people’s behaviors, perceptions, feelings, and cognitions. I think that has been helpful for me, not only as a psychologist, but also as an advocate to look at the world and how we can make things better for the greatest number of people.”

He partnered with his dissertation adviser, Craig Anderson, PhD, on the book, Climate Change and Human Behavior: Impacts of a Rapidly Changing Climate on Human Aggression and Violence. He aims to continue his work while also instructing the next iterations of scholarpractitioners who want to use applied media psychology in their own careers.

“I'm just really happy to be here and am enthusiastic about all the work that is going on here at Fielding,” he said. “You can't get better training than here at Fielding, which means it's going to be intense and difficult – but also rewarding. There's nowhere else to get the skills you need and to be among a group of people who are pioneers in the field.”