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University of Wisconsin–Madison

MCRC Fellows

Porismita Borah is an Associate Professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and a graduate faculty in the Prevention Science program at the Washington State University. Her research focuses on the interplay of emerging technology, politics, and health. Borah primarily studies message effects in digital environments, both in the context of politics and health. Her work has been published in top journals such as Journal of Communication, Political Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and New Media and Society. Borah has received funding from various sources including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Poynter Institute for her research. Learn more about Borah’s research at  http://porismitaborah.com/

 

ERIK BUCY

Erik Bucy is the Marshall and Sharleen Formby Regents Professor of Strategic Communication in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. He teaches and conducts research on disinformation, visual communication, nonverbal behavior, new technology topics, and public opinion about the press. Bucy is the author of the award-winning Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections (with Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Oxford 2009) and editor of the Sourcebook for Political Communication Research (with R. Lance Holbert, Routledge 2013). Bucy has edited special issues of the International Journal of Press/Politics and American Behavioral Scientist and he is the past editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Politics and the Life Sciences, published by Cambridge. He has been a research fellow at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, and has held visiting positions at UCLA, the University of Michigan, and Dartmouth College.

 

JORDAN FOLEY

Jordan Foley is an Assistant Professor in the Journalism and Media Production Department in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, where he studies digital media, public opinion, and political information ecologies. His research focuses on how political misinformation and conspiracy theories flow across digital platforms over time and their implications on civic life. His research has been published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationNew Media & Society, theInternational Journal of Communication, and his work has been featured in the Washington Post (the Monkey Cage), Vox (Mischiefs of Faction), and the Brookings Institute (TechStream).

 

 

Alex Hanna headshot

ALEX HANNA

Alex Hanna is a sociologist and senior research scientist working on the Ethical AI team at Google. Before that, she was an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto. Her research centers on origins of the training data which form the informational infrastructure of AI and algorithmic fairness frameworks, and the way these datasets exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality.

 

 

RACHEL KORNFIELD

Rachel Kornfield is a Research Assistant Professor in Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University. Her research draws on training in health communication, human-computer interaction, and behavior change theories and techniques, and focuses on the role of supportive communication within digital health interventions, including communication with peers, health professionals, and automated messaging systems (e.g., “chatbots”). She is particularly interested in designing and testing digital health interventions that apply computer-tailoring to connect individuals to the right type of support, at the right time.

 

 

JOSEPHINE LUKITO

Josephine “Jo” Lukito is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work applies computational and mixed methods to study international communication and discourse about foreign policy, especially as it relates to disinformation and economic issues. Jo’s work has been published in journals such as International Journal of Press/Politics and Political Communication, as well as trade publications like Columbia Journalism Review.

 

 

"Estelle" Ranran Z. Mi headshot “ESTELLE” RANRAN Z. MI

“Estelle” Ranran Z. Mi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media & Journalism at Kean University. Her research centers around computer-mediated communication and health, primarily focusing on behavioral change and intervention. She collaborates widely with interdisciplinary experts in communication, medicine and social psychology. Her work has been published in both communication and medicine journals, such as Health Communication, Patient Education & Counseling, BMC Geriatrics, and Academic Emergency Medicine.

 

 

LAUREN TUCKER

Dr. Lauren Tucker is the founder and CEO of Do What Matters, an inclusion management consultancy designed to shepherd the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts of communications firms from well-meaning intent to sustainable impact. Having worked at some of the most renowned advertising and marketing agencies in the world, including Leo Burnett, Burrell Communications, the Martin Agency and Merge, she focuses her research on the application of nudge theory to designing actionable inclusion solutions that help agencies and communications firms achieve sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives while driving quality growth.

 

 

YINI ZHANG

Yini Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo. Her research concerns public opinion and public attention dynamics in the digital media environment, as well as their implications for journalism and communication ecology. Her work has been published in journals such as Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and New Media & Society.