Research Overview: My research program focuses on how technologies impact our work, relationships with others, and sense of self. I am particularly interested in how we talk about technologies, how these ways of talking shape our understanding of technology, and how both of these elements inform our integration or rejection of technologies. I pair rhetorical analysis with interviews and other social scientific methods to explore these issues. My most recent research projects have investigated:

• How college students maintain autonomy through the choice of information technologies they use to communicate with their parents
• How breastfeeding mothers navigate the emotions associated with online information-seeking
• How and why people choose to engage (or censor themselves) on Facebook

Teaching Overview: I teach courses on social media, persuasion, evidence-based instruction, and research methods. I focus on creating hands-on learning experiences for students, where they can directly apply what they are learning in the course while acquiring skills they will need after graduation. Instead of just reading about how new technologies are changing communication industries or memorizing theories of persuasion, my undergraduate students conduct interviews, create multimedia presentations, and develop social change campaigns. The graduate students in my college teaching course develop syllabi and assignments they can use to teach future classes, and the students in my research methods courses conduct full-scale research projects that have frequently turned into theses or dissertations.

2024 Teaching

• COMM 112: Understanding Media and Social Change
• COMM 220: Persuasion
• COMM 700: Research Methods in Communication
• COMM 701: Advanced Research Methods in Communication I