Danny Parker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. Her research examines the role communication ecologies play in the reproduction of poverty and the development of political identity. Her work has won awards from the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and is published in Mass Communication and Society. Danny is also the Director of the Communication Addressing Poverty (CAP) Lab. The Communication Addressing Poverty (CAP) Lab is committed to enhancing research on poverty in the field of communication.
Research Focus
As an ethnographer, I study rural and urban communities facing extreme poverty, using immersive fieldwork and participant observation to document and interpret how they experience everyday life. A major facet of my research grapples with how structural conditions, from carceral state economics to news coverage of poverty-related issues, threaten equal access to democratic institutions and belief in democracy for poor communities. Another major facet of my research explores how personal stories of struggle within those structural conditions travel through interpersonal networks and become collective narratives that influence individual and collective identity and decision-making. My work has implications for government policy, non-profit organizational structure, news production, and journalism education.
Outreach
The primary goal of my work is to contribute to science-based solutions to structural barriers facing vulnerable communities. Outside of my research, I act as a consultant and advocate for non-profit organizations that incorporate the concerns of poor communities in their missions and news professionals who wish to increase the representation of these communities and their concerns in their reporting.
Teaching Focus
As an educator, I think it is essential to impart what it means to be a learning community—how to collectively solve problems and find a meeting ground for consensus in times of contention. In doing so, I help students cultivate the logic and mutual respect required to thrive in a democracy. My courses are frequently structured around individual writing and long-term group projects that require mastery of complex material and intense group coordination. Group projects are centered around solving social problems, both theoretically and practically, and often require community engagement.
