Conferences & Symposia
Assistant Professor M. Cornejo will be participating in a panel entitled “Margins and Mobilization: Migrant Worker Precarity and Power in the Trump-era Economy.” Bringing together scholars and activists, the panel will examine how immigration laws and border enforcement function as tools of labor control, shape markets, and produce systemic vulnerability. The discussion will trace how these dynamics have intensified under the Trump administration amid the rise of ethnonationalism and increasingly punitive immigration policy, as well as how migrant workers have been pushing back and what forms of resistance have emerged.
Assistant Professor M. Cornejo was invited to participate in the Excellence in Communication Scholarship Speaker Series hosted by Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Before the event, the MSU College spoke with M. and published their interview.
Graduate student Beatrys Rodrigues is participating in a workshop entitled “Embodying Stories for Resisting Technology: Anti-Colonial Approaches to Human-Computer Interaction” at the upcoming ACM CHI Conference. Bya will present her ongoing work on research-through-speculative design and how anti-colonial epistemologies and feminist media-making theories can inform HCI methods.
Events
On April 24, 6:00–8:00 pm, Cinemapolis will screen “Beyond the Straight and Narrow: Queer and Trans Television in the Age of Screening,” a new film by professor Katherine Sender that examines recent LGBTQ+ television. A discussion with filmmaker and screenwriter Guinevere Turner will follow. The screening and discussion are free and open to the public.
Reminder: Please join us for COMMColloquium Monday, April 21, 3:00 pm, in 102 Mann Library Building. Graduate student Lucas Wright will be presenting “The Political Economy of Trust and Safety Vendors, and Other Markets for Digital Regulation Compliance.” The colloquium is followed by a reception, located in The Hub of the Department of Communication.
Media
Professor Lee Humphreys was interviewed by Shannon Missimer on the Motion of Gratitude podcast. During the interview, entitled, “Rethinking Social Media: Connection, Reflection & Digital Well-Being,” Lee posited a powerful reframe: What if social media isn’t inherently good or bad—but simply a mirror?
Publications
Research Associate Dominic Balog-Way, April 2025, “Fluoride: Hazard-Based Thinking Ignores How Risk Is Assessed,” Cornell Media Relations Office.
Dominic was asked to respond to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s, plans to tell the CDC to stop recommending water fluoridation—a move that will likely draw criticism from scientists, dentists, and public health officials claiming the U.S. Health Secretary is “anti-science.” Dominic stated that a more thoughtful discussion about how we assess risk, regulate chemicals, and communicate science is needed, in this case, on the confusion between risk and hazard, cognitive processes like the “natural-is-better” heuristic, and the benefits, not just risks, of hazards, activities, and processes like water fluoridation.
Picture Time!
On Friday, April 11, we hosted COMMConnect, an annual mentoring event that pairs undergraduate students with alumni and advisory board members. On Thursday evening, advisory board members dined with faculty and students.
