COMM Updates - 1/21/2026

Ben McNulty (far left), Xuan Qian (left), and Julia Goolsby (back right) discuss their research with poster session attendees at the annual Society for Risk Analysis annual meeting.

Lectures

Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., will be delivering a lecture titled “What We Learn from Where We Live” with the Department of Psychology. In this talk, Neil will share findings from his program of research using the United States as a context to examine how patterns of segregation and other forms of social stratification shape cognition, affecting how people perceive and make meaning of the world around them. He will also discuss the consequences of these meaning-making processes for people’s judgments, motivations, and decisions across multiple domains, concluding with implications for social scientific theory and its practical application. The event takes place January 23, 2026, 12:20 pm, in G90 Uris Hall. 

In a lecture titled “The Queer Vanguard: How Television Streaming Platforms Promoted Intersectional LGBTQ+ Content to Establish Their Brands,” Professor Katherine Sender screened her documentary Beyond the Straight and Narrow: Queer and Trans Television in the Age of Streaming at the Media Studies Department at Stockholm University in Sweden. The screening was followed by a keynote based on her recent Journal of Communication publication, which examines how television streaming platforms use intersectional LGBTQ+ content as a branding strategy. The following day, Professor Sender served as the external examiner for a Ph.D. defense. 

Media Coverage

Professor Bruce Lewenstein was quoted in the Scientific American article “Why Did Jeffrey Epstein Cultivate Famous Scientists?”

Picture Time!

Cornell Comm faculty and families cheered on the Women’s Ice Hockey Team on January 10 in their win against St. Lawrence University. Clockwise from left, starting with Professor Lee Humphreys (smiling big as she always does in selfies), Lecturer Steve Brandt (gray sweater), Charlie (red hat) & Ruth Niederdeppe (no hat), Quincy Margolin (no hat) & and his father Associate Professor Drew Margolin (black hat), Professor Jeff Niederdeppe (red vest), Senior Lecturer Iveta Imre (white and red sweater) & Assistant Professor (SIPS) Casey Barickman with their daughter Izzy. Lots of hats and sweater. Six members of the Cornell Women’s Ice Hockey team are Communication majors: , Avi Adam #15, Rose Dwyer #16, Sarah MacEachern #13, London McDavid #79, Georgia Schiff #2, and Riley Scorgie #12. And MacEachern scored the first Cornell goal!