May 6, 2026
Check out our final COMM Updates for the 2025–2026 academic year—and what a year it’s been! We’ll be back at the beginning of the fall 2026 semester.
Awards
Graduate student Margaret (Maggie) Foster received the Christine Ye Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Center for Teaching Innovation. The award recognizes exceptional graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate dedication and excellence in their teaching. Maggie was selected based on her strong teaching evaluations, extensive TA experience, and commitment to student learning. She was recognized at a Center for Teaching Innovation ceremony and the university-wide graduate teaching conference.
Graduate student Beatrys Fernandes Rodrigues was recognized as a 2026 Cornell Bouchet Scholar. The Bouchet Society honors preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of character, leadership, advocacy, scholarship, and service.
Graduate students Maggie Sardino and Julia Sebastien received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), recognizing her excellence and dedication in teaching.
Careers
Lecturer Megan Sawey will begin a new position as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Northeastern University.
Graduate student Lucas Wright will begin a new position as Assistant Professor of AI Media and Policy at Northeastern University, with appointments in the Department of Communication Studies and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. He will also serve as a Resident Fellow at Yale University Law School.
Conferences
Julia Sebastien presented at the Augmented Humans International Conference in Okinawa, Japan. Her talk, “Drifting Embodiment: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring the Effects of Virtual Reality Experiences of Embodiment and Awe on Perceptions of Experimental Pain,” shared findings from a mixed-methods experimental study examining the phenomenological, behavioral, and perceptual effects of immersive VR environments on virtual embodiment, awe, and acute experimental pain. Publication information will be forthcoming. Julia also participated in the Human Psychology, Purpose and Social Life in the Age of AI and Ubiquitous Computing panel at the Future Civilizations Conference at Cornell. The panel explored how identity, belonging, creativity, and emotional life may evolve as everyday life becomes increasingly integrated with autonomous agents, from caregiving robots to AI therapists and automated social systems.
Grants
Graduate student Jackline Kemigisa received a $1,700 International Research Travel Grant from the Einaudi Center for International Studies as Principal Investigator. The grant will support field research for her project examining the persistence of disinformation narratives in African political communication, particularly those framing homosexuality as “unAfrican.” Her research explores how these narratives shape public attitudes, influence policy decisions, and impact the lived experiences of queer individuals, often legitimizing discrimination through legal and systemic means. By analyzing how such narratives are constructed and sustained, her project aims to better understand their effects on identity, policy development, and belonging within African nation-states.
Graduate student Rosie Nguyen received a $2,200 International Research Travel Grant from the Einaudi Center for International Studies as Principal Investigator. The grant will support her dissertation fieldwork. Rosie’s project examines the experiences of Vietnamese book authors working within an increasingly platformized creative industry, in the context of rising digital authoritarianism and platform colonialism. Specifically, she explores how authors navigate three interrelated tensions: creativity and commerce (market demands and platform logics), creativity and control (state regulation), and creativity and culture (sociocultural norms and historical specificity). The grant will fund international airfare for archival research and fieldwork in Vietnam during the summer and fall of 2026.
Graduate student Julia Sebastien received a $3,000 Michele Sicca Research Grant from the Einaudi Center’s Institute for European Studies. Her project, “When in Rome: Embodied Agency in Virtually Reconstructed Pompeii,” is a mixed-methods study examining the affective and educational impacts of role-play during a virtual reality field trip. The research is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Cornell Virtual Embodiment Lab and the Department of Classics.
Lectures
On May 6, the Risk Communication Research Group launched a new report on strategic community engagement for renewable energy development in New York State. Conducted by graduate students Xuan Qian, Julia Goolsby, and Rebekah Wicke; undergraduate Research Associate Benjamin McNulty; Research Associate Dominic Balog-Way; and Professor Katherine McComas, the project combines a multidecadal literature review (1995–2025) with in-depth interviews with 33 community engagement practitioners. The report emphasizes that communities are not barriers but essential partners in the clean energy transition’ outlines engagement as a structured, ongoing process across all stages of development; and offers practical, evidence-informed recommendations to promote fairness, meaningful participation, and trust. It highlights the importance of taking local knowledge, values, and concerns seriously to improve project design and outcomes.
