September 24, 2026
Conferences
Professor Lee Humphreys was a panel participant in the “Oral Histories of Mobile Communication” conference.
How has the mobile phone impacted our lives? The Oral Histories of Mobile Communication project documents the foundational years of the field through video interviews with key scholars who shaped its development. Launched to capture the insights of pioneering researchers from the 1990s and early 2000s, this project preserves the intellectual history of mobile communication, offering firsthand accounts of its evolution, key debates, and transformative moments. In this launch event, participants watched a short film with key moments of the project’s interviews and participated in a lively round table discussion with foundational scholars in the field.
Graduate student Ruiyao Wang presented the paper “Becoming Mediatized Migrant: Negotiation of Gender and Media Practices among Young Chinese Migrant Women in US” at the European Communication Conference.
In this paper, Ruiyao focused on the gender negotiation of young Chinese migrant women in the US against a deeply mediatized background. This study argues that everyday border-crossing digital media practices create a third space for reflecting on the gendered self, creating a layer of mediatized disidentification when these women work on and against the gender scripts given by home, host, and media contexts.
Events
Join us for COMMColloquium Monday, October 5, 2026, at 3:00 pm in 101 Warren Hall, followed by a reception in the Hub of the Department of Communication. The Department of Communication’s aCOMModations task force will present the panel “Disability and Neurodiversity in the Classroom.”
The panel will feature advice and expertise shared by three specialized staff members from across Cornell: Florencia Ardon (Study Skills Lecturer and Neurodivergent Student Support Program Manager), D Krahmer (Social Sciences Research & Instruction Librarian at Catherwood Library and Library Disability Services representative for the Cornell University Library system), and Cyrus Hamilton-Ferguson (Assistant Director of Student Disability Services and Disability Access Consultant). They will share resources for instructional teams and discuss topics such as best practices for facilitating accommodations, designing inclusive classrooms, and navigating an evolving technological era.
Grants
Kristen Brock-Petroshius, Stony Brook (PI), Associate Professor Neil Lewis, Jr. (Co-PI), and Professor Jeff Niederdeppe (Co-PI) received a $200,000 Russell Sage grant for their project, “Pathways to Equity: Understanding Message Effects across Differential Policy Racialization.”
Given the role of racial prejudice in justifying and exacerbating systemic racial inequalities, scholars have long been puzzled by how to effectively influence public opinion in support of policies that would strengthen racial equity. In this project, the researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of race- and class-based messaging strategies across racialized policy domains and a diverse sample of respondents.
Invited Lectures
Professor Bruce Lewenstein was an invited panelist at the September 2026 annual conference of Flux: The Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in San Diego. Bruce participated in the panel, “From Synapses to Society: Connecting Developmental Science, Communication, and Policy,” where he delivered the talk, “Competing Societal Goals for Engagement with Neuroscience.” His talk highlighted three recurring tensions in science communication: audience first vs. strategy first, deficit model vs. dialogue model, and engagement vs. participation.
In July 2026, Assistant Professor Wunpini Mohammed delivered the keynote lecture at the Critical Studies in Television Conference, which was organized by the Critical Studies in Television journal.
Following conversations around a decolonial reckoning in the field, little attention has been paid to the way that Indigenous Knowledge Systems can be drawn on to build liberatory futures. Wunpini’s lecture presented subaltern and Indigenous language media systems as a site to reconstruct, rewrite, and reimagine the work of liberation. It drew attention to issues of global concern within the context of television studies such as platform imperialism, language politics, and media for social transformation among others.
In the Media
Professor danah boyd published the op-ed, “American Democracy Depends on the Census. Trump Is Undermining It” in The Guardian.
Publications
Professor Bruce Lewenstein & Chris Mooney, September 2026, “Is Science Journalism Dying? Comparing a ‘Science Crash’ 40 Years Ago to Today,” The Conversation.
Forty years ago, Bruce conducted part of his dissertation research at Scientific American during the early 1980s “science boom” of popular science. When that boom collapsed, he wrote about the moral panic about science journalism that ensued. The sale of Scientific American earlier this year and the firing of many of its staff prompted a reflection on whether another moral panic is underway. Long-time science writer Chris Mooney had data, so the two collaborated. Their conclusion: maybe yes, but there really is reason to worry about the challenges of all journalism that also affect science journalism.
Research Associate Sarah Gilbert, September 2026, “Millions of Volunteers Are Keeping the Internet Human. For Now,” Tech Policy Press.
Volunteer moderators play a major role in why some corners of the internet still feel human, despite rising rates of AI-generated content. This article argues that without them, we face intertwined crises of knowledge and community.
H. Shahadu, Assistant Professor Wunpini Mohammed & E. E. Archer, June 2026, “Disconnect between Theory and Practice of Decolonizing Pedagogies in Global Journalism and Media Education,” Annals of the International Communication Association.
Drawing on curricular analysis and pedagogical experiences from Ghana, the authors present the pervading discourses on media decolonization and highlight how these discourses can be extrapolated to build a more robust, critical, and decolonial curriculum. Key aspects of this approach include fostering critical consciousness, promoting ethical media practices, and encouraging inclusive, relational learning that respects local and Indigenous storytelling methods. Ultimately, decolonized pedagogies aim to create a more equitable and representative media landscape, empowering students to engage critically with global media systems while centering marginalized voices and perspectives.
