September 30, 2026
Awards
Professor Jeff Niederdeppe received the Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award from the Health Communication Division of the National Communication Association.
The award recognizes a significant and original contribution to the study and application of the field of Health Communication. Specifically, the recipient’s work must have a significant and long-lasting effect on the field; strong heuristic value; influence over others’ work; originality regarding theory, research, and/or practice; and contributed to the development of Health Communication as a distinct field of study.
Events
REMINDER: 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.
As part of the Information Science Colloquium, Research Associate Sarah Gilbert will present “Keeping it Human: Learning from Volunteer Moderators to Preserve Knowledge on the Internet.” The event takes place Wednesday, September 30 (today!), 3:00–4:00, in the Computing and Information Science Building, Room 350. A virtual option is also available.
This talk presents work from nine years of ethnographic research with a Reddit community called r/AskHistorians, providing longitudinal insight into sociotechnical threats faced by the community—from Reddit’s culture and demographics to its algorithms and recommender systems, and now generative AI.
Lectures
Associate Professor Claire Wardle delivered a keynote address at the Bursky School of Public Health, Washington University, entitled “Co-Creating Community-Led Listening Infrastructure.” The lecture kicked off the Leading with Listening conference, where she focused on the need to build new cross-disciplinary community listening infrastructure.
Media Mentions
Professor Lee Humphreys is featured in the newly released documentary, Oral Histories: From the Scholars Who Built & Shaped the Field of Mobile Communication.
For decades, a small group of researchers has been studying one of the most quietly transformative shifts in modern life: how the mobile phone changed the way we communicate, connect, and understand ourselves. This documentary brings together first-person oral histories from the scholars who built the field of Mobile Communication research—from its earliest “renegade” days, when there was no such field at all, to today’s global conversations on identity, intimacy, and technology.
On September 28, Associate Professor Claire Wardle was a guest on NPR’s 1A program in the “Cyber Monday: AI, Conspiracy Theories, and the Midterms” episode.
During the episode, Claire noted AI is changing how online information is processed and understood, especially for the midterms. She believes that AI chatbots can help some individuals gravitate less toward conspiracy theories. However, she also notes how voter intimidation, confusion, and disinformation can be amplified through AI. Claire advises people to expand their trust and safety teams and take safe practices in analyzing sources, fact-checking, talking to people within their community, and staying engaged in voting.
