Yan Ma

Yan Ma
  • Professor
  • Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
  • Phone: 401.874.2819
  • Email: yanma@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Rodman Hall, Rm 106

Biography

Dr. Ma is one of the distinguished leading scholars in visual literacy, critical and cultural, interdisciplinary research in technology and media. Her research and teaching have focused on visual literacy for education; visual literacy for data visualization; organization of information, information storage and retrieval; critical and cultural studies of visual literacy and digital media; Chinese American newspapers and periodicals in the United States. Dr. Ma’s latest research focuses on Chinese film studies leading to her pioneering course and research on “Chinese Hollywood”. Dr. Ma is the past President of the International Visual Literacy Association.

Research

Dr. Ma’s research agenda has focused on interdisciplinary, innovative, multicultural, and global scholarship for critical studies of information and educational communications and technology to pursue the cultural and critical lines of scholarly inquiry to lead the profession of information, communication studies, film, and education. Such research contributes to the areas of visual literacy for information education, data visualization, cultural heritage informatics, organization of information, and critical and cultural studies of communication and media.

Education

  • Ph.D., Educational Communications and Technology, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  • M.L.S., School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University.
  • B.A., English Literature and Linguistics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Selected Publications

Ma, Yan (2025, 28-31 July). Invited chair for Microsymposium on “Critical Visual Literacy and Global Media.” 12th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science, Athens, Greece. https://www.atiner.gr/libmed.

Ma, Yan. (2024, 29 July). Visual Literacy: The Film Barbie and Information Visualization. 11th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science as part of the 10th Annual International Conference on Social Sciences, Athens, Greece. Presented online. https://www.atiner.gr/libmed

Ma, Yan. (2023). Paradigm Shift, Expansion, and Inclusion: Visual Literacy Research for the Field of Information. In J. Lee, W. Huang, X. Chen, F. Rodrigues, L. Okan, S. Beene, & C. Huilcapi-Collantes (Eds.), Connecting & Sharing: The Book of Selected Readings 2023 (pp. 114-127). International Visual Literacy Association. https://doi.org/10.52917/ivlatbsr.2023.018.

Ma, Yan. (2019, Aug. 22). Meaning construction in data visualization. IFLA WLIC 2019 Satellite Meeting, German National Library, Frankfurt, Germany. https://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/2746/.

Ma, Yan. (2015). Guest editor for the ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education special edition of the Journal of Visual Literacy.

Ma, Yan. (2015). Preface to the special edition of ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Journal of Visual Literacy, v-vi.

Ma, Yan. (2015). Constructing and Reading Visual Information–Visual Literacy for Library and Information Science Education. Journal of Visual Literacy, 34(2), 1-20.

Ma, Yan. (2015). Invited Guest Editor Preface to the special edition of “ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” and an article of Constructing and Reading Visual Information–Visual Literacy for Library and Information Science Education. Journal of Visual Literacy, 34(2), 1-20.