Fall 2022 Faculty Publications, Conferences, and Grants

December 13, 2022

When they weren’t in the classroom, our faculty were conducting research in their chosen fields. Here are some highlights:

Dr. Emily Diamond, assistant professor of Communication Studies and Marine Affairs, published two articles and gave a presentation this year, all focusing on climate change and clean energy in the United States. For her most recent publication, Diamond interviewed members of a conservative conservationists group to understand how people reconcile identity conflicts.

Diamond also published another article about messaging for clean energy policy and gave a presentation about messaging for offshore wind development at the NAWEA/WindTech Conference in September.

Publications:

Presentation:

  • “Evaluating Messaging Frames in Offshore Wind Development: A Comparative Case Study Analysis in the Northeastern United States.” (with N. Damato). 2022 NAWEA/WindTech Conference, Newark, Delaware (September 2022).

Dr. Matt Hodler, assistant professor of Communication Studies and Sports Media, and Kyle Kusz, professor of English and Gender and Women’s Studies, co-wrote a recent publication that took a cultural studies approach to analyze the role of Barstool Sports in cultural politics. Their critique focused on “The Barstool Documentary Series” to understand the company’s role in far-right media and rhetoric. Hodler said they kept coming back to the topic of Barstool Sports because his students consumed their content.

In addition to this publication, Hodler gave two presentations for the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference in November, one related to far-right tactics in sports fandom and another focusing on transgender athlete Lia Thomas. He also received an honorable mention for the 2022 Sociology of Sport Journal Article of the Year for an article he co-wrote last year.

Publication:

Presentations:

  • Hodler, M.R. (November 2022). Stochastic fandom: Far-right tactics in sports fandom. Presented for North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
  • Hodler, M.R. & C.B. Lucas. (November 2022). Reading Lia Thomas: Limited & potentialities of “reading” a trans athlete. Presented for North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

Award:

  • 2022 Sociology of Sport Journal Article of the Year, Honorable Mention for Hodler, M.R. and C.B. Maddox (2021). Converging interests, unequal benefits? Tribal critical race theory and Miami University’s Myaamia Heritage Logo. Sociology of Sport Journal, 38(3), 231-240.

Dr. Madison Jones, assistant professor of Writing and Rhetoric, recently published “Tracking Memes in the Wild: Visual Rhetoric and Image Circulation in Environmental Communication.” In this article, Jones looks at how memes can be used as a communication form to meaningfully deliver scientific and environmental information.

Jones also published two poems in Weber: The Contemporary West and gave two conference presentations, both about how technology affects our understanding of place. He also received a $5,000 grant for an upcoming project in the North Woods, an award from the National Council of Teachers of English, an honorable mention for the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine Article of the Year Award, and the 15 Within 15 Award from his undergraduate university.

Publications:

Presentations:

  • “Carrying Owls to Athens: Deep Mapping Platonic Topoi” The International Society
    for the History of Rhetoric Conference, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The
    Netherlands. Online (July 2022).
  • “Field Histories: Placing Rhetorical Ecologies” National Communication Association,
    New Orleans, LA (November 2022).

Awards:

  • Awarded CCCC/NCTE’s Best Article on Pedagogy or Curriculum in Technical or
    Scientific Communication. For “Deep Mapping for Environmental
    Communication Design” (2022)
  • Honorable Mention for the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and
    Medicine Article of the Year Award for “A Counterhistory of Rhetorical
    Ecologies” (2022)
  • 15 Within 15 Alumni Award, University of Montevallo Alumni Association (2022)

Grants

  • $5,000. PI. The Digital Classroom in the Augmented Forest: Rhetorical Field Methods
    for Place-Based Teaching and Research, University of Rhode Island, North
    Woods Small Grants Opportunity, 2022.

Ammina Kothari

Dr. Ammina Kothari, the director of the Harrington School and professor of journalism, published research on people’s intent to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examined how the people’s intent to get vaccinated changed around the emergency authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccines. They found that people’s willingness to get vaccinated decreased around the time of the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccines before it increased again. There was also significant difference based on age, gender and trust in health officials among those who refused vaccination or were undecided.

This year, Kothari also presented her research on how media representation of LGBTQ+ individuals affects attitudes and behaviors toward them and how young adults use social media for mental health support.

Publication:

Presentations:

  • Kim, J., Kothari, A., and Godleski, S. (2022). “The Role of Media Representation of LGBTQ+ Individuals in Heterosexual Individuals’ Attitudes and Behaviors towards LGBTQ+ Individuals” Mass Communication and Society Division. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference in Detroit.
  • Pfuhl, G, Schieferdecker, D., Kothari, A., and Godleski, S. (2022). “The Temporal Dimension of Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic” Health Communication Division. International Communication Association’s annual conference in Paris, France
  • Kothari, A., and Godleski, S. (2022). “The Good and Bad: How Adolescents and Young Adults Use Social Media for Mental Health Support” Post-Conference on Digital Health Communication: Issues and Perspectives. International Communication Association’s annual conference in Paris, France.

Dr. Ian Reyes, Communication Studies professor, recently published an article that explores the challenges of teaching an interdisciplinary course in music technology. The piece was prompted by Reyes’s own experience teaching an interdisciplinary music course at URI with Biomedical Engineering Professor Ying Sun and Music Professor Eliane Aberdam.

In addition, Reyes co-wrote and published another article this year looking at how musical tension affects viewers in advertising.

Publications:

  • Reyes, I., Sun, Y., & Aberdam, E. (2022). “The Grand Challenge of Interdisciplinarity in a Music Technology Course.” In Pangle, W., Stanley-Bohn, K., Dasen, A., Batzner, J., & Trommer-Beardslee, H.(Eds.) Removing the Educational Silos: Models of Interdisciplinary and Multi-Disciplinary Education (pp. 147-165). Intellect.
  • Scott, S.P., Labrecque, L.I., Ashley, C., Reyes, I. (2022). “Can You Hear the Tension? Musical Tension-Release Effect on Affect and Recall in Advertising: An Abstract.” In: Pantoja, F., Wu, S. (Eds.) From Micro to Macro: Dealing with Uncertainties in the Global Marketplace. AMSAC 2020. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. 

In December, Dr. Melissa Villa-Nicholas, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, received an honorary mention from the inaugural Labor Tech Research Network for her book “Latinas on the Line: Invisible Information Workers in Telecommunications.”

Villa-Nicholas was invited to speak at the Center for Latinx Digital Media at Northwestern University and has a book available for pre-order about immigrants in Silicon Valley that is set to release in July 2023.

Publication:

Presentation:

  • Invited Speaker: (Fall 2022) Data Borders: How we are all Intimately Entwined in Detention and Deportation. Center for Latinx Digital Media, School of Communication, Northwestern University.

Award:

For more information about this research or any other faculty research, check out our faculty profiles on the Harrington School website and keep an eye out for more research highlights.