Faculty Research Interests

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Angela M. Corbo

Angela M. Corbo

Chair of Communication Studies

An active and ongoing research agenda perpetuates knowledge that is meaningful to society and memorable to students in the classroom. My research focuses on communication pedagogy, ethical journalistic reporting in cases of suicide, emotional intelligence, gendered communication, and interactive interdisciplinary research. The topics of research are connected by interpersonal communication theories and application.

Edwin Dauber

My research focuses on application of machine learning to digital privacy and security. My dissertation was on applying stylometry - the study of style - to identifying the authors of collaborative documents and programs. I am interested in continuing research in applications of stylometry, but also in expanding to other applications of machine learning.

Joseph A. Fischbach

I am involved in pedagogical research related to advanced-level undergraduate computer science courses, focusing on simulations and active learning strategies. I routinely attend conferences on computer science education and their affiliated workshops. 

My earlier research was in the area of programming language theory. It involved crafting formal specifications of program transformations and optimizations as well as the mathematical proofs verifying the safety and correctness of those specifications.  
 

Amy Franzini 260x300

I research the intersections between children, parents, and the media. This research varies from studying children's television content to helping parents use media as teachable moments with their children.

Yana Kortsarts

Yana Kortsarts

Chair of Digital Media Informatics

My research includes studies on the integration of mathematical reasoning into computer science curricula, development and integration of innovative teaching approaches that aim to improve the learning process and enhance the comprehension of the study materials, evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, curricular development issues related to core introductory programming courses, interdisciplinary courses, courses for non-majors, and elective courses for computer science and information systems majors.

Jennifer Reinwald

I am primarily interested in digital rhetoric and rhetorical theories, but I approach my research from an interdisciplinary perspective drawing from media studies, media ecology, information and data science, library and archival sciences, and cultural studies.  

My dissertation examines hashtags on Twitter and what their role is as a rhetorical tool beyond linking or connecting. Importantly, I am interested in mundane social media, or social media that serves a purpose that may seem frivolous or unimportant at first glance. Rather than focusing primarily on well-known hashtags or hashtags that serve a social justice function, I'm interested in hashtags that do not trend as rhetorical devises and hashtags that are used for individualized pleasure. I am also interested in how algorithms and digital infrastructure impact what role hashtags can play as rhetorical tools given recent inquiries into the biases present in computer coding.

Separate from hashtags, I am also interested in exploring how social media perpetuates neoliberal, consumerist cooptation of other cultures under the guise of feminist self-care. Specifically, I'm interested in hygge, or the Danish ethic of coziness and well-being, that has transformed into an Instagram phenomenon based in the consumption of "comfort items." I'm interested in the tension between social media as well-being promoter and social media as well-being destroyer.

Jeffrey Rufinus

My research interests are in the fields of high performance computing, nanoscience and nanotechnology, magnetism, and computational physics. Basically, my passion is to use the computational power to help calculate physics phenomenon on a very small scale (e.g. nanoscale).