Professor Joe Walther has been named a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. The Center, within the Harvard Law School, attracts scholars and practitioners from around the world to advance discovery and promote remedies to the problems and promise of the internet, social media, and the infusion of AI into civic and personal life. The Center is known for its Cyberlaw Clinic, its invention of open access publication licensing, its connections to major technology corporations, and its ongoing concerns over media governance, privacy, cybersecurity, ethics, and disinformation. Professor Walther’s work with the Center relates to his research into online hate messaging – social media posts that denigrate people based on racism, religion, sexual orientation, misogyny, xenophobia, and other characteristics. Accordingly, the Berkman Klein Center includes his efforts in their working groups on Justice, Equity, & Inclusion, as well as Media, Democracy, & Public Discourse. See https://cyber.harvard.edu/
The NCA Mentorship and Leadership Council (MLC) provided one of four Mentorship Awards at the 2024 conference in New Orleans to Musa Malik. The award recognizes best practices and challenges in mentorship. The MLC views mentorship broadly as a co-constructed activity that is accessible and supportive. Priorities are given to mentorship that aligns with and uplifts NCA's commitment to promoting inclusivity, diversity, equity, and access for all. Mentorship could include professional development, building intellectual communities, providing opportunities and resources, pedagogical support, writing feedback, infusing inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) into institutions, and more. What makes this award even more impressive is that Musa is the only graduate student on the panel; all of the other recipients are tenured professors!
Hannah Hoverbye-Thompson received the 2024 Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award in Quantitative Methods from the Master’s Education Section of the National Communication Association, at this year’s conference in New Orleans, for her Master’s Thesis, Department of Communication: “The Cycle of Bias: Skin Tone Biases in Algorithms and the Implications for Technology."
Hillary joined the Department of Communication in August 2024. She is a UCSB alum (class of 2003!) who is excited to be back at UCSB to support the Department of Communication. She received her B.A. in English with a minor in Sociocultural Linguistics. Afterwards, she stayed at UCSB to complete her Elementary Teaching Credential and Masters in Education. After teaching for a couple years in Santa Barbara, she decided to change careers and worked as a Bookkeeper and Office Administrator for two small construction companies. Hillary is an avid reader who particularly loves audiobooks and is eager to swap book recommendations with anyone. She enjoys giving back to the community through volunteering, and is currently an active board member of her kids’ school PTA. She, her husband, and 3 kids are first time dog owners who recently adopted the cutest puppy named Clover.
Dr. Guadalupe Madrigal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her previous work focused on news media portrayals of immigrant children in the news over the past 30 years, and the consequences of these representations in contemporary politics. Her current research explores the interplay of identity and information in political processes, especially related to policy in the United States. Dr. Madrigal also has a vested interest in Chicanx/a/o and Latinx/a/o studies and is an affiliate faculty member of the Chicano Studies Institute. Her research has appeared in outlets such as Communication Theory, Political Communication, Politics Groups and Identities, and the International Journal of Press/Politics. When Guadalupe is not researching or teaching, she is dancing salsa, crocheting, sewing, or reading novels. She is also affectionately known by her nickname “Lupita.”
Ph.D. (2022), University of Michigan, Communication and Media
B.A. (2017), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Communication Studies
Katherine ("Katie") Elder is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Communication. Prior to joining UCSB, she was on the faculty at California State University, Channel Islands (winning the Arts & Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022), and previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center on a grant-funded project designed to tailor health-related messaging to the needs and beliefs of state legislators. She studies translation and implementation science, focusing specifically on how to bridge the gap between public health research and health policy. Her research interests are motivated by her work in the public sector. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked for two years as a program analyst in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Recovery Act Office, where she was responsible for stimulus-created jobs data posted quarterly on Recovery.gov. She has also worked on projects for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the U.S. Department of State in Kampala, Uganda, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ph.D. (2017), University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Health Communication
Masters of Public Affairs (2009), University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
Bachelor of Arts (2006), University of California, Davis, Political Science
Linda Putnam established a fund to build an endowment for the Putnam Interdisciplinary Scholar Award, a $500 annual honorarium to support communication graduate students involved in interdisciplinary research, including conference presentations and publications in journals outside the field. See full story at https://news.ucsb.edu/in-focus/academy-management-inductee-linda-putnam-establishes-award-organizational-research
Kyungin Kim and Kylie Woodman are both featured in the following post for their 2024 Graduate Division Carol Genetti Mentoring Awards: https://gradpost.ucsb.edu/blog/top-stories/2024/2024-07/2024-mentoring-award-winners
Kyungin Kim, Jennifer Kam, and D. Munguia win a Top Paper Award from the Family Communication Division of the National Communication Association at the 2024 conference for Kim, K., Kam, J. A., & Munguia, D. (2024). Undocumented college students' career-related communication with their parents and the vocational anticipatory socialization model of structural limitations.