N is interested in how communication theory and research help us answer the questions: (1) “How do we think about thinking?”, (2) “How do we talk about thinking?”, (3) “How do we think about talking?”, and (4) “How do we talk about talking?” He uses experimental, computational, observational, textual, and philosophical methods to explore how metacognition shapes and is shaped by communication processes.
Juven Nino Villacastin (or “N”) studies how the intersections between communication science, epistemology, cognitive science, and media studies inform theorizing and empirical research on metacognition in communication processes. His PhD research engages broad questions such as:
1. How do tangible and intangible tools afford and influence metacognition in relation to our epistemic and relational goals?
2. How does metacognition play a role in communication processes — such as creating and repairing understanding, message processing, coordinating behavior, and persuasion — and do these roles vary across communication partners (human-human, human-machine, animal-animal), levels (biological, psychological, social), and contexts (intrapersonal, interpersonal, group)?
3. How is metacognition broadcasted through social stimuli? And how do expressions of metacognition vary across cultures?
4. How do we theorize about theorizing communication?
He is trained in post-positivist (MA Communicology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa) as well as interpretivist and critical research paradigms (graduate units, University of the Philippines). He has won Top Student Paper Awards at NCA’s “Communication and Social Cognition” and “Communication and the Future” divisions and has presented his work in conferences across the US and Asia. He was also a data specialist for communication campaigns with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
B.A. (2019), University of the Philippines Mindanao, Communication Arts major in Speech and Corporate Communication
M.A. (2025), University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Communicology