Professors
Dr. Catherine Chen is an assistant professor and the Mary P. Poindexter Endowed Professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication and the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University. Her research investigates how social media and emerging technologies reshape public life. Her research examines the role of technology in political participation, polarization, and public health behaviors. She also investigates public perceptions of science and new technologies. She uses survey experiments, computational methods, and physiological measures to analyze how digital communication alters trust, decision-making, and collective action.
Dr. Jeonghyun Janice Lee (Ph.D. at the University of Georgia) is an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University and a founding director of the Digital Cognition and Computational Analytics Lab. Her research focuses on leadership in organizational and corporate communication, as well as the affordances of new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) for strategic communication practices. Lee is actively utilizing computational methods in communication, with notable grants including the Manship-Reilly Center Pilot Grant and the Korean Advertising Society Research Grant for AI literacy and communication strategies. She has published extensively on AI-driven strategic communication, digital competencies, and misinformation, with work appearing in New Media & Society, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and Journal of Communication Management. With those academic achievements, she also brings a range of professional experiences, having previously worked as a public relations manager, social media manager, and online marketing communication manager at PR agencies and corporations, including Burson-Marsteller and Cigna International.
Students
Morgan Badurak is a third-year PhD student in Media and Public Affairs in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. She holds an M.A. in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Alabama and double-majored in Mass Communication (B.A.) and Music Industry Studies (B.S.) at Loyola University New Orleans. Her research interests are centered around social and digital media effects on socio-political issues in the United States, with a particular focus on platform governance and digital sovereignty.
Adwoa Baffour is a doctoral student at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Originally from Ghana, she brings an intercultural perspective to her research and professional work. Adwoa has professional experience working with the Donor Relations and Stewardship team at the LSU Foundation, where she contributed to endowment reporting and communication initiatives. Her research focuses on strategic communication—particularly public relations and crisis communication—as well as intercultural communication, critical and cultural studies, and the evolving role of social media/emerging media technologies in these areas.
Hayley Booth is a Ph.D. candidate at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Her research interests include political communication, journalism studies, and the intersection of policy making and mass communication.
Caley Hewitt is a Ph.D. Candidate in Media and Public Affairs at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. She holds an MMC in Mass Communication from Louisiana State University. Her research focuses on the intersections of gender, technology, and politics with a focus on female candidates’ electoral strategies in all-women electoral contests.
Nabila Mushtarin is a Ph.D. candidate at LSU whose research centers on health communication, social and digital media effects, and social inequality. She uses qualitative methods to study how personal and media narratives shape health behaviors among women and complements this work with quantitative and computational analyses of public perceptions and behaviors on social media.
Julia Narh is a Ph.D. student in Media and Public Affairs and a Graduate Assistant at the Manship School of Mass Communication. Her interests are in brand strategy, audience engagement, and media framing.
Kristina Shustova is a second-year Ph.D. student at the Manship School of Mass Communication. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Volgograd State University. Her research interests include strategic communication, visual communication, and the adoption and effects of new social media technology.