Doctoral Students
Jessica Afful Tuleassi
Jessica Afful Tuleassi is a first year doctoral student at HSJMC. She had a Master's degree in Communication at New Mexico State University where she did her thesis on Understanding Political Engagement through a Strategic Communication Lens: Assessing the Effects of Campaign Strategies on Ghanaian Voters using the Elaboration Likelihood Model. She is interested in political and strategic communication, particularly interested in researching how strategic political campaign messages influences voting behavior. She is also interested in studying digital media technologies and how they influence participation and the multifaceted role of gender in politics. Jessica has presented her work at conferences such as Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), National Communication Association, and Global Fusion.
Jonathan Anderson
Jonathan Anderson is a doctoral candidate in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Jonathan studies access to information and its implications for society and democratic governance. His research principally focuses on legal rights of access, namely through public records laws, and the role of journalism in the flow of information. His research has been published in the Journal of Media Law and Ethics, the Journal of College and University Law, and the Mitchell Hamline Law Review. He has presented research at ICA, AEJMC, AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, NCA, Popular Culture Association, the Media Law and Policy Scholars Conference, and the National Freedom of Information Coalition FOI Summit. Jonathan has taught Media in a Changing World (JOUR 1001) at Minnesota and Media Law (COMM 3800) at Marquette University.
Wenwen Cao
Wenwen Cao is a first-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on advertising, particularly in influencer marketing, gender, consumer behavior, and computational methods. Wenwen's master’s thesis explored how femvertising influences consumer purchase intentions, brand attitudes, and gender consciousness in China. She has presented her research at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), where she won Third Place in the Student Research Competition in the advertising division.
Monica Crawford
Monica Crawford is a first year doctoral student at HSJMC. Her research involves representations of gender and queer identities, sports journalism, and political activism from a feminist media studies perspective. She has published a peer-reviewed journal article in Communication and Sport and a book chapter in The Handbook on Religion and Communication. She has presented her work at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and International Communication Association (ICA) conferences and the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium. She also serves as the Book Reviews Editorial Assistant for Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Monica is from North Carolina and received her MA at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Elliott Edsall
Elliott Edsall is a second-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School. He earned his MA in sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. His research examines the sociology of right-wing media and American conservatism, focusing on social class and partisan identity. In particular, he examines the mobilization of conservative sensibilities through ostensibly apolitical media. He has presented his research at the International Communication Association and Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conferences.
Chloe Gansen
Chloe Gansen is a third-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She earned her MA from HSJMC. Chloe studies health communication with a particular interest in how information in the media environment contributes to vaccine hesitancy. Her current research examines media messages that politicize science and health information by associating the topics with controversy and or partisan conflict, and the effects of this messaging on perceptions of public health initiatives and institutions. Chloe has presented work at ICA and served as a graduate instructor for JOUR 3745: Mass Media and Popular Culture. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked in applied health communications roles at the National Cancer Institute and Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan
Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan is a first-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. His research interests encompass the safety and well-being of journalists in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, digital authoritarianism, exile journalism, and bureaucratic capture of professional media. His work falls at the intersection of journalism studies and political communication. Mahbub has presented his work at IAMCR, AEJMC Midwinter Conference, the Communicating Diversity Student Conference, and the Inaugural Pacific Northwest Conference of Political Communication and Journalism Studies. He holds two master's degrees from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the University of Houston. Prior to pursuing his higher studies, Mahbub worked as a reporter at the Daily Prothom Alo, Bangladesh, and he is proficient in four languages.
Ting He
Ting He is a second-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research interests involve platforms, digital labor, identities, and game studies. Ting has published a single-author paper in the International Journal of Communication and presented her work at International Communication Association (ICA) and National Communication Association (NCA) conferences. Additionally, she has served as a graduate instructor for JOUR 1501: Digital Games and Society. In her free time, she is a fan of K-pop, video games, films, and photography.
Jiacheng Huang
Jiacheng Huang is a second-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School. Prior to HSJMC, she earned her MS in media science from Boston University (2023). Her research focuses on algorithms and strategic communication. Most of her work either explores the intersectionality of these fields or falls into one of the two, mostly through computational methods. She has presented research at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the International Communication Association (ICA), and the International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC). She also received the Top Faculty Paper Award at the ICA, PR division, and the Fullintel Media Insights and Impact Award at IPRRC.
Nicole Klevanskaya
Nicole Marie Klevanskaya is a first-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School. She earned her M.A. from the Hubbard School in May 2024. Her research is focused on Russian digital propaganda. Nicole presented her work at the 2024 AEJMC Conference, where her paper received First Place in the International Communication Division's James Markham Student Competition. She also has a Russian to English translation published in the Russian Language Journal. Prior to attending HSJMC, Nicole reported for multiple newspapers, including the Wichita Eagle, and worked as a social media and communications assistant for the KU Department of Chemistry. In 2019, the Kansas Scholastic Press Association (KSPA) awarded her with the title of Kansas Student Journalist of the Year.
Eunsun Kyoung
Eunsun Kyoung is a first-year doctoral student. She earned her MA in Communication from Seoul National University. Her research interests include mental health, health communication, and advertising. She has presented her work at the conferences of the Korean Society for Journalism and Communication Studies and the Korean Association for Broadcasting & Telecommunication Studies. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked on government advertising at the Korea Press Foundation. She also worked as an editorial assistant at the Korean Journal of Journalism and Communication Studies.
Andrew Locke
Andrew Locke is a fifth-year doctoral student at HSJMC. He received his MA in Liberal Studies from The New School For Social Research. His interests include digital news ecosystems, critical media theory, populism, and the political economy of communications. In particular, his research goals center around the influence of digitalization in journalism and media, and its effects on audiences and the publishing industry. These issues are explored using qualitative research methods, particularly by employing grounded theory and critical discourse analysis. Andrew taught JOUR1501, "Digital Games and Society" at HSJMC. His BA (English) is from Creighton University.
Ningyuan Ma
Ningyuan Ma is a first-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School. She obtained her MA in Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin in 2024. Her research has an interdisciplinary focus across linguistic anthropology, science and technology studies, and journalism studies. During her PhD study, Ningyuan hopes to examine the issues of subjectivity, objectivity, systematicity, and artistic creativity involved in data journalism as a form of social inquiry. She is also interested in the organization and expertise of journalist-programmers. Ningyuan has presented her work at the 2024 ICA Preconference in Singapore, as well as at AEJMC regional and main conferences. In leisure time, she enjoys music, hiking, and cooking. Ningyuan is from Harbin, China.
Michael Ofori
Michael Ofori is a first-year doctoral student at the HSJMC pursuing the Political Communication track. He earned his MA degree in International/Intercultural Communication from Bowling Green State University. His research focuses on the interplay of media and politics from global perspective. He researched "Role of Political Alliance in Global News Framing and Source Attribution Strategies: A Comparison of US, UK, China and India’s News Coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War" for his master's thesis. Michael has gotten his individual/co-authored research papers accepted and presented at various communication conferences including at the 2023 ICA Conference, 2022 and 2023 AEJMC Conferences, the 2022 NCA Conference. He will present his research in this year's NCA Conference in Maryland. Michael has co-authored papers in the Internet Research and Online Media and Global Communication. He is currently a teaching assistant for the JOUR 3006: Visual Communication and JOUR 3745: Media and Pop Culture.
McKenna Premus
McKenna Premus is a second-year master’s student at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests lie primarily in media literacy education (MLE) and mental health communication. She conducted an independent research study for her undergraduate honors thesis on Understanding the Teaching of Media Literacy in Higher Education Environments, which she presented at the 2022 Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference (MassURC). McKenna has also presented her research at the 2023 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Midwinter Conference and the 2023 AEJMC Conference, where she received the Second Place Top Student Paper Award in the Scholastic Journalism Division. She earned her BA in Journalism and BS in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she served as the Managing Editor of The Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
Jikai Sun
Jikai Sun is a first-year PhD student majoring in mass communication at the Hubbard School. He received his MA degree from the Renmin University of China (2024). His research interests mainly revolve around health communication. Specifically, he focuses on how people process health-related content on social media and the underlying social and psychological factors that may work in such processes. He also cares about how health-related misinformation spreads on social media and effective ways to debunk it. Several of his academic papers have been published in journals like Health Communication. He has also presented his works at conferences like the Annual ICA Conference.
Rongwei Tang
Rongwei Tang is a second-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Prior to HSJMC, Rongwei received her Bachelor of Arts in Advertising from Fudan University (2020) and earned her Master of Arts in Anthropology and Education from Columbia University (2022). She is interested in media literacy, misinformation, and health communication. Her current research explores how to debunk misinformation and investigate strategies to help people improve their media literacy.
Namuun Tsegmid
Namuun Tsegmid is a first-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She obtained a Master's degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Michigan State University. Her research interests revolve around public relations and non-profit communication. She presented her collaborative project at the Broadcast Education Association conference. She has also worked as a communication practitioner in non-profit and international development organizations.
Le Wang
Le Wang is a third-year PhD student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He is interested in media effects and health communication. Specifically, he focuses on cancer communication. His thesis will look into the effects of hedging in cancer-related news stories on the general population's attitude, perceptions, and behaviors towards cancer treatment and detection tool such as colonoscopy. Le earned his BA in Marketing from Jinan University, China and his MA in Mass Communication at HSJMC.
Sarah Kay Wiley
Sarah K. Wiley is a doctoral candidate at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a Knight News Innovation Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Her research examines the relationships and institutional dependencies between technology companies and news organizations. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Digital Journalism, the Journal of Civic Information, and the Journal of Media Law and Ethics. She has presented her work at several conferences and has won top paper awards at the International Communication Association (ICA), the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC), and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). She earned her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School in 2016.
Trevor Zaucha
Trevor Zaucha is a third-year doctoral student at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. His research concerns the political economy of emerging media, money, gambling, game studies, and labor. Zaucha received his Bachelor of Science in Advertising from the University of Illinois (2016) and Master of Arts in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota (2022). He has published twice in New Media & Society and once in Information, Communication & Society. Additionally, he has contributed a book chapter to “Non-Fungible Tokens: Multidisciplinary Perspectives.” He has presented his work at the ICA Game Studies Preconference and the ICA main conference. During his time at the University of Minnesota, Zaucha has served as a graduate instructor for JOUR 1501: Digital Games and Society. Prior to his enrollment in the Hubbard School, he worked for a number of years at a marketing technology company in Austin, Texas.
Master’s Students
George Bagrov
George Bagrov is a first-year master's student at the Hubbard School. He believes that by educating the audience about political & media literacy and encouraging critical thinking, the mass media consumers are less likely to become subject to mis- and disinformation, as well as other methods of political influence on the public through the media. Therefore, his academic interests touch upon public opinion, political literacy, and misinformation. Apart from conducting the research, George is currently serving as a teaching assistant for two courses at the College of Liberal Arts, JOUR 3745 Media and Popular Culture and JOUR 1501 Digital Games and Society.
Kailey Blunk
Kailey Blunk is a second year MA student at HSJMC. Her research interests include queer and feminist representation and messaging in digital media such as the portrayal and distribution of information of the HIV/AIDS crisis in scripted television. She received her BA in Communication Studies and Public Relations and minored in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Creative Writing in 2022 from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. After graduating from her undergraduate program, she worked in grassroots marketing before starting the MA program here at the University of Minnesota.
Adam Castella
Adam Castella is a first-year Master's Student who is passionate about research in public relations. He is proud to have earned his Bachelor's Degree at the University of Minnesota. Beyond academics, he enjoys indulging in the hobbies of hiking, reading, creative writing, and cooking. In his free time, he enjoys volunteering and helping local communities.
Theodore Colling
Ted Colling is a second-year MA student. His thesis is centered primarily around the college students and their wearable technologies, particularly the usability of smartwatch technology, the perceived norms associated with smartwatches, and individuals' willingness to utilize smartwatch technology to its fullest capabilities. Ted is a husband, a father, and a Catholic whose aim is to love humans and understand humanity.
Isaac Conrad
Isaac Conrad is a first-year masters student at HSJMC. He is an environmental communication scholar focused on strategic environmental messaging strategies; more specifically, he investigates theory-driven messages aimed at shifting public opinion and changing behavior to better align with bold climate policy. Isaac graduated with a BA in Communication and Biology from the University of Minnesota Duluth.Isaac’s paper titled ‘ A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Climate Change Opinions, Beliefs, and Risk Perceptions in Morocco and the United States’ was published in the interdisciplinary undergraduate journal, Aisthesis, and he holds multiple top paper awards for papers presented at the University of St. Thomas Undergraduate Communication Research Conference and the University of Minnesota Duluth Department of Communication Colloquium.
Yumiko Ehara
Yumiko Ehara is a first-year Master's student. She received her BA in Social Sciences from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan. She wrote the BA thesis, which analyzed the media representations of mass murderers in Japan and how the representations differed based on their gender. Her current interests are DEI in mass media, especially journalism, and the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity.
Carolina Ferreira
Carolina Ferreira is a first-year master's student at the Hubbard School, focusing on misinformation and media literacy. She earned her bachelor's degree in journalism from the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. Her research interests revolve around understanding how media literacy can be utilized as a tool against misinformation. She is particularly interested in exploring practical strategies for enhancing media literacy to effectively combat false information.
Zhiya Gao
Zhiya Gao is a first-year master student at Hubbard School. Her research interests focus on public relations -- psychological attributes of communication process, as well as outcome evaluation of organizational communication. She conducted an honors thesis titled "How Meaning and Social Capital Are Created: A Case Study of Social Media Engagement During the COVID Age."
Cydney Grannan
Cydney Grannan is a second year MA student at the Hubbard School. Their research interests revolve around journalism studies and political communication, including journalism sourcing practices, the public’s relationship with news, and how technology impacts news media and political communication. Their thesis focuses on source tracking in U.S. newsrooms, where journalists systematically collect and analyze characteristics of quoted sources. Grannan has presented their research at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference. Grannan is a former journalist.
Anastasia Micich
Anastasia Micich is a first-year master's student at the Hubbard School. Her research interests include how advertising intersects with emerging technologies, including data privacy concerns, deceptive advertising tactics, as well as broader ethical issues within the scope of advertising. She received her BS in Advertising and a BA in Music from Boston University.
Caitlin Neal
Caitlin Neal is a second-year master’s student at the Hubbard School. She is a political communication scholar focused on public opinion, partisan identity, and public policy. She previously earned a professional master of arts degree from the Hubbard School in strategic communication. In partnership with her co-researchers, her work has been presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference and she is currently contributing to a book chapter on misinformation, identity, and correction. Caitlin is also the recipient of the 2023 Sig Mickelson Family for Media Ethics Fellowship.
Emma Troha
Emma Troha is a first-year Master’s student at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include internet law and policy, as well as political advertising and communication. She received her undergraduate degree from the Hubbard School here at UMN and is continuing research on Section 230 and related topics. In her free time she loves hiking, camping, and being outdoors.
Kaiyi Yu
Kaiyi Yu is a second-year master’s student at the University of Minnesota, pursuing her studies in the dynamic field of media law and policy. She holds a master’s degree in Law from Zhejiang University, where her thesis focused on China's internet press licensing system. Her current research centers on internet governance and content moderation for her master’s thesis. Kaiyi’s work has been accepted at conferences, including the International Communication Association (ICA) and The Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC).
Rongjin Zhang
Rongjin Zhang is a second-year master's student at the Hubbard School. Her research focus on the intersection of advertising and human-computer interaction, with a special interest in computational methods. Her previous research have been accepted at conferences including NCA, IAMCR, and ICORIA. Before joining the Hubbard School, Rongjin earned her BS (Honors) in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam, complemented by a minor in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.