Faculty Spotlight 2025-2026
How do neurodivergent parents influence the language development of their children?
Emerson College has been awarded a multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a partner institution on a collaborative project with New York University focused on parent language input, and whether autistic and non-autistic parents speak differently when interacting with their children (LI+TLE Lab). The total collaborative award is $540,448, with Emerson receiving $240,801 for the three year project. The project was funded by the NSF through the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences. Rhiannon Luyster, a professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders is the principal researcher responsible for Emerson’s contribution to the project. For current Emerson students interested in her field of study, Professor Luyster teaches graduate courses on research methods and autism, as well as an undergraduate course on developmental psychology. About the NSF Awards: Lead collaborator New York University (NSF Award #2521482) in collaboration with Emerson College (NSF Award #2521483).
How do South Asian grocery stores create vital cultural hubs in Boston’s suburbs?
Professor emeritus Tulasi Srinivas was awarded a $1,850 research assistance grant from the UCF to examine how South Asian grocery stores create vital cultural hubs in Boston’s suburbs and are actively reshaping the suburban landscape through unique sensory, commercial, and social practices. Her research involves actively engaging in photography, mapping, and scholarship of these storefronts to contribute to UCF and other broader conversations on the subject of urban studies along with other hot button issues such as immigration, gentrification, mainstreaming, and cultural geography in the Boston community. Srinivas found that these local storefronts challenge standardized American foodscapes while also fostering community, cultural continuity, and urban transformation.
How have poets across generations approached the topic of sensibility through their work?
Current Writing, Literature and Publishing Professor Daniel Tobin has recently published The Odeon through Louisiana State University Press. His essays focus on a wide variety of writers, ranging from John Donne and Emily Dickinson to writers from the twenty-first century such as Mark Doty, Louise Glück, and Carl Phillips. With the central question of “sensibility” and its various social, philosophical, and aesthetic connotations, the collection presents a sequence of related essays exploring both resonances and dissonances in the traditions of modern and contemporary poetry. Professor Tobin received indexing support for this book from the Hub Fund for Advancing Research.
How can researchers use acoustic measurements of a person’s voice to objectively evaluate and predict swallowing problems in adults (dysphagia)?
Communication Sciences & Disorders Associate Professor Lindsay Griffin is a contributing researcher and writer for the article “Acoustic Measures of Voice Perturbation Offer Limited Value as Standalone Indicators of Laryngeal Penetration or Aspiration” that was published in the September 2025 issue of the peer-reviewed journal: Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation by Elsevier on behalf of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Current Emerson students interested in gaining research experience with adult swallowing disorders are encouraged to contact the EATS Lab.
How can critical collaboration help students in higher education address pressing social problems in the world?
Dana Edell, Faculty Director of EmersonTHEATER and Assistant Professor of Performing Arts, is a contributing researcher and writer to the recently published article “Critical Collaboration in the Classroom: Sharing Power in the Co-Creation Process Among Faculty, Students, and Community Partners” in Innovative Higher Education. Her research explores how collaboration, partnerships, and community-engagement are increasingly important as higher education institutions face pressure to prepare students for the workforce and contribute to the public good, highlighting open listening, recognition of diverse forms of expertise, clarity of shared outcomes, and collective decision making as key factors in “critical collaboration.”
How can social media influencers shape the political landscape under the current US administration?
Communications Studies Department Associate Professor and Director of the DC Program, Vincent Raynauld, is a collaborator on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant led by the University of Ottawa entitled “The roles and impacts of political social media influencers.” The six year $184,000 grant ($252,000 in Canadian dollars) will study how social media influencers are changing the way people get their political news, and the degree of influence they have. Read more in Emerson Today.
How do new surveillance technologies and the political economy of media complicate the ethics of visual journalism when covering protests?
Gino Canella, Associate Professor & Associate Chair in the Journalism Department, wrote the article, “Anonymous Dissent: Protest, Privacy, and Photographic Surveillance in Digital Media” that appeared in the June 2025 issue of New Media & Society, a peer-reviewed journal published by SAGE. This article explores the nuances and challenges in ethical journalism as new surveillance technologies and the political economy of media are rapidly developing.
How can fantasy sports be used for developing aspects of sports communication skills and strategies needed for professionals seeking to work in the industry?
Lauren Anderson’s article “Making fantasy reality: Fantasy sport simulations as immersive sports communication classroom experiences” appeared in the July 2025 issue of Communication Teacher, a peer-reviewed journal published online by Taylor & Francis. Her work explores how fantasy sports can be used as a tool for developing aspects of communication skills and strategies needed for professionals seeking to work in the sports communications industry.
In what ways can restorative civic practices that use proximity enable caring and agency for stronger engagement in daily civic life?
Paul Mihailidis, Interim Dean in the School of Communication, wrote the article, “Restoring Civic Health in a Culture of Distance: Media and the Challenge of Proximal Belonging” that appeared in the August 2025 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, a peer‑reviewed journal published by SAGE. His research highlights the need for a clear understanding of the relationship between our digital technologies and our lived environments.
How do eye-gazing rates vary between neurodivergent children and non-spectrum children?
Rhiannon Luyster, Communication Sciences & Disorders Professor, co-authored an article, “Quality of remotely-collected gaze data in autistic and non-spectrum children,” which appeared in the June 2025 issue of Language Development Research, an open-access peer-reviewed journal out of Carnegie Mellon University. Her research explores her eye-gazing data collection on autistic and non-spectrum children and the applications it has to her previous research.
What are the impacts of the direct and indirect encounters initiated by the police and welfare systems in Canada on Black youth of Toronto?
Deion Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Argumentation & Advocacy in the Department of Communication Studies, served as a reviewer on an article in the September 2025 issue of the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Frontiers in Public Health, published by Frontiers Media.
How can the study of communication within adoptive families, the adoption experience into adulthood, and the limitations of the current societal definitions of family lead to a more empathic understanding of the adoption experience?
Robin Danzak is a professor and graduate program director in the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department at Emerson College. Currently, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language and literacy. Danzak’s research focuses on bilingual writing of adolescents and adults, examining connections between language, culture, and identity. Currently, she is also investigating the rich nature of the adoption experience through qualitative, arts-based methods. In her research work: “Fairy-Tale Beginnings Are Often Pretty Bad.” Filling the Gaps of the Adoption Experience with Narrative Inquiry, she closely examines the key influences and taboo subjects within the adoption experience.
How can scholars use Shakespeare’s work as an essential reference tool for early modern literature, linguistics, and culture?
Adele Lee is an associate professor in the Writing, Literature and Publishing Department at Emerson College. Through her research and publications, she focuses primarily on the conversations surrounding Shakespearean influence in global culture. Her work as a guest editor on “The Shakespearean International Yearbook: Mixed Race Studies” is her latest exploration into the influence Shakespearean text had on the development of modern literature, linguistics, and culture.
How can culturally tailored health communication build trust and offer insights into health communication strategies for members of the Black community during health crises and pandemics?
Deion Hawkins and Sharifa Simon-Roberts are associate professors in the Communication Studies Department. Combining their knowledge of Critical Race Theory (CRT), they wanted to explore the effects of communication and miscommunication in terms of vaccine and other COVID-19 protocol reception during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their article: “You Have These Antibodies Waitin’ to Pop Off: Black Amplification Rhetorics in Tyler Perry’s COVID-19 Vaccine Special” is available in the journal of Health Communication.
How can consumer marketers use existing knowledge of individuals’ self-gifting motivations and insecure attachments to influence consumers’ buying tendencies vis-à-vis compulsive and impulsive buying?
Sereikhuoch Eng is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for the Marketing Communication Department. Brent Smith is an Associate Vice President in the Professional Studies & Special Programs Department. Eng and Smith co-wrote the research article, “Drivers of self-gifting motivations: insecure attachment, compulsive and impulsive buying and existential isolation” that was published in the January issue of Journal of Consumer Marketing by Emerald Insight. This article examines the psychological influences that impact compulsive and impulsive buying habits through the trending idea of motivational self-gifting.
How are Caribbean countries (CARICOM) using neoliberal regionalism to promote joint partnerships within human resource development areas in the region?
Max Crumley-Effinger, Assistant Director of International Student Affairs, co-wrote an article in December 2025 in the journal of Globalisation, Societies and Education titled, “The ascent of ‘neoliberal regionalism’ in an era of multistakeholderism: deglobalization, higher education and labor mobility in CARICOM.” This article explores how “Mature Regionalism” can help grow internal cooperation within the CARICOM workforce to stabilize the economy without relying solely on western influence.
How do advancements in technology affect power dynamics in the digital workplace?
Gino Canella, Associate Professor & Associate Chair in the Journalism Department, worked on the book, “Raising Class Consciousness” that was published in November 2025 by Springer Nature. His research challenges the idea of “techno-utopia” by exploring the ways technology in the workplace contributes to uneven power dynamics.
How can narrative nonfiction shape how one views their own perceptions of familial relationships and the significance of truth?
Jenny Mohleberg is a WLP Professor and the Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares. Mohleberg’s narrative piece “Bullfight” was published in November in Volume 27 of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative by Ball State University. The narrative nonfiction piece explores intergenerational trauma and critiques on survival narratives in a patriarchal society.
How can one create equitable media literacy practices by expanding upon and researching current practices in the space of media literacy, digital culture, social justice, and equity in media and communication studies departments and beyond?
Paul Mihailidis, Interim Dean in the School of Communication, co-wrote the book, “Equitable Media Literacies: Pedagogies and Practices for Healthy Civic Futures” that was published by Taylor & Francis in December 2025. His research highlights how to enhance media literacy within a new framework that shifts the focus of media literacy practices from that of individual skill transfer to that of equity-driven community-oriented media practices.
How do popular endings in current fictional media indicate wider societal views and ideological assumptions?
Ben Roth is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies. He wrote the article, “Ideological Rug-Pulling In and Outside of Art” published in the November 2025 issue of The Journal of Aesthetic Education. The article takes an analytical approach to popular media narrative endings through the lens of ideological assumptions.
What was the true psychological and intellectual driver behind the Republican sweep in the 2024 election?
Robert Brown is an Affiliated Faculty member for the School of Communication. His article “The Transformational Idea of a Deep State and the Election of 2024” was published in American Behavioral Scientist in November 2025. In this article, Brown examines how the belief of a metaphysical force influenced the Presidential election in 2024.
How can psychology and political activism work together to help people heal from the effects of colonial oppression?
Nigel Gibson is a Professor for the Marlboro Institute. Gibson’s work on the article, “Fanon’s Humanism: An Interview with Nigel Gibson” examines how concepts of new humanism, agency, action, and liberatory practice work in the context of colonial oppression and dehumanization. This article was published in November 2025 in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
Does learning to be creative have a permanent impact on a person’s life, and if so, what specific skills do they keep?
Thomas Vogel is a Professor for the Department of Marketing Communications. His book Developing Creative Literacy: The long-term Impact of Creativity Training was published in November 2025 by Books on Demand. Vogel’s work expands upon the idea that creative teaching is not reserved to short-term learning, rather is a long-term method that could be applied to other teaching models.
How is AI going to affect dynamics of on and off-line political communication over the next decade?
Vincent Raynauld is an Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department. His article, “Not a Revolution: How Artificial Intelligence is Augmenting Existing Political Communication Trends,” was published in October in the Journal of Media Ethics. This article explores the possibility of artificial intelligence in the political communication and marketing industry as AI could work as a tool to enhance campaign advertisements and political messaging.
What is life like for young Asian Americans who are also neurodivergent, and how do these two identities influence each other?
Robin Danzak is a professor and graduate program director in the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department at Emerson College. Currently, she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in language and literacy. As a co-author for the article, “‘I Never Matched the Mold’: Illuminating the Neurodivergent Asian American Experience Through Photovoice,” Danzak examines the intersection of identity between the Asian American and the neurodivergent experience, seeing the ways in which both impact the lives of emerging adults and their experiences.
How did the early letters between Edgar Allan Poe and Lydia Sigourney set the stage for their future battles over gender, poetry, and fame?
Alexandra Socarides is The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Socarides article, “‘That sin which in poetry is not to be forgiven’: The Poe-Sigourney Correspondence,” was published in Poe Studies, Volume 58, 2025, pp. 46-65 by John Hopkins University Press in 2025. This article explores the nature and influence of Edgar Allan Poe and Lydia Sigourney’s early correspondence in the context of developing their legacies within the literary canon.
How could Jibo and other generative artificial intelligence models help aid in teaching film studies?
Daniel Pillis is an Assistant Professor in the School of Film, Television, and Media Arts. Pillis’ article, “Return of the Jibo : Generative AI & Social Robots for Virtual Production Education” was published by 2025 MIT AI and Education Summit. The article examines the different positive applications of MIT’s AI Jibo, especially in the role as a teaching aid in film studies classrooms.
How does The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance by Artel Great explore the careers, relationships, and significance of the comedians of the self-titled Black Pack of the 1980s and early 1990s?
Joshua Truelove is an Affiliated Faculty for the Marlboro Institute. His book review for The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance by Artel Great was published in Volume 11, Issue 2 of the September 2025 Studies of American Humor. Truelove examines the text within the context of the history of Black resistance humor along with the cultural identities that contributed to the movement.
How did Donald Trump use ‘hypermasculinity’ as a marketing brand to win over a diverse group of male voters in 2024?
Vincent Raynauld is an Associate Professor in the Communication Studies Department. His article, “(Hyper) Masculinity on the Ballot: Gender Identity Politics Appeals on the Right of the Political Spectrum and the 2024 U.S. Presidential Elections” was published in October 2025 in the Political Marketing in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. While most people think of “identity politics” as something used by the political Left (focusing on race, gender, or orientation), this article looks at how the political Right used gender identity—specifically “being a man”—to build a winning coalition.