Dr. Hyunjin Kang – Tuesday, April 12th, 2022 

Talk Description

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how we interact and communicate with everyday technologies. Current smart technologies capable of producing information and directly communicating with users are deployed for various communication contexts. Indeed, the rise of machine agency is a notable fundamental change that AI has brought to our experience with communication technology. However, fulfilling autonomy is one of the basic needs for humans, suggesting that the rise of machine agency leads to an essential agency tension among the users; the key sources of such psychological tensions are the loss of agency and privacy. Dr. Kang discusses how users negotiate agency when interacting with AI-based technology, and the impacts of AI vs. human agency on the persuasiveness of the technology and users’ privacy management decisions. The presentation will include research findings and implications from recently completed studies in IoT and algorithm-based social media (i.e., TikTok) contexts using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. 

Bio 

Hyunjin Kang (PhD, Penn State University) is an Assistant Professor in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Her research focuses on the psychological effects of interactive communication technologies on communication processes and user behaviors. Her work has been published in many communication and HCI journals, including New Media and Society, Media Psychology, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, and Computers in Human Behaviors. She is a recipient (PI) of Meta (Facebook) Research award. Her research project on social media users’ expectations and experiences with digital privacy will be funded by Meta Research. 

Dr. John Crowley – Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 

Bio 

My research, teaching, and service focus on understanding how to help individuals, especially those within marginalized or historically underrepresented communities build resilience to cope with the stress associated with difficult and discriminatory life experiences. My research has focused on disclosure, forgiveness, and social support. Examination of the reciprocal relationships between interpersonal communication and biology, however, is the foundation of all of my work. I am a member of a small cohort of communication scholars working to pioneer the study of the physiology of interpersonal communication, particularly in the use of biosocial models to understand the effects of coping for recipients of hurtful and discriminatory communication (both covert and overt), and am actively training graduate students in the use of these methods. 

My work has appeared in flagship communication journals (e.g., Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs) and in top journals specializing in health (e.g., Health Communication) and relationships (e.g., Personal Relationships). I am also the 2020 recipient of the Early Career Award from the interpersonal communication division of the National Communication Association. 

Our current research projects are funded by both the Villanova University’s Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society (WFI) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) from the National Institute of Health (NIH). Lastly, I am the proud recipient of the Center for the Study of Diversity at the University of Delaware’s 2020 Faculty Diversity Fellowship grant. 

Dr. Charisse L’Pree – Thursday, March 3rd, 2022  

Talk Description 

The relationship between communication technologies – or the tools that we use to communicate – and our psychology is inseparable. We come to understand ourselves through the way we communicate. Although these conversations are commonplace with respect to older communication technologies (e.g., written language, printing press), it is often dismissed when discussing more modern technologies, like consumer-market cameras, cable television, and video gaming. This talk will focus on how these technologies have fostered novel ways of communicating, interpersonally and intrapersonal, to better understand – and possible predict – the future of communication and human psychology. 

Bio 

Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay is an Associate Professor of Communications at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She holds BS degrees in Brain and Cognitive Science and Comparative Media Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MA degree from the School of Cinematic Arts and a PhD in Social Psychology from University of Southern California. Charisse investigates how users think about themselves and others via media. Her work includes articles in Psychological Inquiry and AIDS and Behavior, as well as book chapters addressing serious games, race and gender methodology, and media use among marginalized populations. Her most recent book, Twentieth Century Media and the American Psyche (Routledge, 2021), describes how our relationships with media emulate interpersonal relationships through their ability to replicate intimacy, regularity, and reciprocity. At Syracuse University, she teaches classes on communication and diversity to professional media students, specifically how do media affect our understanding of different social categories and how do the social categories of media producers affect the media with which we all engage. Charisse was also awarded Teacher of the Year from the graduating class of 2017. Her upcoming book, Diversity and Satire: Laughing at Processes of Marginalization, is currently in press with Wiley.