Research Labs
Our faculty lead active research labs focused on a wide range of communication specialties. For more information about a lab or to inquire about research opportunities, please contact the lab director.
Current Research Laboratories
Communication and Emerging Media (CEM) Lab
The CEM Lab is a collaborative research group that investigates the role of emerging media in the political communication landscape of the 21st century. Facilitated by the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut and the Department of Communication at the University at Buffalo, the lab is committed to facilitating faculty-student collaborative research.
The lab studies how people use digital media to consume news and political information, learn about politics, discuss and share political content with others, and engage in political processes. The lab’s methodological approach combines computational methods like NLP and network analysis with conventional quantitative methodologies such as surveys and experiments.
The lab provides an open, diverse, inclusive, and collaborative space for students interested in political communication to develop their research skills. Through close faculty mentoring and weekly meetings, students are involved in all phases of the research process including idea generation, research design, data collection and analysis, and writing.
Primary Investigators
Communication and Social Equity (CASE) Research Lab
The CASE Research Lab examines how communication can be used to promote social equity and address inequalities across various contexts. The lab promotes and investigates the relationships between equitable health, climate, leadership, media, and technology culture.
Primary Investigators
Communication Methods Innovation Lab (CMIL)
The CMIL focuses on developing new methods and approaches for studying communication phenomena, with a strong focus on computational techniques, mixed methods, and qualitative research innovations. The lab also commits to use communication research methods to advance social justice.
Located in the Arjona Building (room 114), we are equipped with meeting space to facilitate collaboration and computers for conducting computational analyses of big data.
Primary Investigators
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab
The HCI Lab focuses on how computer-mediated interfaces influence user perceptions of people and media. Ongoing projects include examining how people utilize interface features and information provided during interactions as part of the person perception process. Other projects study communication technology and evaluate computer systems to enhance user ability to learn from technology.
Primary Investigators
Interpersonal Interaction Lab
The Interpersonal Interaction Lab focuses on communication within close relationships, such as in romantic relationships, friendships, and family relationships. Research in this lab covers a range of topics, such as conflict communication, communication after sexual activity, physiological stress responses to couples’ conversations, and reciprocity of affect and disclosure.
Primary Investigators
Scalable Marketing Communication (SMC) Lab
The SMC Lab works on developing audiences for product and social marketing. As the scope of your business, brand, or campaign expands, marketing communication strategies need to adapt. The goal of the SMC Lab is to create communication systems, processes, and strategies that can flexibly and effectively accommodate growth, changes in audience size, and evolving market conditions.
Primary Investigators
Video Game and Media Effects Lab
The Video Game and Media Effects Lab uses a broad range of methodologies, including surveys, content analyses, and experiments, to explore the effects of video games on individuals, both positive and negative. Recent projects have examined the role of game contextual features (e.g., natural mapping controllers) and individual difference variables (e.g., moral disengagement, psychopathy, game skill and experience). Researchers in this lab also explore the functions and effects of social media during crises and disasters, and the use of social robotics in delivering risk messages.