Ph.D., Mass Communications

News
06.09.09 - I'll be teaching COMM 420 again Fall semester.

Currently I'm in my third year as a Ph.D. student at Pennsylvania State University in Mass Communications, in the area of Media Effects. I have a B.A. (magna cum laude) in Psychology from Portland State University, where I graduated in 2005. I finished my graduate coursework in 2008 and recently went through my written and oral comprehensive exams.

I am one of the coordinators of the Media Effects Research Lab and have the opportunity this semester to help train a handful of undergraduate media studies students in collecting psychophysiological effects data.

My research interest lies in understanding the motivations for participating (as the creator or the viewer) in user-generated content and the various psychological and social outcomes. I plan to shape this into a workable question for my dissertation. I am also fascinated by the explosion of online photo-sharing as a new mediated communication. I have just finished a project exploring the technological and individual characteristics that lead to the interest in sharing photos, enjoyment of photos, and other outcomes.

Download full CV (PDF). Updated June 9, 2009.

See all of my current research here.

I have spent two semesters as an instructor of an undergraduate methods course, and will likely be teaching again the future. More on my teaching experience and philosophy can be found on my Teaching page.

Music

I am also a classically trained violinist. I formally picked up the violin at the age of nine where I simply learned through the school program and played all through middle and high school and in college as part of the Portland State University symphony. I currently play in the Nittany Valley Symphony. I still play on the same violin I've owned since I was ten years old: a 1992 violin modeled after a 1713 Stradivarius.