Communication studies faculty member Jason Zenor recently earned a “Distinguished Publication Award” from the Communication and Law Division at the National Communication Association for his 2019 article in the Southwestern Law Review called "Tribal (De)Termination: Commercial Speech, Native American Imagery and Cultural Sovereignty." The paper examines prominent cases of cultural misappropriation in sports, fashion and “sin” advertising (such as tobacco products, alcohol and gambling) while outlining the foundations of commercial speech law and federal Native American law. Zenor also presented a top paper at the 2021 NCA Conference to the Freedom of Expression division, for a piece about whether in-home artificial intelligence can and/or should report risks of in-home violence. "If You See Something, Say Something: Can Artificial Intelligence have a Duty to Report Dangerous Behavior in the Home?," published in the Denver Law Review, examines AI assistants publicizing private activities, how privacy law pertains to activity in the home and postulates how cultural expectations of privacy could erode in the future while offering suggestions on how to model laws that balance privacy with public safety.
Senior graphic design major Alexis Cleveland earned first place in the student category after submitting a poster to the The National Organization for Women’s Foundation (NOW) annual contest for their "Love Your Body" campaign. Cleveland entered the national contest with an original poster showcasing an abstract and inclusive range of bodies, and won in a category that includes undergraduate as well as graduate students. Winners are chosen based on their artwork and imagery that breaks the boundaries of what society views as the traditional beauty standards set for women and their bodies. Cleveland was mentored through the project by Amy Bartell, art instructor and coordinator of Community Art Exhibitions, who saw the email from NOW and inspired Cleveland to take up the challenge. Read the full story and see the final design and series of sketches.
Communication studies professor Ulises Mejias noted the following recent highlights of his work, paritcularly on how corporations and other large entities are using personal data:
- The journal Information, Communication and Society published his co-authored article The decolonial turn in data and technology research: What is at stake and where is it heading?
- He presented his work at Monash University (Australia), Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (Mexico) and Seoul National University (South Korea). Mejias also co-delivered a workshop for the series Reimaginar el Futuro in Chile (funded by the Ford Foundation).
- Mejias was a panelist at the summit of the Open Data Institute (which was launched by Tim Berners Lee, regarded as the inventor of the World Wide Web), and at an event organized by the Global Health Center in Geneva.
- He was interviewed for the video series Peru: Futuro Cambio Constante, for the German magazine Qiio and for the series Encuentro de Cultura Digital organized by the Chilean Ministry of Culture.
- By invitation, Mejias performed reviews for the Social Science Research Council and the Communication, Capitalism & Critique journal.
Criminal justice faculty member Jaclyn Schildkraut co-authored a pair of papers relating to her specialty of school safety. In “The Parkland Mass Shooting and the Path to Intended Violence: A Case Study of Missed Opportunities and Avenues for Future Prevention” in Homicide Studies, Schildkraut, 2019 Oswego graduate and former research assistant Tessa M. Mosher and Rebecca G. Cowan of Walden University analyzed events leading up to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to identify missed opportunities for intervention, de-escalation, and ultimately prevention. In addition, Schildkraut and M. Hunter Martaindale of Texas State University co-authored “Should firearms be allowed in K‑12 public schools? An analysis of law enforcement’s perceptions of armed teacher policies” in Security Journal. Mass shootings in schools generate both widespread public concern and a demand to “do something.” The paper uses a nationally drawn law-enforcement sample to find that officers overwhelmingly support armed teacher policies, but contingent upon concerns related to training; school resource officers and individuals in supervisory positions are less likely to support arming teachers.
Damian Schofield, director of the human-computer interaction master’s program, published a paper of recent papers with students and/or recent graduates. Schofield and cinema and screen studies graduate Joey Palluconi co-authored “The Kaiju as Beholder: Finding Empathy in Godzilla” in film journal Screen Thought. The paper studied the history of the iconic monster, attempted to understand some reasons for Godzilla’s global popularity, and tried to analyse and explain the multiple ways in which the audience has empathised with each of the different incarnations of Godzilla throughout the franchise’s history. Schofield also co-authored, with HCI grad students Anna Croyle and Fatemeh Askarinejad plus Universidade de Aveiro’s Jorge Abreu, “Concurrent Distractions: A Cross-Cultural Study of Media Multitasking Behavior” in American Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research. The study sought to develop an understanding of cross-cultural media multitasking habits, given the surge in media use through mobile devices, by surveying of a large group of experimental participants.
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