Guadalupe Madrigal (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a Preparing Future Faculty – Faculty Diversity (PFFFD) Postdoctoral Fellow for 2022-2024. Using quantitative methods, she researches topics related to political communication with a particular interest on media, race, information, social identity, and immigration. Her dissertation was focused on news media portrayals of immigrant children in the news over the past 30 years, and the consequences of these representations in contemporary politics. She also has a vested interest in Chicana/o and Latina/o studies. 

Hsin-I Sydney Yueh (Ph.D., University of Iowa) is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her research examines how culture shapes communication in various groups and communities. A major focus of her research is the role of language in intercultural communication. She attends to how cultural factors and power structure influence individuals to compose, perform, and respond to persuasive messages. Her book Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation (Lexington, 2016) received the Outstanding Book Award for the International and Intercultural Communication Division at the 2018 National Communication Association (NCA) convention. The earlier version of this book was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Language and Social Interaction Division at the 2013 NCA conference. Yueh takes both interpretive and critical approaches to scholarship. Yueh’s research has been published in NCA journals, such as Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, and Critical Studies of Media Communication, in addition to specialty journals focusing on East Asia, China, and Taiwan. She has also presented her work and received top paper awards at a number of regional and national conferences.

Yueh was the recipient of a Taiwan Fellowship in 2021, which allowed her to observe politicians’ persuasive rhetoric in Taiwan’s election culture. In addition to her memberships for several US-based communication associations, she serves on the board of directors (2020–2023) for North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) to promote Taiwan studies in North America.

Tim Luisi (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is a Visiting Assistant Professor within the Department of Communication. Using a mixed methods approach, he examines the representation of gender and race throughout the media landscape including in children’s and sports media. As a media and interpersonal scholar, he also explores how stereotyped media affects social identity formation throughout the lifespan. His research has been published in journals such as The Journal of Children and Media, Journal of Homosexuality, Psychology of Popular Media, and the Howard Journal of Communications. Currently, Tim is the Course Director for Communication 1200.

Rachael Hernandez (Ph.D., Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research explores communication about sensitive health-related topics. Currently, her research focuses primarily on 1) how people manage information about health risk behaviors, and 2) how implicit biases against social groups (e.g. along the lines of race, gender, and age) have the potential to influence clinician-patient communication. Using interpretive methods, she integrates theories and perspectives from communication and bioethics into her research. Rachael’s research has been published in Health Communication, the Journal of Health Communication, Academic Medicine, and other nationally recognized journals.

Dr. Kevin Hales

Kevin J. Hales is an internationally respected public scholar who focuses on issues of race, social justice, diversity, inclusion, conflict, and communication across cultures. Dr. Hales is a firm believer in fostering research projects that include collaborations with traditional intellectuals in marginalized communities. Some of his partnerships are with local scholars working among the Efik, Efut, Qua, and Igbo (Nigeria and Cameroon); Garifuna (Honduras and Belize); and Gullah/Geechee (South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida).

Over the course of his career, Dr. Hales has received research funding from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Newberry Library, Marco Institute and Center for Renaissance Studies at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, J. William Fulbright Scholar Program, Fulbright-Hayes Program, National Endowment for the Humanities, United States Department of State/Bureau of African Affairs, Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, Ohio University and the Scripps College of Communication, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, among other institutions.

Dr. Hales has given lectures as a visiting scholar and researcher at several universities abroad. These include the University of Makeni (Sierra Leone), University of Oran 2 (Algeria), and Imo State University (Nigeria).

Hales was recently selected for inclusion as part of the inaugural cohort of international researchers and practitioners in the Rural Scholars Program at Tarleton State University. His research project as a Rural Scholar center on having conversations about social justice and inclusion with African-descended farmers in the Lowcountry (South Carolina and Georgia) and West Africa (Gambia, Senegal, Nigeria, and Cameroon) during 2021 through 2023.

Dr. Hales attended Ohio University (Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication Studies), North Carolina Central University (M.A. in History), and Fisk University (B.A. in History, Religion, and Philosophy).

Dr. Yerina S. Ranjit is an assistant professor at the department of communication at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Ranjit received her Ph.D. in Communication from University of Connecticut (2016) and completed her Post-Doctoral Training at Yale University School of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, AIDS Program (2019). Dr. Ranjit’s research program lies at the intersection of communication, digital technology and mHealth, HIV, and substance use. As a communication scholar, Dr. Ranjit focuses on behavior change communication. She is interested in the role of mediated communication in improving health in the underserved populations. Dr. Ranjit has been involved in designing experimental studies to test the effect of media messages on health behaviors; conducting surveys to understand the influences of media and interpersonal communication on risk perceptions, and behavioral outcomes; and creating communication interventions to improve health. Besides HIV, Dr. Ranjit’s research has focused on other health contexts such as COVID-19 protection behaviors, mental health outcomes post-disasters, traffic accidents in the global south, and tobacco use among youth, to name a few. Dr. Ranjit’s work has been published in Journal of Health Communication, AIDS and Behavior, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, and has presented her work at national and international conferences.

In public health, her line of inquiry has been to understand the prevalence of enabling and disabling factors of HIV among the most marginalized populations, both in the national and international contexts. Dr. Ranjit’s research has involved assessing prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among incarcerated women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and other at-risk populations in Malaysia, Nepal and Peru. In the U.S., she has conducted research to assess feasibility and acceptability of digital technology for anti-retroviral therapy (ART) adherence among people with HIV who use cocaine, and the role of social media on Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake among men who have sex with men.

Dr. Ranjit teaches courses in health communication at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Associated Links:

Ranjit Named Prestigious Fellow at Fordham’s University RETI Program

Fordham University RETI Institute Fellows

Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS

In the News:

What Changes Minds About Masks? In This Small Town, It Was A Child's Death

Astrid M. Villamil (PhD, University of Kansas) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Astrid’s research focuses on communication practices around equity, diversity, and inclusion. Informed by critical and interpretive perspectives, Astrid’s research investigates organizational tensions between bureaucratic and social transformation efforts in organizational DEI. In addition, she examines transnational and intersectional constructions of (dis)organizing processes to understand how these processes occur outside North American and Eurocentric contexts. Her work has appeared in Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Women’s Studies in Communication, and Sustainability.

Dr. Benjamin (Ben) R. Warner (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and co-director of the Political Communication Institute. He is interested in the effects of partisan media, presidential debates, campaign ads, social media, and political humor. Much of Dr. Warner’s research explores the antecedents, consequences, and remedies of political polarization. In pursuit of these objectives, he draws on theories of persuasion, intergroup processes, and media psychology. He is co-editor of An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the 2016 Campaign and has published in Communication Monographs, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and a variety of other outlets. 

Dr. Julius Matthew Riles (Ph.D., University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign) researches the interplay between media use and social relationships.  He theoretically approaches this examination from several perspectives.  Specifically, Dr. Riles psychologically explores how exposure to social group portrayals can influence social perceptions and inclinations pertaining to those groups, the mechanisms by which social relationships influence media use, and the experience of parasocial relationships with figures in the media. His research agenda concerns practices pertaining to both traditional and digital media, and his interdisciplinary approach has led to research in the sub-disciplines of both health communication and political communication. Dr. Riles has been published in top-ranked peer-reviewed outlets such as the Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Communication Research, Media Psychology, Communication Monographs, and Health Communication. Throughout his academic career, Dr. Riles has received several awards for teaching, research, and service.  For example, he received the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, an award given to the top five graduate teaching instructors from among the thousands at the University of Illinois.  As an assistant professor at Mizzou, he was honored with the Advisor of the Year Award by the Department of Communication graduate student body and the Mass Comm Division Teaching Award from the National Communication Association.  Dr. Riles is currently serving as Co-Director for the Media & Diversity Center.