All But Dissertation Bios

First Year Cohort
Second Year Cohort
Third Year Cohort
Fourth Year Cohort

Linda Alexander

Katherine (Kasia) Anderson

Amelia Hardee Arsenault
aarsenau [at] usc [dot] edu

Amelia serves as the Wallis Annenberg Graduate Research Fellow to communication professor Manuel Castells. Her areas of study include media and power, public diplomacy, media and development, and international political communication. She recently co-authored an article with Manuel Castells entitled "Conquering the minds, conquering Iraq: The social production of misinformation in the United States – a case study," which was published in Information, Communication and Society. (You can read it here.) Before enrolling in graduate school she spent several years living and working in Zimbabwe as the film coordinator for the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust. She holds a dual MSc/M.A. degree in Global Media and Communication from the London School of Economics & Political Science and USC Annenberg and a bachelor’s degree in Film and History from Dartmouth College.

Elaine Yu-ning Chan elaineyc [at] usc [dot] edu Elaine Chan graduated from UCLA with B.A.s in Political Science and Classical Civilization. Her research interests include physically interactive video games (exergames), competence motivation, media entertainment and happiness. Visit her personal site.

Omri M. Ceren
ceren [at] usc [dot] edu

Omri focuses on the rhetoric of scientific controversies, specifically their epistemological stakes and their amenability to critical examination. His methodological interests include orthodox rhetorical criticism, Peircean pragmatism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He is a member of the American Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology and the Association for Psychoanalysis in Communication.

Christopher Anthony Chavez 

Chris received his B.S. in Marketing from Cal Poly, Pomona and an M.A. in Communications Management at USC. His research interests include the role of various meaning systems including language, religion and advertising in bi-lingual, bi-cultural communities.  Chris has taught Comm455: Advertising and Society and is currently a research assitant with the Metamorphosis project.  Before enrolling as a as a doctoral student, Chris Chavez worked for ten years as an advertising executive at agencies in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.

Sasha Costanza-Chock
costanza [at] usc [dot] edu

Sasha Costanza-Chock works on the political economy of communication, tactical media production and the transnational movement for communication rights. He is involved with the global network of Independent Media Centers and the Campaign for Communication Rights, and in the past was coordinator of the Global Media Policy Project at Free Press. He holds an A.B. from Harvard University (1999), an M.A. in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania (2003) and is currently a second year Ph.D. student at USC Annenberg as well as a graduate fellow at the Annenberg Center. He is the author of several book chapters, journal articles and other publications on social movements and communication, global media policy and intellectual property rights. For more information visit Sasha's page on indymedia or read his CV.

Jae Eun Chung
jaeechun [at] usc [dot] edu

Jae Eun is a doctoral student at the USC Annenberg School. Before coming to USC, she studied at Indiana University with a focus on Media Economics and worked for IBM. She is interested in the interaction between economic, social, legal, political and technological aspects of new communication technology.

Paulina Chow

Marcia Alesan Dawkins Marcia Alesan Dawkins’s experience includes teaching and academic leadership positions at the University of Southern California, Pepperdine University, New York University, Villanova University, and Long Beach City College. She is currently and Assistant Lecturer, Doctoral Candidate and Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at USC, where she is completing her doctorate in Rhetoric and Political Communication. Ms. Dawkins’s research concerns the natures of identity and identification as they pertain to personal and public values. Her dissertation focuses on the rhetorical ethos of “passing” in the United States from the late nineteenth through early twenty-first centuries. She lectures throughout the Los Angeles area on this and other important issues. Ms. Dawkins holds two Bachelor’s Degrees in Communication and Honors from Villanova University, where she was a Presidential Scholar. She also holds a Master of Arts Degree in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, where she was an Alumni Fellow and graduated Summa Cum Laude.  She remains affiliated with the educational programming department at Interfaith Neighbors, Inc., an after-school program for urban youth in New York City. She presently instructs an adult literacy class at the REACH Literacy Program in San Pedro, California. She also currently serves on the board of directors of the Dee Ervin Foundation, which works to feed underprivileged youths in Palm Desert, California

Laura Hawkins (Farmer)

Melissa Franke

Deborah E. R. Hanan dhanan [at] usc [dot] edu Deborah Hanan is a doctoral fellow of communication, specializing in entertainment media, creative labor, transgression studies and queer theory. She holds an M.A. in Communication from USC Annenberg (2007) and an interdisciplinary M.A. in American Cultural Studies from CSU Los Angeles (2004), where she maintains an adjunct faculty position in the Communication and Media Studies department. Her doctoral research examines the ways in which ideological transgression has been alternately framed as both an American virtue and a repellent (and foreign) aberration in U.S. media products. Her research has been published in anthropology, media and communication quarterlies, journals, and anthologies, including Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies, and Performing Communication: Essays on Policy, Politics and Identity (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008). In 2004, Hanan’s “Unmasking the Invisible: The Construction of Gender Variant Characters in Late 20th Century American and British Cinema (1992-2002)” was named an international finalist in the WAGS/UMI Most Distinguished Master’s Thesis competition. Before entering academia, Hanan enjoyed a lengthy professional career in both the recording and communication visual arts. To read more about Deborah Hanan, her research, music, and work in the visual arts, visit her website at http://www.deborahhanan.com

Bettina Maria Heiss  heiss [at] usc [dot] edu  Bettina Heiss graduated from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minn., with a major in Communication and a minor in Conflict Studies. In the broadest sense, she is interested in the way communication networks evolve over time. In the context of such networks, her areas of interest include knowledge emergence, accumulation and deterioration; technology use and virtuality; and the social psychology of networked organizing. She hopes to explore these topics further by examining inter-organizational activist networks involved in social movements.

Heather Jane Hether John Kephart

Seungyoon Lee
yoonlee [at] usc [dot] edu

Seungyoon Lee's research interests include telecommunications policy, new information and communication technologies and development, and organizational evolution examined through the application of social network analysis. She works on projects that explore the potential of telecommunications infrastructure, particularly wireless networks, on the social and economic development in rural communities of Asia and Latin America. Her current research examines the evolution of networks among international organizations that are involved in ICT for development projects. She is a graduate researcher with the Annenberg Networks Network, the Annenberg Research Network on Interna-tional Communication and the Center for the Digital Future's World Internet Project. Before coming to USC Annenberg, she received a B.A. in Mass Communication at Yonsei University in Korea and worked as a market researcher at Cheil Communications, the leading advertising agency in Korea.

Zoltan Majdik zoltan [dot] majdik [at] usc [dot] edu Zoltan Majdik graduated summa cum laude from USC with B.A.s in Communication and English. His interests lie in rhetoric and ethics, and his Ph.D research focuses on issues of biomedical ethics and rhetoric in the context of applied genetics.

Matthew Matsaganis matsagan [at] usc [dot] edu Matthew, a recovering journalist, is currently a Ph.D. candidate, lecturer and research assistant at the USC Annenberg School. He holds a M.A. in Political Communication from Emerson College, Boston, and a B.A. in Communication and Media Studies from the National & Capodistrian University of Athens, Greece. His research addresses issues of neighborhood effects and the role of communication in building social capital, civic engagement, and community capacity (the focus of his dissertation); ethnic, immigrant, minority, and diasporic media production and sustainability; globalization and networked governance, particularly with regard to negotiations and peace-building in Colombia, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka and policy-making in the European Union; and comparative research in political communication campaigns, especially in the U.S. and European contexts. At USC Annenberg, he has taught courses including COMM 487: Communication & Global Organizations, COMM 499: Ethnic & Immigrant Media in America, and BUAD 304: Organizational Behavior, among others. His research has been published in The American Behavioral Scientist, Human Communication Research and the Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications, and he has presented his work at a variety of academic and professional conferences. He has received scholarships from the United States Information Agency, the Urban Communication Foundation and the National Foundation for Scholarships of Greece.

Meghan Bridgid Moran
meghanmo [at] usc [dot] edu

Meghan's focus is on health communication. She works as a research assistant on the Metamorphosis project, where she is exploring various contributors to health literacy among a diverse range of Los Angeles communities. Her main research interest is the role of social identity and social norms in adolescent health behavior. Meghan is also interested in how adolescents use identity to negotiate media such as advertisements, branded campaigns, television and music.

 
Jade Miller
jademill [at] usc [dot] edu

Jade works on the political economy of creative production. She is particularly interested in creativity in the context of urban and regional agglomeration, and the development of global cities, including studies of global media flows and cultural industries policy. Jade is affiliated with the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication and the Center on Public Diplomacy. She is also a member of International Communication Association, the National Communication Association, and the International Association of Media and Communication Researchers. She earned her B.A. in art history from NYU and worked in the fashion and advertising photography industry prior to coming to Annenberg for doctoral study.

Lauren Movius
lmovius [at] usc [dot] edu

Lauren's areas of study include media and power, global media and identity, international communications policy and Internet Governance. Lauren holds a dual MSc/MA degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and USC. Her dissertation considered how popular gender images portrayed on television programs influenced the orientation and identity of female viewers. Lauren holds a B.A. from UCLA in Communication Studies and French. Prior to graduate school, Lauren worked as a paralegal at an entertainment law firm for several years.

Katherine Maureen Pieper

Carrie Anne Platt
cplatt [at] usc [dot] edu

Carrie Anne Platt graduated summa cum laude from Carroll College with B.A.s in Communication Studies and Public Relations. She received an M.A. in Communication from Wake Forest University, where she co-authored an article on gender and technology that appeared in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. At USC Annenberg, she has taught courses in public speaking, debate, and the rhetoric of ideology and propaganda. She has also served on the Annenberg Communication Graduate Student Association board for four years. Carrie Anne's dissertation project explores the rhetorical transformation of "family values" in contemporary cultural politics.

Steven Rafferty sfraffer[at]usc[dot]edu

Steven earned a B. A. in communication studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Steven's research focuses on the relationship between popular culture and the rhetoric of identity, culture and society. His methodological interests combine rhetorical criticism, cultural studies and critical theory. At USC Annenberg Steven teaches COMM 204: Public Speaking. He is a member of the National Communication Association and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

D. Travers Scott
davidtsc [at] usc [dot] edu

D. Travers Scott's research interests include technological culture, gender and sexuality, and popular culture, with a current focus on the history of perceptions of diseases related to electronic communications media. He holds a Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington. Recent publications include chapters on blogging in Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media (Routledge, M. Tremayne, Ed.) and Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times ( MIT Press, Boler, Ed., forthcoming 2008), and book reviews for the International Journal of Communication and the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. He also holds a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has had previous lives as author of two novels, an advertising executive, nonprofit arts administrator, and performance artist. More info is at his personal site and blog.

Laura Portwood-Stacer
portwood [at] usc [dot] edu

Laura began the doctoral program in 2004, having received a bachelor's degree in Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media from
Michigan State University that year. Laura's academic interests are cultural studies, feminist theory, popular culture, and queer studies.
Her dissertation research is on identity construction and performance within radical political movements in the United States. While at
Annenberg, she has taught courses on interpreting popular culture and on advertising and society.

Shawn Mathew Powers Araba Sey sey [at] usc [dot] edu Araba is a doctoral candidate studying the uses of mobile phones in Africa. Her research interests include the uses of wireless communication technologies in developing countries, globalizaiton, and the evolution of media systems in developing countries.

Stephen Roy Robertson Jon F. Sharp Brad Shipley Paolo Sigismondi Ha Yeun Song  Hayeon is a social scientist studying communication technology and health communication. Her recent research interests focus on the effect of identity (or self-concept) on health related attitude and behavior change. Her dissertation examines how immigrants in Los Angeles deal with their ethnic identity and how this in turn influences their attitude toward health problems and preventing behaviors through connecting to communication infrastructure including multi-lingual media. She also has a keen interest in the self-presentation in new media (e.g., video game, website, and blog) focusing on the representations of self image and its effect on health related attitude and behavior change

Rebecca Stephenson (Herr) 
rherr [at] usc [dot] edu 

In addition to being a Ph.D. Candidate at USC Annenberg, Rebecca Herr Stephenson is a graduate fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication. Her current research interests include media literacy, youth media production and youth culture. Previously, Becky worked as a production manager for companies producing original content for the web and multimedia museum exhibits. She holds a B.A. in Video Production from Emerson College in Boston and a Master of Arts in Teaching from the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University.

Kimberlie Joy Stephens

Kimberlie Stephens is currently a PhD student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.  Her research interests include interorganizational collaboration and strategic alliance networks.  More specifically she is interested in the process of how these relationships play out, including what type of information is shared, what makes interactions successful, and how organizations can learn from their experiences and apply newly gained knowledge to future collaborative relationships.Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Kimberlie received her B.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School and worked for several years as a professional conference planner in the continuing medical education field.

Don Waisanen
waisanen [at] usc [dot] edu

Don Waisanen is a doctoral student and Walter Fisher Scholar at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He received his B.A. from Westmont College and M.A. from Pepperdine University. Don was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs, and worked as an associate editor for a national broadcasting company, researching and writing for many syndicated shows at more than 100 radio stations. He has also worked in Washington, D.C., producing several television shows and lecture series events monitoring violations of international human rights law. His other experiences include speechwriting, political campaign coordination, and teaching speech and debate. His research interests are in rhetoric and public affairs (the public sphere and civil society), political satire and parody, religious controversies, and communication education. When not immersed in all things academe, he enjoys acting and performing improv in Los Angeles.

Einat Temkin

Cara Jane Wallis cwallis [at] usc [dot] edu  Cara Wallis’ research interests include the social and cultural implications of new communication technologies, feminist theory, popular culture, and contemporary Chinese culture. Cara spent the 2007-08 academic year as a visiting scholar in the Institute for Journalism and Communication at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. While in Beijing she conducted her dissertation fieldwork, exploring young rural-to-urban migrant women’s use of mobile phones for identity construction, social networking, and individual agency. Her research has already resulted in two book chapters. Cara has a BA in English literature from UCSB, an MA in Applied Linguistic/TESL from UCLA, an MA in Communication from USC Annenberg, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Cara’s diverse professional background includes teaching English in Japan and China, consulting for Accenture, playing guitar in LA’s local music scene, co-founding an independent record label, and freelance writing for independent media.

Mei (Kitty) Zhou meizhou [at] dslextreme [dot] com Mei (Kitty) Zhou graduated from Peking University with a B.A. in English Language and Literature, and got her M.A. in Communication from the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Her research interests include media theories, diasporic theories, globalization studies, and culture and philosophy of technology. She is currently doing her dissertation on the counter-memory construction by the global spiritual movement Falun Gong. She has been working as producer and MC for a global Chinese language media New Tang Dynasty TV Station. From December 2006 until May 2007, she was on the road as the MC for NTDTV's Chinese New Year Spectacular.