September 2020 - News Articles

The Initiative is designed to support anyone involved or interested in science communication research, teaching, outreach, professional practice, and training, and aims to create a network across the university to promote science communication pedagogy and develop Rutgers into a global leader in science communication.

New faculty members Tawfiq Ammari, Shawnika Hull, Yonaira Rivera, Megan Threats, Maria Venetis, and DaJung (DJ) Woo were welcomed by SC&I and introduced their research interests to the SC&I community in a virtual school event.

At the first school-wide meeting of the 2020-2021 academic year, Dean Jonathan Potter said SC&I is in control of its destiny with outstanding research and a strong mix of programs, and he welcomed everyone to the exciting year ahead.

Assistant Professor of Communication Jeffrey Lane was named a “Select Honoree” during the 2019-2020 Chancellor’s and Provost’s Awards for Faculty Excellence ceremony hosted by Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Ognyanova is a researcher on The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States, a joint project with Northwestern, Harvard, and Northeastern Universities, that aims to help communities cope better with the impacts of the pandemic.

The Rutgers Office of Research and Economic Development (ORED), University Research Council Grant (URCG), has awarded funding to six SC&I faculty members for their timely and innovative research proposals.

Selecting Wang as the recipient of this prestigious award, The National Communication Association wrote, “Given the current political and racial tensions in our country, the selection committee found this paper timely and useful as it has heuristic value for the role that social media platforms play in the political arena among racial backgrounds.”

SC&I Ph.D. student Allyson Bontempo and her co-authors conducted research showing it’s vital for gynecologic cancer patients to feel free to talk about their negative emotions if they want to. Bontempo said, “If they can’t, or even perceive that they can’t, they are going to be bottling up all of their feelings, which isn’t healthy.

The Master of Communication and Media (MCM) program, based at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information (SC&I) in New Brunswick, New Jersey, reached new milestones in 2020, despite the challenging conditions facing academia. Through active recruitment, positive word of mouth, and a concentrated effort by the program and the marketing and communications and the student services teams, enrollment figures are at an 15-year high: MCM has 217 active students enrolled for the fall 2020 semester.

In its report, the Dean Evaluation Committee wrote, “Dean Potter is a hard-working, ethical dean who has made significant, positive contributions to the culture, intellectual vision, and effective operation of SC&I during his first five years.”

Based upon his expertise in cyberbullying prevention, Associate Professor Vivek Singh was invited to join the North Jersey Anti-Bullying Task Force, spearheaded by U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and led by Jane Clementi. The Task Force released its findings yesterday.

The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, an institute within Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, has selected Christoph Mergerson, a Ph.D. candidate, and Qun Wang, a Ph.D. alumna, as 2020 Knight News Innovation Fellows.

Vikki Katz from the School of Communication and Information and Amy Jordan, a professor and chair of the Journalism and Media Studies Department, both at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, felt something was missing: the voice of students who finished up their spring semester remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lindstadt has joined ASPEN as a postdoctoral associate, and she will assist the project in its aim to ensure New Jersey policymakers’ decisions are informed by relevant research, in order to ultimately implement universal adolescent mental health screening in New Jersey public schools.

Nikolaos Linardopoulos, associate teaching professor at SC&I, explains how he worked with Rutgers to transform the public speaking course so it could be offered remotely.

Welcome back! To further promote community wellness, courses within the School of Communication and Information will be offered remotely for the Fall 2020 semester. As a result, the SC&I Office of Student Services will continue to operate remotely through the Fall 2020 semester as well. Be assured that we remain committed to providing outstanding academic, personal, and career support to all our students.