The SC&I Communication Department is pleased to welcome Jianing Li to the faculty as an assistant professor of Communication in fall 2024. Li is currently an assistant professor at the University of South Florida.

Li’s work examines the intersection of mis/disinformation, digital politics, and social inequality. She specializes in computational methods, quantitative methods, and mixed methods.

“Dr. Li’s investigations into the intersection of misinformation and partisan identity are both timely and crucially important to the functioning of a democratic society,” said Chair and Professor of Communication Marya Doerfel. “Her wealth of knowledge and passion for her research will benefit our students, her colleagues, and the entire department. We are excited to welcome her to the SCI faculty.”

Li’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, New Media and Society, Political Communication, Social Science & Medicine, Mass Communication and Society, Information, Communication, and Society, and Social Media + Society.

Her work also appeared in public-facing outlets including The Washington Post, Brookings TechStream, and MediaWell.

Li’s research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the Knight Foundation.

Her work has received many awards, including the Thomas E. Patterson Best Dissertation Award from the American Political Science Association, Paper of the Year award from Mass Communication and Society, and several top paper awards from the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Li earned a Ph.D. in 2022 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Mass Communication, an M.A. in 2018 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Journalism and Mass Communication, and a bachelor’s degree in 2016 in Journalism and Sociology from Peking University.

“As a Rutgers faculty member, Li said, “I am looking forward to contributing to SC&I's growing strength in computational social science, including doing research that studies the pressing issues in the digital communication environment such as information credibility and marginalization. I am also excited to teach courses that help students understand and creatively use communication technologies.”

Learn more about the Communication Department at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.