Students
Alejandro is a doctoral student in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. He aims to unpack the tensions and opportunities arising from at the intersection of datafication, social change, and governance. His research is influenced by the fields of Critical Data Studies, Communication and Science and Technology Studies (STS) with an emphasis on collective action, publics…
Alphoncina Lyamuya is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the use and legitimation of emerging digital technologies and automated decision-making systems by governments and transnational organizations in migration management and humanitarian governance. She also looks at ways the digitalization and automation of…
Angel Chavez-Penate, is a Master’s student in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, studying applied data science. He earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California with a minor in Business Finance. Angel’s research interests lie in communications and machine learning. His past research centered around price…
Eduardo Gonzalez is a doctoral student at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His research focuses on immigration politics and violence in news media and popular culture. Gonzalez’s work also explores the digital divide and disparities in access with economically disenfranchised immigrant communities in the U.S., Latin America, and the Middle East. Gonzalez’s…
Eugene Jang is a doctoral student at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and a Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS) fellow. Prior to joining Annenberg, she graduated from Seoul National University (SNU), receiving her B.A. and M.A. in Communication. She formerly served as a research assistant at the SNU Big Data Institute and…
Heonuk Ha is a Ph.D. student of the USC Price School of Public Policy. His research focus lies on the political economy of federal fiscal policy, particularly the works and strategies of the federal bureaucracy in the federal budget process. In addition, he has been involved in various research projects in housing policy by using…
Sarah Nguyen is a PhD student at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. Her research interests lie in the field of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Society, with a focus on technology for social change, digital humanities and (in)equalities. Her studies investigate the role technology and new media, such as the mobile phone and Internet, play…
Juan Ortiz Freuler is an incoming PhD student at Annenberg, and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center. Juan explores how political systems can be affected by design choices at the internet and web layers of the stack. Juan is also Co-Initiator of the Non-Aligned Tech Movement, an Associate at JustLabs and a member of…
Ke M. Huang-Isherwood is a licensed attorney and social science scholar. Her research areas are at the intersection of communication and law, which include digital literacy, gamification, and social influence. Ke employs communication network and media psychology theories, and quantitative methodologies. Her previous survey research and social intervention work has been funded by the Center…
Kyooeun is interested in platform governance, specifically the influence of big tech on shaping norms in content governance. She received her MA from Harvard University’s Regional Studies East Asia program. Her master’s thesis explored how the monetization of social media platforms has affected the conceptualization of gender and work amongst female millennials in South…
Lichen Zhen is a Ph.D. student at Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining Annenberg, she received her B.A. in Journalism from Wuhan University and her M.A. from the Radio, Television and Film department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests lie at the…
Olivia Gonzalez is a PhD student at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Communication Studies. Her honors thesis, “‘Mom and dad don’t get it’: Investigating Adolescents’ Motivations for Participating in the Internet Meme Genre”, explored how adolescents utilize Internet memes in…
Paulina Lanz is a PhD student at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. She identifies in buildings and urban place a source of memoirs and nostalgia, which are essential to media foundations. Alongside her academic background with a BA in Communications and an MA in Art Studies from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City), cities have led her to…
Soyun is a Ph.D. student at USC Annenberg. Her research explores how information technologies, communication practices, and political systems interact to bring about social change. Prior to USC, she earned her MA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and BA in Law from Yonsei University in South Korea. In between, she…