My areas of specialization are science and technology studies, digital media theory, and environmental communication. I am a currently the Head of Influencer Growth Services at rewardStyle, a Dallas software company and a part-time lecturer at the School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). I received my PhD from George Mason University’s Cultural Studies program in May, 2018.
My research focuses on the intersection of science and technology studies and environmental communication. I draw concepts from scholars in both fields to improve the way people understand their environment and how that understanding impacts resource distribution.
I recently completed an edited volume, along with two co-editors, entitled Research Methods for the Digital Humanities (Palgrave Macmillan) in late 2018. My contribution to this volume is a step-by-step guide to the digital content analysis of newspaper articles that allow a researcher to locate relevant actors within a loosely structured corpus of text.
The method was used for a substantial part of my dissertation, Processing Groundwater: An Analysis of Groundwater Knowledge Infrastructure in Texas. The method required creating a simple program to convert newspaper articles into a database and search for influential actors quoted in the articles (currently free to download on GitHub). I hope that creating this sort of software might help researchers, journalists, and environmental activists.
I am currently working on an article that reviews the way algorithmic communication frames environmental discussion on Instagram and a book on ethics in digital marketing.
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