The School of Communication Studies and the School of Digital Sciences are pleased to announce the joint hiring of two new faculty whose interdisciplinary research and academic work will provide students with greater cross-curricular opportunities in the twenty first century.
Mina Choi, Ph.D., and David E. Silva, Ph.D., join the College of Communication and Information as assistant professors in both Communication Studies and Digital Sciences.
Dr. Choi's research centers on the uses and effects of new communication technologies (i.e., social media, mobile media, telepresence robot, etc.) on interpersonal relationships and psychological well-being. In particular, she seeks to understand how people form social bonds between acquaintances, friends, and romantic partners over interpersonal media and its effects on users' emotional well-being.
She focuses on communication processes that are pertaining to relationship development and maintenance such as self-disclosure, self-presentation, emotional expression, and media choice. In addressing these topics, she takes an interdisciplinary approach that draws on theories and empirical findings from communication, social psychology, and HCI. Her methodological approach is mostly quantitative, with an emphasis on experiments, surveys, and content analyses.
She earned her Ph.D. in Communication Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison with minors in social psychology and journalism/mass communication.
In her non-work life, she likes to play and watch tennis.
Dr. Silva conducts research on digital discussion, social media and how online spaces can improve (or get in the way) of conversations that benefit our democracy.
Using both experimental and data-centric methods, Dr. Silva tries to keep track of what is happening online and how perceptions of what seems normal are a product of both other people’s behaviors and the presentation of digital trace data. He draws heavily on theories from the fields of social and cognitive psychology as well as deliberative dialogue.
He earned his Ph.D. from Washington State University with a minor in statistics. While at WSU, Silva served as Vice President for the Graduate and Professional Student Association while teaching and conducting research for the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. More about his current work and projects can be found at his website, dataesilva.wordpress.com.