Sadie Dempsey | Sadie Dempsey is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at University of Wisconsin–Madison. As a political sociologist, she studies democracy, social movements, and civic life. Her dissertation is an ethnography that explores how citizens experience political institutions shape feelings of political satisfaction, trust, and efficacy… She also studies political communication as a Knight Fellow at the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal. She is the co-founder of the qualitative methods workshop in her department.

Zening Duan | Zening (‘Ze’) Duan is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison. His research examines the political and societal effects of algorithmic actors on social media platforms, and he develops novel computational social science methods. His works have appeared in Human Communication Research, The International Journal of Press/Politics, and Politics and the Life Sciences.

Jisoo Kim | Jisoo Kim is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research centers on how media environments influence social democracy, with particular attention to public perception and polarization. She has looked at various subjects in this regard, from what hampers a more engaging and inclusive society to be formed to how to enhance the civic culture in digital media platforms to break stereotypes and foster healthy ideas- and opinion-sharing.   

Mengyu Li | Mengyu Li is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research interests include digital media, computational social science, and media psychology. Her current works focus on how digital media both connects and divides people through the interplay of social and psychological forces.  

Ruixue Lian | Ruixue Lian is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include natural language understanding, deep learning, and their applications to the real-world social media. 

Yiming Wang | Yiming Wang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the interplay of the changing media ecology and politics in both democratic and authoritarian contexts. Her current works look at how information and communication technologies reshape the landscape of political communication, and the political economy of polarization.

Macau K. F. Mak | Macau K. F. Mak is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include political communication, new media, and media effects. Specifically, he studies how new media use and affordances influence people’s political attitude and participation. His current project explores how the interdependence of news use, talk, and expression afforded by the hybridized communication environment relates to individuals’ efficacy and trust.

Jessica Maki | Jessica Maki is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on the effects of news media on people’s political participation, attitudes, and perceptions of political institutions. She is particularly interested in how partisanship plays a role in citizens’ information processing and behavioral decisions.

Leo Yuanliang Shan | Leo Yuanliang Shan is a Ph.D. candidate in Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Leo studies media perceptions and media effects perceptions. Besides the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, Leo is also involved in the International Research Group in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Leo is currently working on his Ph.D. dissertation, which theorizes and tests the public’s perceptions of media recognition and their consequences in the US political context.

Liwei Shen | Liwei Shen is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Communication, UW-Madison. She studies misinformation, persuasion and media psychology. Specifically, she aims to understand individuals’ misconceptions in the context of their belief system and social network, and to design intervention for correction message accordingly. She is also interested in applying and refining statistical and computational tools on communication research.

Yoo Ji Suh | Yoo Ji Suh is a doctoral student at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research examines the influence of partisan media on peoples’ perception of political compromise. Prior to joining SJMC, Suh received an M.A. in Communication and B.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University.

Luhang Sun | Luhang Sun is a PhD student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison. She studies political communication, communication technology, and computational social science. Specifically, her research focuses on gender politics, online activism, and social justice in digital space, such as global feminist and anti-feminist backlash movements, and the relationship between algorithmic technology and intersectional gender divides.  

Yibing Sun | Yibing Sun is a Ph.D. student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research focuses on the influence of social media on civic engagement, social trust construction, and multimodal information analysis. Some of her recent projects include analyzing visual effects on people’s perception of protesters, visual usage in the discussions of COVID vaccination, and social media’s responses to election debates.