School of Information Sciences

Clinical Professor Cindy Welch Retires After 15 Years at SIS

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Clinical Professor Cindy Welch stands left of Dean Joe Mazer, both smiling broadly as she holds an award signifying her 15 years of working at the School of Information Sciences

Once upon a time, there was a woman who was many things. She was a mentor, a teacher, a librarian, a storyteller, and much more, to many people. Wherever she went, she spread her knowledge, humor, wisdom, and kindness, and she will be remembered by the hundreds of students who have experienced her tutelage over the past fifteen years at the School of Information Sciences. This woman of many talents and graces is Clinical Professor Cindy Welch, and she is retiring this December from her position at SIS. 

Welch has many accomplishments under her belt while  she has been at … Read more “Clinical Professor Cindy Welch Retires After 15 Years at SIS”

Clinical Professor Cindy Welch Retires After 15 Years at SIS written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

Hope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage

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The School of Information Sciences’ newest faculty member, Assistant Professor Hope Chidziwisano, was born and raised in Malawi. His research is inspired by his first-hand experiences of the adverse effects of the challenges facing resource-constrained settings in developing countries, such as unreliable electricity and inadequate social services to support socio-economic development at the household level. His research sets out to gather data from real-world experiences to better understand how context, culture, and many other factors affect how users interact with technology, and it often has surprising results.

Hope Chidziwisano

Chidziwisano brings with him a background in computer science and human-computer interaction, but … Read more “Hope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage”

Hope Chidziwisano Uses Cultural Perspective in Researching Technology Usage written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

Four Fellows Named for CCI’s Information Integrity Institute

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Four inaugural Information Integrity Institute fellows have been selected from among the faculty at the College of Communication and Information, one from each school and all of whom are already conducting research that falls under the institute’s scope:

  • Professor Mariea Hoy, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations
  • Associate Professor Mike Kotowski, School of Communication Studies
  • Assistant Professor Ben Horne, School of Information Sciences
  • Assistant Professor Martin Riedl, School of Journalism and Media

“I wanted to have representation from the schools and also a mixture of rank from full professor, associate professor, and assistant professor. They’re all involved in research … Read more “Four Fellows Named for CCI’s Information Integrity Institute”

Four Fellows Named for CCI’s Information Integrity Institute written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

CCI Welcomes 11 New Faculty this Fall

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A booklet from CCI Convocation that says

Eleven new faculty have joined the College of Communication and Information this year, ready to add their expertise, scholarship, and instruction to their respective schools, the college, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Here’s a little bit more about them:

The School of Communication Studies 

Lecturer of Practice Abigail Barnes

Barnes comes to the school in two capacities: as a lecturer of practice teaching speech courses, and as the new coach for the Tennessee Speech and Debate Society. Her area of expertise is in rhetorical criticism, critical discourse analysis, and argumentation, and she is currently studying the art of Youtube/online

… Read more “CCI Welcomes 11 New Faculty this Fall”

CCI Welcomes 11 New Faculty this Fall written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

CCI Celebrates Faculty Promotions at Convocation

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Dean Joe Mazer speaks to CCI faculty and staff at the 2023 Convocation

The College of Communication and Information honored seven of its faculty who earned promotions this year at the 2023 CCI Convocation. The work these faculty do, in their research, classrooms, and service work, will continue to make an impact on their fields and on future generations to come. Here’s a little bit about them:

School of Communication Studies 

Associate Professor Jenny Crowley

As she moves into her tenured-role as an associate professor and her sixth year at CCI, Crowley said she is continuing work on her grant-funded research exploring how the role of interpersonal communication between romantic partners plays in

… Read more “CCI Celebrates Faculty Promotions at Convocation”

CCI Celebrates Faculty Promotions at Convocation written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

MSIS Student Navigates Alaska, Homeschooling, and Online School

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Becky Wright and her three sons and husband

After she has spent the morning homeschooling her three sons in Alaska, Becky Wright settles into her chair to begin her own classes.

Wright is pursuing her Research and Data Management Certificate as part of the Master of Science in Information Sciences (MSIS) program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

Given the time difference, her classes take place early in the afternoon while her boys are doing independent activities at their home. Occasionally, her oldest son will sit alongside Wright because he is interested in what she is learning.

Being able to balance being a mom with being a student

… Read more “MSIS Student Navigates Alaska, Homeschooling, and Online School”

MSIS Student Navigates Alaska, Homeschooling, and Online School written by CCI and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.

SIS Professor Dania Bilal Works with PhD Student & Others to Learn How to Use Social Robots to Help People with Dementia

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Professor Dania Bilal
Professor Dania Bilal

SIS Professor Dania Bilal has explored research in recent years centered on artificial intelligence (AI) from an information sciences perspective, exploring how people interact with various AI and robot interfaces. She most recently partnered with doctoral student, Fengpei Yuan, and her advisor, Professor Xiaopeng Zhao, at the University of Tennessee Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, and Assistant Professor Ran Zhang at the Miami University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to study how social robots could provide certain therapies for people with dementia to mitigate cognitive decline.

Yuan is the first author for the paper that resulted … Read more “SIS Professor Dania Bilal Works with PhD Student & Others to Learn How to Use Social Robots to Help People with Dementia”

SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May Writes Planning and Assessment Book with SIS Alum & Hodges Librarian Regina Mays

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SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May was a public and academic librarian before she decided to pursue her doctorate in information sciences, and that experience has informed what she researches and how she teaches. In both, she “tends to focus on finding better ways to do the things I did as a practitioner with maybe not a lot of theoretical knowledge.”

One of those things was planning and assessment, which she describes as a cycle wherein an organization recognizes a need, creates an evidence-informed plan to address it, launches the planned initiative, evaluates the initiative’s success, then uses data to revise … Read more “SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May Writes Planning and Assessment Book with SIS Alum & Hodges Librarian Regina Mays”

Associate Professor Vandana Singh Wins Google Award for Inclusion Research

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For the past couple of years, SIS Associate Professor Vandana Singh has been increasingly sought after to speak about her research on women and marginalized people in software engineering—namely how those groups often face a toxic culture of inequity, exclusion, discrimination, and even outright bullying in their field.

Singh recently won the highly competitive Google Award for Inclusion Research 2021. Through this award, Singh plans to continue her research and teaching by developing and implementing an undergraduate course aimed at teaching diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics to information technology students. Singh and University of Alabama Professor Jeffery Carver… Read more “Associate Professor Vandana Singh Wins Google Award for Inclusion Research”

Associate Professor Awa Zhu Elected ASIS&T Deputy SIG Cabinet Director

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After serving in different positions over several years in two Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Associate Professor Awa Zhu was recently elected to serve as the Deputy SIG Cabinet Director for ASIS&T. She will transition into the role at the end of the upcoming ASIS&T Annual Meeting, which is being held both virtually and in-person in Salt Lake City Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2021.

For Zhu, this is an opportunity to transfer knowledge she’s picked up working in positions such as chair, co-chair, treasurer, and more, in her two SIGs, which are SIG-Social Informatics (SI)… Read more “Associate Professor Awa Zhu Elected ASIS&T Deputy SIG Cabinet Director”