I am an Assistant Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Two keywords, computational social science and strategic communication (organizations, advertising, and public relations), characterize my research. Most of my work examines their intersection or falls under either of the two subfields.

On the empirical front, my current research projects combine computational methods (text, image, network, web experiment, digital trace) and causal inference (RDD, DiD, IV, simulation) to study macro- and meso-level communication phenomena related to organizations, DEI, and digital media. To that end, I enjoy working with students and collaborators who boast solid project management and programming skills (R & Python), test big ideas that can inform social theories or have applied implications, and appreciate intuitive and clever research designs. On the theoretical front, my work extends the sociological perspective on strategic communication and considers stakeholder engagement and public relationships as pathways through which organizations change their network ecologies. Feel free to email me if you are interested in chatting. Here are my Email, CV, Faculty Page, Twitter, Google Scholar, and bookable Google Calendar.

My work has appeared in journals across communication subfields, such as Social Media + Society, Journal of Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Mass Communication and Society, and Public Relations Review. I am currently an editorial board member of the journal Management Communication Quarterly. I received my Ph.D. in Communication from UPenn Annenberg. Prior to that, I obtained an MA in Statistics and Data Science from the Wharton School and an MA in Strategic Public Relations from USC Annenberg. I graduated from Tsinghua University with dual bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Journalism.