PCI Staff

Institute Leadership

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  Dr. Mitchell S. McKinney is Director of the Political Communication Institute. He is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His areas of research include presidential debates, political campaigns, media and politics, and presidential rhetoric.

  • mckinneym@missouri.edu
  • 573-882-9230
  • Website
• 

  Dr. Ben Warner is Co-Director of the Political Communication Institute. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His areas of research include political extremism, political polarization, and group homogeneity.

  • warnerbe@missouri.edu
  • 573-882-3610
  • Website

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Institute Faculty

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  Dr. J. Brian Houston is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His areas of research include strategic communication, public opinion, media effects, and information processing particularly in contexts of politics, crisis, and public health.

  • houstonjb@missouri.edu
  • 573-882-3327
  • Website
• 

  Dr. Cassandra C. Kearney is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include public and media response to violence, trauma, and terrorism with a specific focus on the rhetoric of mass shootings.

  • kearneyc@missouri.edu
  • 573-882-8210
  • Website
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  Dr. Mike Kearney is an assistant professor of Journalism Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. He also holds a joint appointment in the Missouri Informatics Institute where he teaches courses for the Data Science and Analytics M.S. degree program. His research examines the role of selective exposure and political partisanship in digital media using computational social scientific methods.

  • kearneymw@missouri.edu

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Affiliate Faculty

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  Calvin R. Coker (PhD, University of Missouri, 2018) is an Assistant Professor-Term at the University of Louisville. His research focuses on the intersection of marginality, politics, and public policy.

  • calvin.coker@louisville.edu
• 

  Michelle Funk (PhD, 2018) is a recent graduate from the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri seeking a faculty and/or research position. Her work examines the effects of digital communication on social cognitive processes, perceptions and attitudes toward outgroups, and online political deliberation.

  • mefwxc@mail.missouri.edu
• 

  Dr. Rocío Galarza Molina is a visiting researcher at the Political Communication Lab at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Léon in Monterrey, Mexico. Her research is focused on political communication, the use of social media for political protests, and the role of media in a democracy in transition.

  • rg8w8@mail.missouri.edu
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  Molly M. Hardy, PhD is an Associate Instructor of Communication at Maryville University. Her research interests include political polarization, political uses of social media, and gender in political communication.

  • mhardy2@maryville.edu
• 

  Dr. Freddie J. Jennings is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas. His research focuses on social identities, cognitive processing of mediated messages, and political communication in the evolving media landscape.

  • fjjenni@uark.edu
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  Dr. Esther Thorson is a Professor of Journalism at Michigan State University. She has published more than 100 scholarly pieces on news effects, advertising, media economics, and health communication.

  • ethorson@msu.edu
  • 573-864-4521
  • Website

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Research Associates

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  Yousef Fouad Alamer is a Doctoral Student in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on social media and public opinion.

  • yfa2p9@mail.missouri.edu
• 

  Iuliia Alieva is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Her research focuses on media effects in data journalism and political communication.

  • iuliia.alieva@mail.missouri.edu
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  Josh C. Bramlett is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on political comedy, political campaign communication, and the political uses of social media.

  • Jcbyr2@mail.missouri.edu
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  Lingshu Hu is a doctoral student in the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. His research focuses on social media, big data, strategic communication and representation.

  • lhn95@mail.missouri.edu
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  Go-Eun Kim is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her research is focused on political polarization, partisan media exposure and its influence.

  • g.kim@mail.missouri.edu
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  Jihye Park is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her research focuses on the effects of social media on politics, and digital media technologies.

  • jpbx4@mail.missouri.edu
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  Wm. Bryan Paul is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His areas of research include presidential rhetoric, political campaigns, political polarization, and entertainment media and politics.

  • wbpztz@mail.missouri.edu
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  Joel Reed is a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Missouri. His research is focused on political campaign communication and the rhetoric of political compromise.

  • jlrkv6@mail.missouri.edu

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