Research

Research

Research Consortium

In the HSC research consortium faculty across four disciplines work to analyze communication practices, rhetoric, and language to better understand scientific controversies, clinical problems, and public health strategies. 

We are experienced collaborators who have partnered with researchers at academic medical centers and in STEM disciplines to secure funding, conduct quantitative, qualitative, and rhetorical research, and analyze and publish results. 

See the ongoing projects to learn more about opportunities for collaborating with HSC faculty.

Ongoing Projects

Joy Cypher - Medical education: Embodied struggles between competence and empathy

Long term, phenomenological study of medical education. This work follows students through their medical school training using in depth interviews each semester to better gauge their experiences of the potentially contrasting objectives of competency and compassion.  Pilot study stage

Joy Cypher - Handbook of Disability and Communication—co-editor

Updated handbook for scholarship on communication studies and disability. The edited collection is bringing together work from across the Communication Studies discipline that has its particular focus on disability and discourse. Submission review stage.

Miles ColemanAI and Public Dialogue

"Exploring the Rhetoric of AI Slop." In development.

Dianne Garyantes - Local Climate Change Reporting Project

A climate change reporting project designed to enhance local news coverage of climate change in the Southern New Jersey. The project featured collaboration between Rowan journalism students and professional news organizations to create news articles, social media outreach, and multimedia packages about climate change in the Atlantic City region. All of the content is being posted to a Rowan University-based website, South Jersey Climate News (sjclimate.news).

Amy Reed - Stigma in Medical Communication

Dr. Reed's current research analyzes the role of stigma in medical communication--including stigma about Down syndrome in prenatal testing discourse and stigma about addiction in substance use disorder discourse. In her work, she aims to identify concrete strategies for reducing stigma (and perceived stigma) and facilitating better communication between medical professionals and patients.

Rui Shi Health Misinformation

This project examines persuasive strategies that could effectively correct misinformation. In addition, the study explores how to help the scientific community communicate uncertainty to the general public while promoting health behaviors.