Communication Studies

Benjamin Mann (Program Chair) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at EOU, whose expertise lies at the intersection of health communication, rhetoric, and critical/cultural studies. His education includes a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Utah (2020), an M.A. in Communication from the University of the Pacific (2016), and a B.A. in English from Lewis & Clark College (2014). In Ben’s teaching and research, he focuses on how marginalized populations advocate for their needs in new media and health environments, employing critical, rhetorical, and qualitative approaches to examine these issues. Ben’s research has been published at national and international journals, such as Health Communication and Disability Studies Quarterly. In addition to over seven years of experience teaching a range of college courses, Ben supports Communication curriculum through Eastern Promise and assists with evaluating APEL student portfolios.

Kevin Roy is a Professor of Communication Studies, new media artist and experimental filmmaker exploring the intersections of digital technologies and analog media. Professor Roy received a BA in Art History from the University of Georgia (1995) and following a decade of professional work in the film and interactive media industries, received an MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in digital media and filmmaking, also from the University of Georgia (2005).

Professor Roy’s films and new media work forms at the confluence of analog and digital media —a blending of lens, light, emulsion, soundscape, browser interactivity, and JavaScript, investigating permutations of beginning, middle, and end; the web browser as both canvas and screen; the imposition of power amongst subject, audience and artist; the film frame as a structure of confinement; and surveillance capitalism. His creative practice contemplates the convergence of interactivity and cinema, by coding unpredictability and randomization, and thus non-linearity, into virtual exhibition spaces to energize the visuals and encourage viewers to discover the work’s temporal form while surfacing the topics, feeling, concerns and attitudes that were the genesis of the work.

His work in film and new media has been exhibited in national and international film festivals and venues including SXSW, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Atlanta Film Festival. www.kevinroy.com

Xiaowei Chen is an associate professor of communication and journalism and considers himself a generalist in media studies. His education includes a B.A. in Chinese Literature (1987), an M.A. in Journalism (1994) and a Ph.D. in Mass Communication & Public Affairs (2006). He worked as a reporter, editor, designer and public relations writer in Beijing for seven years before he moved to the US in 2002. In the past 10 years, he taught over 10 courses in mass media and human communication. His research interests include international public relations, media technology and cultural studies. He published a research paper in peer-review journals and presented 15 papers in national and international conferences.