Graduate Student Directory

Communication, Culture & Media

	Julia Belmiro she/her Email: jb4673@drexel.edu Research Interests: Consumer Culture, Media Psychology, Decision-Making, Persuasion, Identity LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-belmiro/ Biography Julia is a first-year international PhD student from Brazil in Drexel University's Communication, Culture, and Media program. With a BA in Social Work and an MS in Psychology, her interdisciplinary background shapes her research framework and interests, which focus on consumer culture, identity, political and economic decision-making processes, and persuasion—viewed through a critical-theoretical lens and informed by media psychology theories. Throughout her research journey, she has conducted studies on political behavior and media, the intersections of consumerism and identity, and the influence of digital media on public perception. Her work seeks to explore how media narratives and consumption practices affect individual and collective identities, particularly in the context of socio-political engagement and consumer behavior. Her current research aligns with these interests, and she aims to contribute to the field through her interdisciplinary and cultural perspective.
	Essien Essien he/him/his Email: eoe25@drexel.edu Research Interests: Climate Communication, Climate Change Misrepresentations, African Spirituality and Cosmology, Screen Semiotoc, Social Construction LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/essien-oku-essien-58356523b Biography Essien Oku is a second-year PhD student in the Communication, Culture, and Media Studies (CCM) Department at Drexel University. His research focuses on the misrepresentation of climate change crises as spiritual and cultural crises in Africa. He explores climate change misinformation, African spirituality, semiotics, and critical theory. Essien holds a First Class (Honors) bachelor's degree in Communications from Cross River University of Technology, Nigeria. He has received multiple Emerging Scholar Awards at prestigious Communication/Media Studies, and Climate Change conferences in Ireland, Argentina, and the U.S., and recognition for his involvement with the UN-SDGs, World Bank Group, Global Landscape Forum in Germany, and the Thirst Foundation in Australia. Essien currently volunteers with Al Gore's Climate Reality Project – Philadelphia and Southeast PA Chapter, and was awarded the Action for the Climate Emergency Fellowship (Cohort 2, 2024). He serves as a member of Drexel’s Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) Advisory Board, the Diversity Advisory Council (DAC) of the Graduate College, and he is the President of the International Graduate Students Association (IGSA). Before joining Drexel’s CCM PhD program, Essien worked as a media research consultant with Real Plexus Education Consult in Nigeria. He is also the author of the book “The Church of the Last Age.”
	David Frank he/him Email: david.frank@drexel.edu Research Interests: Post-Network Television, Media Convergence, Animation, Media Effects, Globalization, Popular Culture LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-frank-writer/ Biography David Frank is a second-year Doctoral student in Drexel University’s Media, Culture and Communication PhD program. He grew up in the Philly suburbs and studied screenwriting and fiction at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2018, he started a podcast with his cousin discussing tropes and cliches in television and film before deciding to apply for a Master's in Film Studies at the University of Southern California. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down campus during his first year and he completed the program back home in Pennsylvania. Because of the lockdowns, he became interested in the applications of Television studies and media effects to Zoom and work-from-home. He presented a paper on Zoom Reunion Specials and Zoom Television at USC’s First Forum Graduate Student Conference. His research also includes political communication on Twitter and celebrity amplification of political messages in the news. His research into the political economy of streaming television has led him to focus on the outsourced creative labor in TV and film animation. He received the Daniel Walden Award for best Graduate Paper from the 2023 MAPACA conference for his paper “In-Between Seoul and Springfield: Korean Animation and The Simpsons,” and he presented a paper at the 2024 PCA conference about the global distribution of animation labor in co-productions with Netflix Animation Studios. He hopes to teach classes about Political Satire in the media and about the evolution of the American Sitcom.
	Luis Grande he/him Email: ig344@drexel.edu Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Human-Machine Communication (HMC), Mediation technologies, Media ecology, Hyperreality, Media representation, Semiotics LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisalejandrogrande Biography Luis was born and raised in Venezuela. He grew up in a turbulent political climate that included coups d'etat, civil unrest, the rise of socialism, and a transition from corporate-owned to state-controlled media. These experiences led Luis to dedicate himself to the study and praxis of media and communication. He has worked in this field for more than a decade: as a TV producer, radio producer, journalist, videographer, film editor, film critic, instructor and activist. In 2012 Luis obtained a BA in Media Production from the University of Puerto Rico. He later moved to Miami where he obtained a MA in Liberal Studies (2017). He then returned to Puerto Rico to complete a MA in Communication with a focus on theory and research (2020). For his Master's in Communication, Luis wrote a paper on the manifestations of identity within communication processes mediated by Facebook. Luis is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Communication, Culture and Media, and a Blue Fellow at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Luis is presently engaged in the process of researching and writing his dissertation, which focuses on exploring social relationships between individuals and the chatbot known as Replika.
	Awni Kalkat she/her Email: akk76@drexel.edu Research Interests: Spirituality, Consumerism, Digital consumer culture, Digital cultures, Social media, Digital wellness and healing LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/awni-kalkat/ Biography Awni, pronounced [uh]-v-[nee], is a first year PhD student in the Communication, Culture and Media program at Drexel.Fascinated by media effects and journalistic integrity, she authored an undergraduate thesis examining the manipulation of news agenda setting by major politicians, exploring spin in public relations as a deterrent to objective practices in the fourth estate. During her internship at the reputed National/Financial Post, Awni dove into the world of economic, political and journalistic writing. In her master's research paper, Awni explored AI technology (the world of Alexa), gaining its prominence in domestic spaces using trust as a promotional tactic in Amazon Alexa commercials, while downplaying concerns of privacy. Her current research interests include analyzing the audio and visual components of social media posts, which draw users into a never-ending cycle of consumerism in the name of wellness, spiritual healing, and rehabilitation.
	Milos Kartalija Email: mk3397@drexel.edu Research Interests: Parasocial relationships, social media, loneliness and belonging LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/milos-kartalija-b41073149/ Biography Milos is a first-year PhD student in the Communication, Culture, and Media program. He studied Communication and Media Studies during his time as an undergraduate and spent three years working in various analytics roles at marketing and public relations agencies. Milos’ research interests are mainly focused on social media and parasocial relationships as well as loneliness and belonging online. He is also interested in social media and commodification of the self.
	Sonika Lamichhane she/her Email: sl3859@drexel.edu Research Interests: Social media, Fake news, Minsinformation, Digital media LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonika-lamichhane-7b0b36220/ Biography Sonika is a PhD student of communication, culture, and media. She completed her undergraduate studies at St. Xavier's College, majoring in English and journalism. She got a Bidya Bhusan B, the most prestigious literary award from the president in 2018, and a gold medal from the education minister for securing the highest grades in her Masters degree. During her master's studies, Sonika delved into research exploring the effects of social networking sites on adolescents. This research sparked her interest in fake news and misinformation, fueling her passion for investigating and addressing these pressing issues. She started her career as an intern at a well-known media company, Sagarmatha Television, in Nepal, working as a reporter for three months. Then she joined the state-owned radio station Radio Nepal in 2018 and worked as a full-time news editor and news reader. Simultaneously, she also worked as a part-time lecturer in journalism at St. Xavier’s College, Kathmandu, a renowned college in Nepal, in 2017. Apart from this, she has written many articles and done voiceovers for many documentaries in Nepal.
	Alice Liu she/her/hers Email: al3582@drexel.edu Research Interests: Gender identity, Culture studies, Chinese studies, Social media LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-liu-755521136/ Biography As a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Drexel University's Culture Communication and Media program, my research centers on the confluence of gender identity, reproductive justice, and the transformative impact of social media, particularly within the context of Chinese society. Grounded in the traditions of cultural studies and feminist phenomenology, my work delves into online discourses concerning women's bodily experiences such as body shaming, abortion, and more. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted relationships between media, gender identity, and social change in contemporary China. Prior to Drexel, I completed my Bachelor's degree at Truman State University and Master's degree at University of Cincinnati in communication.
	Janna MacPherson Email: jm4746@drexel.edu Research Interests: Representations of Prisons and Criminality in Media, Critical/Cultural Rhetorical Frameworks, Intersectionality in Feminist Theory, Political Communication LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/janna-macpherson-431213132 Biography Janna is a fourth-year PhD student in Drexel's Communication, Culture and Media program. Her graduate research interests center around the framing of policing, prisons, surveillance, and justice in hegemonic media narratives. Janna has worked in various political offices and has focused on constituent advocacy, a core value that she implements within her research. She also grew up and spent her whole life in Philadelphia, which has inspired her to center her research around the narratives of oppressed and marginalized communities here in her own city. Janna sees academic research as one tenet of social justice that must be followed with community organizing and participation in mass movements.
	Alejandro Manga he/el Email: am4725@drexel.edu Research Interests: Mobility justice and transportation equity, Bike movements and cultures, Environmental and planning discourses, Qualitative Research methods in planning and transportation studies, Visual and mobile ethnography LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-manga-tinoco-13143896/ Biography Alejandro is a Ph.D. candidate from Colombia. An economist and historian by training, he started his professional life working for consulting firms working on network, transport, and urban economics. An activist interested in environmental causes since 2012, he drifted towards the world of bike cultures and bike advocacy through a local bike kitchen on the French side of the Greater Geneva area, where he moved for grad school. For his master's thesis, he was invited as a Visiting Graduate Researcher to UCLA. Serendipity changed his life when the admissions officers in charge of his file told him that cycling in LA sucked, and he should do something about it. It was bike week at UCLA, and during the first conference he listened to, he met the organizers of People from Mobility Justice. Alejandro changed his topic of research to bike advocacy and mobility justice, asked Mimi Sheller to become his adviser, and started his Ph.D. journey. His research studies the role of bike movements in ecological transitions. Since their emergence in the late 19th century, bike movements have afforded social innovations like paved roads, mobility justice, mountain biking, and bike shares, as well as affording spaces of emancipation for blacks, women, and migrants. They serve as conduits for policies and practices like mobility justice and bike kitchens, and they have effectively lobbied for better cycling and walking policies by writing the policies, mobilizing in the ground to pressure for social change, and communicating about it.
	Hana Park Email: hp484@drexel.edu Research Interests: Influencer-Public Relationships, Social Media Analytics, Public Relations, Digital Communication LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanapark316 Biography Hana Park is a PhD candidate in Communication, Culture, and Media at Drexel University. She received her BA from the Catholic University of Korea, where she studied cultural theories, anthropology, popular culture, and sociolinguistics. Her research centers on the relationships between influencers and the public, social media analytics, public relations, and effective communication strategies to foster audience engagement.
	Maggie Riegel she/her Email: msr342@drexel.edu Research Interests: Popular culture, queer and gender theory, critical race theory, intersectionality, horror studies, memes, memetic culture, and social media LinkedIn – Biography Maggie Riegel is a third year PhD candidate of Communication, Culture, and Media at Drexel University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science from Moravian University and a master’s degree in political science from Lehigh University. After working in the service industry and nonprofit world for several years, she returned to school in 2020 to complete a master’s certificate in women, gender, and sexuality studies from Lehigh University before enrolling at Drexel. Her research interests include gender and queer studies, critical race theory, feminist theory, horror studies, and other academic disciplines that challenges structures of power and hegemony. As an avid horror addict since childhood, her dissertation research explores intersectional representations of motherhood within the popular television series, American Horror Story. She lives in Bethlehem, PA with her spouse, her five cats, and her White Swiss Shepherd, Marx.
	Giuseppe Salomone Email: salomojj@drexel.edu Research Interests: Homosexuality and media effects, Intersectionality and the LGBTQA+ sectors, The LGBTQA+ experience and perspective, Sex and the city, Liminality, rites of passage and homosexuality, Media’s impact on the perceptions of gay culture, Media and the AIDS epidemic and its overall impact on the perception of gay males, The liminal states of gay male culture, The sociological Imagination, The performance and the looking glass self LinkedIn – Biography Giuseppe has received most of his education from Drexel University. He is a gay activist and has worked on many committees and boards within and across Higher Education (including President of Drexel’s LGBTQA alumni group, the LGBTQA faculty and staff resource group and AACRAO’s LGBTQA+ caucus) to better the LGBTQA+ experience for faculty, staff, and students. His research domains center on media’s portrayal of gay culture and its impact on mainstream’s perception and acceptance of homosexuality. In his spare time, he enjoys music, science fiction graphic novels, vintage thrift shops and collecting vintage vinyl. He currently lives in the Graduate Hospital section of Philadelphia, with his partner Eric and their three chihuahuas, Farrah, Harper, and Winter.
	Qingyue Sun she/her/hers Email: qs63@drexel.edu Research Interests: Digital labor politics Social media and platform studies Feminist media studies Digital activism and resistance Chinese studies LinkedIn – https://www.qingyuesun.com/ Biography Qingyue began her academic journey in Strategic Communication and Public Relations at Purdue University in 2013. During her time at Purdue, she gained practical experience working as a public relations associate for companies in London, Xi’an, and West Lafayette, Indiana. This work sparked her interest in influencer culture and digital labor politics, leading her to pursue further studies at the London School of Economics (LSE) and eventually embark on a PhD at Drexel University. Qingyue’s research focuses on the intersection of media, technology, and labor politics, with an emphasis on the complexities of digital culture and society. Her key areas of interest include digital labor politics, where she explores the precarity of platformization and the intersecting inequalities faced by digital workers and cultural creators. This includes analyzing how platforms shape labor dynamics and contribute to new forms of digital inequality. She also specializes in feminist media studies, focusing on transnational feminism and the production and audience reception of feminist narratives in popular culture, particularly in global industries like K-pop, transnational media production, and film. Qingyue is interested in how feminist discourses are represented and circulated in these media forms and the role they play in shaping gender politics. Another central aspect of her work is resistance in platformed contexts, which examines labor resistance, networked feminist practices, and the rise of digital feminism. She investigates how platforms serve as spaces for activism, particularly in challenging traditional power structures.
	Marianne Swain Email: ms5259@drexel.edu Research Interests: Religious and Secular Eschatology, Apocalypse, Climate Change, QAnon, Covid-19 LinkedIn – Biography Marianne is a fifth year PhD student in the department of Communication, Culture, and Media at Drexel University. Having graduated with a degree in History from University College London, her research now focuses on emergent secular eschatologies in US political discourses. Her dissertation examines the framing influences of Christian eschatological and apocalyptic narratives on secular discourse concerning climate change, QAnon, and Covid-19.
	John Timlin Email: jt3367@drexel.edu Research Interests: Propaganda, Biopolitics, Interstate Highways as Capillaries for Capital Flows, Critical Theory, Violence in Media LinkedIn – Biography John is a second-year PhD student in the Communication, Culture and Media department at Drexel University. His graduate work at the master’s level centered on the intersection of biopolitics, violence, and representations of violence in media and literature, with a particular focus on the nature of violence and movement in the novels of Frank Norris, Martin Amis, and Roberto Bolaño. Between his undergraduate and graduate degrees John founded a consulting firm in Las Vegas that specialized in business operations, regulatory affairs, and project management. His research at Drexel focuses on violence, imprisonment, and alienation as entertainment, the interaction of capital and physical bodies, and how these interactions are represented in various forms of media. John lives in South Philadelphia with his wife, Erin.
	Ian Zimmermann he/him Email: ibz23@drexel.edu Research Interests: Algorave, Critical theory, Intercultural communication, Sound studies, (Post-)subcultural studies, Ethnography LinkedIn – Biography A former ESL teacher and Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Brazil (Universidade Federal do Pará, 2015), Ian teaches courses in linguistics, intercultural communication, and public speaking. His ethnographic dissertation research focuses on algorave, or the intersection between creative coding and electronic music. He investigates notions of liveness, affect, subcultural capital, and the mainstream-underground binary among users of the TidalCycles live coding environment. Ian can regularly be found performing as “c@law” Saturday afternoons during the Estuary “WeekEndJam” streamed live on the eulerroom Twitch channel.