The College of Communication Arts and Sciences welcomes seven new research faculty hires this academic year. Each new faculty member brings research and teaching expertise that support the college’s strategic goal to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the academy. Several faculty were identified as part of a planned thematic hire addressing topics related to race, ethnicity, gender and social inequities in communication.

MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences is top ranked among communication programs in the world: No. 3 in the world in Shanghai Rankings and No. 9 in the world in the QS World Rankings. ComArtSci faculty are world-renowned scholars in communication, journalism, advertising and public relations, information science, game studies and communicative sciences and disorders. They are also trailblazers in the teaching of creativity, making the college a destination for innovative teaching and career success for students at all levels.

“These new faculty hires and our continued performance in the rankings are a celebration of inclusive excellence in our college,” said Dean Prabu David. “I am excited to support this growth in our research expertise and to see where our new faculty colleagues will take us next.”

Joining the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders are assistant professor Thea Knowles and professor of practice Ariana (Abaries) Farhad. Knowles specializes in identifying relationships between acoustic measures of speech in dysarthria and its ability to be understood; technological tools for speech treatment and measurement; and speech intervention approaches for people with Parkinson’s disease who do not benefit from conventional therapies. Farhad, who is also serving as the MA graduate program director at ComArtSci, specializes in pediatric hearing loss and its intervention; hearing assistive technology; trauma-informed care in speech-language pathology; culturally and linguistically responsive research and intervention; and multilingual language acquisition.

The Department of Advertising and Public Relations also welcomed two new faculty: professor Susan McFarlane-Alvarez and assistant professor Ed Timke. McFarlane-Alvarez specializes in topics related to advertising and identity; moving image representations; post-coloniality and national identity; racial reckoning and social activism in corporate expression; and pedagogy, diversity and inclusion. Timke specializes in diversity, equity, and inclusion in advertising workplaces and creative representations; disability, gender, and sexuality (and their intersections) within and beyond the United States.

Assistant professor Christina L. Myers joined the School of Journalism. Myers specializes in depictions of the Black experience in news, music and sports; implicit racial bias; critical race theory; ideology; and stereotypes.

Adding to the Department of Media and Information are assistant professor Megh Marathe and associate professor Celeste Campos-Castillo. Marathe specializes in inclusion in technology and society; intersectional analyses of disabled, queer, transgender and gender-diverse people’s experiences; epilepsy; public grievance redress; social theory; and informing expert practice and technologies. Campos-Castillo, who will begin with the college January 2023, specializes in digital inequality, privacy, social media, telehealth, youth, and mental health.

This story originally ran on the College of Communication Arts and Sciences website.