News

A running log of recent activity — publications, talks, awards, media coverage, and other updates from my research and teaching.

2026

• Jun2026
  Four papers presented at the 76th ICA Annual Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Topics: mixed-emotional headlines, anti-vaping ML profiling, mapping surrealism in AI images, third-person effect in social-appeal messages.
• May2026
  Awarded the Social Impact Award from the Department of Communication, UCSB.
• May2026
  Talk at Comm Horizons, UC Davis — Generative AI for scalable message tailoring.
• Apr2026
  CHARM Lab research covered in The Washington Post: "Social media addiction? This detox could reverse a decade of damage." Coverage of Rathje et al., Nature registered report.
• Apr2026
  Co-presented with Dr. Jiaying Liu at the Health Communication Symposium, UCSB.
• Mar2026
  Talk with Dr. Jiaying Liu at the Tobacco Prevention Summit, Santa Barbara County — on personalizing vaping prevention messages with generative AI.
• Feb2026
  Paper presented at the International Neuropsychological Society, Philadelphia.
• Jan2026
  Guest lecture in COMM 155 Health Communication, UCSB — Internet, technology & health.

2025

• Aug2025
  Attended the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS-Stanford) at Stanford University. Funded by the UCSB Graduate Division IPS Grant.
• Aug2025
  Awarded the Social Science Research Grant Program (SSRGP) from UCSB ISBER — $7,600.
• Apr2025
  Talk at the Symposium on Digital Media & Well-Being, UCSB — Digital media in times of well-being.

2024

• Nov2024
  Paper presented at NCA (Health Communication Division), New Orleans — on congruent and incongruent norms in the digital age.
• Sep2024
  Poster at Trust and Safety Conference, Stanford University — Misinformation potential of AI-generated images.
• Jun2024
  Paper presented at the 75th ICA Annual Conference, Gold Coast, Australia.