Communication Arts welcomed three faculty members to the department this fall. From left to right: Professor Matthew Hannah (Digital Studies | Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture); Professor Diana Leon-Boys (Media and Cultural Studies); Visiting Professor Paxton Haven (Media and Cultural Studies).
Matthew Hannah
Visiting Associate Professor of Digital Studies
Professor Hannah’s research focuses on how digital platforms and environments facilitate and enable the spread of extremism and conspiracy theories. He seeks opportunities to help students conduct research on and find ways for that research to transcend UW–Madison and impact the broader world. Hannah also hopes to utilize the proximity of the university to the Wisconsin state capitol and find ways to collaborate with stakeholders on information challenges that impact citizens of Wisconsin.
Paxton Haven
Visiting Assistant Professor
Haven is joining Communication Arts this year after completing his Ph.D. this past summer at the University of Texas at Austin. This fall, Haven will be teaching two core courses in the department: CA346: Critical Internet Studies and CA351: Television Industries. Haven will also be introducing a new course in Communication Arts called Music Video from MTV to TikTok. This course will explore the history of popular music industries and track the major turning points of music television from cable television to streaming video to social media.
Diana Leon-Boys
Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
Leon-Boys focuses her research on media, social inequalities, and representations of marginalized groups, particularly in relation to Latinx populations, women, and children. Her work centers on how these communities are visualized in mainstream pop culture, and how they, at times, push back and enact agency to understand who they are and how they fit in this American culture.