Faculty Profile

Degrees

PHD, SUNY Univ Cntr Albany; MA, SUNY Univ Cntr Albany; BA, Zhejiang University

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Bio

Dr. Wu received her PhD from the joint program of Sociology and Communication at SUNY Albany, and her research focuses on the crossroads of popular culture, politics, new media, and civic engagement. Her dissertation—"Entertainment and the Public Sphere: The Convergence of Popular Culture and Politics in China's Public Sphere and Cyberspace"—won the University Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award in any field in the College of Arts and Science at SUNY Albany. She uses a variety of perspectives and research approaches from media studies, cultural sociology, and political communication to study the convergence of popular culture and politics, how entertainment experiences contribute to civic engagement, how people behave in new media environments (such as massive multi-player online games), and how citizens use social media to connect with others and organize their civic voices. Interested in both the U.S. media and the mass media in China, where Dr. Wu is from, she is also delving into cross-cultural comparisons. Dr. Wu has shared her diverse research interests in many conference presentations, peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her 2017 book, Entertainment and Politics in Contemporary China, published with Palgrave Macmillan, is a research monograph that investigates the deep linkage between the popular media and civic discourses. An earlier prospectus of the book won an AEJMC Emerging Scholars Program Research Grant as one of four national recipients in 2013. The book also won the Hofstra University Lawrence A. Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication in 2018. Transferring her scholarly expertise into the classroom, Dr. Wu teaches a wide variety of courses in media literacy, media and politics, media technologies and public policy, and global media. Dr. Wu was honored as the School's "Distinguished Teacher of the Year" in May 2019. Having served as a research fellow on a federally funded project that examines behaviors in massive multi-player online games, Dr. Wu is also a faculty fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.

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Teaching Interests

global media, media history, media literacy, media technologies and public policy, popular culture and politics, new media, and mass media in contemporary society

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Research Interests

(comparative) media studies, cultural sociology, cultural studies, game studies, new technology and society, political communication, social media, television studies

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Recent Courses Taught

Course	Title	Level
MASS 012	MEDIA LITERACY: CRITICISM & AN	Undergraduate
MASS 015	THEORIES OF MEDIA	Undergraduate
MASS 109	MS MED,PLTCS,PLCY MKG	Undergraduate
MASS 130	SOCIAL MEDIA, TECH & POLICY	Undergraduate
MASS 150	INDEP STUDY/READINGS	Undergraduate
MASS 151	INDEP STDY: READINGS IN MASS	Undergraduate
MASS 170	INTERNSHIPS	Undergraduate
MASS 199	DEPT HONORS CANDIDACY: ESSAY	Undergraduate