Category: Profiles

Email address: mz44@illinois.edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Maggie’s research is at the intersection of computational social science, HCI and social media, combining natural language processing and computer vision methods as well as experiments to look into the media effect on people’s opinions and behavior.

Recent Publications/Presentations

Zhang, M. and Ng, Y.M.M. (2023) #TrendingNow: How Twitter trending topics impact public and individual agenda? International Journal of Communication. 

Wang, X., and Zhang, M. (2022). Sharing the same bed with different dreams: Topic modeling the research-practice gap in public relations 2011-2020. Journal of Marketing Communications, 1-25. 

Zhang, M. M., Wang, X., & Hu, Y. (2021). Strategic framing matters but varies: A structural topic modeling approach to analyzing china’s foreign propaganda about the 2019 hong kong protests on Twitter. Social Science Computer Review, 41(1), 265-285.

Courses Taught

• Social Media Analytics (ADV 480): Instructor at UIUC, Spring 2023 
• Multimedia Editing and Design (JOUR 425): Teaching Assistant at UIUC, Fall 2021–Dec 2021 
• Data Storytelling (JOUR 460): Teaching Assistant at UIUC, Spring 2021

Academic Roles

ICR representative for the College of Media Academic Misconduct and Capricious Grading Committee at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the 2022-2023 academic year

Awards and Honors

• Top Paper Award, AEJMC, Communication Technology Division, 2024 
• Top 2 Student Paper Award, ICA the Mass Communication Division, 2019

Related Links

https://mz44zhang.github.io/

Email: smg8@illinois.edu

Research Interests

Stephanie is a PhD Candidate in Communications & Media at the Institute of Communications Research, where her work broadly encompasses mediated Latine/x teen girlhoods, quinceañera ontologies, and streaming media and platform consolidation. Her current projects merge media studies, girlhood studies, Latine/x studies, and cultural studies with reconceptualizations of visibility, presence, resonance, nationhood, and belonging. She holds a B.A. in English & American Literature and Latin American Studies from New York University, and earned an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from California State University, Los Angeles, where she wrote a master’s thesis titled “‘I Got You’: The Modern American Family and Latinx Reconfigurations in Netflix’s One Day at a Time.”

Recent Publications/Presentations

• Pérez, S.M. (Forthcoming, 2026). Dazzling intimacies and the mirage of inclusion in And Just Like That…. In I. Molina-Guzmán & A.N. Valdivia (Eds.), (Re)booting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes. New York University Press. ISBN: 9781479821914. 
• Pérez, S.M. (Forthcoming). Quinceañera ontologies: (Mediated) Latine/x girlhood and other stories. In J.M. Báez & D. León-Boys (Eds.), Quinceañeras: Mediated Approaches to a Cultural Celebration. University of Illinois Press. 
• Pérez, S.M. & Valdivia, A.N. (2023). Latina Teenhood: Intersectionalizing subjectivities in the post-network era. In B. Calafell & S. Eguchi (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Ethnicity and Race in Communication. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367748586-3. 
• Valdivia, A.N., Pérez, S.M., & Herrera, Z. (2023). A Dream Quinceañera? Latina Girlhood in Mainstream Media. Smithsonian Voices. National Museum of the American Latino. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-latino-center/2022/03/23/latina-girlhood-in-mainstream-media/. 
• Valdivia, A.N., Cano, A.A., Pérez, S.M., Valkanova, D. (2022). Quinceañeras: Celebration, Joy, and Ethnic Pride [Exhibit]. Spurlock Museum, Urbana, IL, USA. https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/profiles/quince.html. 
• Pérez, S.M. (2021). Queen of the Neighborhood: Monse Finnie mobilizes and defies the ingenue trope in Netflix’s On My Block. FLOW Journal: OVER*FLOW. 8 October 2021. https://www.flowjournal.org/2021/10/queen-of-the-neighborhood/.

Courses Taught

• GWS 100: Introduction to Gender & Women’s Studies, Fall 2025 (TA). 
• MACS 101: Introduction to the Media, Spring 2025 (TA). 
• LLS/MACS 250: Latines/xs on the Bronze Screen, Fall 2024 (Instructor of Record). 
• LAS 399: Leadership & Professional Development, AY 2023-2024 (TA).

Awards and Honors

• AY 2023-2025: Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Students 
• Spring 2024: Legacía Award, La Casa Cultural Latina 
• Summer 2023: Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($1,000). 
• Summer 2023: Tinker Foundation Field Research Grant, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($2,500). 
• Summer 2023: Foreign Language & Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Italian Language & Area Studies, US Department of Education / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($7,500, with supplementary funding provided by Middlebury College, VT). 
• AY 2022-2023: Office of Vice Chancellor for Diversity Equity and Inclusion, “Broadening Inclusion Grant”, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($5,000). 
• Fall 2022: Lynne Blanton Student Travel Award, College of Media, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($850). 
• Spring 2022 Michael Haley Travel Grant, $1,000. International Communications Association, 72nd Annual Conference, Paris, France. 
• AY 2020-2023: Graduate College Fellowship, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($75,000/3 years). 
• Summer 2020: Summer Predoctoral Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ($2500).

What Most People Don’t Know about Me

I was born and raised in Los Angeles and am interested in keeping up with issues and histories of gentrification, restrictive covenants, race, ethnicity, culture, food, public policy, and social justice in my hometown.

Related Links

thestephanieperez.com

Email: rikray2@illinois.edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS   

I primarily study how audiences take shape on digital platforms and the ways in which platform logics influence audience behavior. My interest in research design and methodology has also led to collaborations across topical domains such as political communication, public opinion, journalism studies, etc.

Recent Publications/ Presentations

Ray, R., Bhalla, S., & Taneja, H. (2025) Partisan news users in the United States and India on either side seldom use fact checkers. Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf018

Ng, Y. M. M., & Ray, R. (2025). The journalists’ exodus: Navigating the transition from Twitter to Mastodon and other alternative platforms. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251321165

Bhalla, S., Ray, R., & Taneja, H. (2024). When news is entertainment: explaining the persistence of misinformation through the information environment. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2406819

Ray, R. (2023). Online news platforms still matter: Generational news consumption patterns during the 2020 presidential election. Online Media and Global Communication, 2(3), 329-350. https://doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2023-0012

Courses Taught

• ADV 483: Audience Analysis 
• JOUR 451: Research Methods in Journalism

Related Links

• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uGLnpQEAAAAJ
• https://rikr.net/
• https://github.com/rik-r