Title: Identifying Awareness and Barriers to Implementation of Cultural Competency in Government Archives through Community-Based Participatory Research

Abstract: Diversification of the historical record from the predominant Eurocentric paradigm requires appropriate interpretation and service by a multicultural staff or by staff adept at working with cultures and communities unlike their own. This research engages members of a national archival professional organization with the cultural competency framework to strengthen their awareness and agency in diversifying the workforce, improving service to disparate patrons and stakeholders, and expanding the archival record. Cultural competency is the ability, at both individual and organizational levels, to function with awareness, knowledge, and interpersonal skills when engaging people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and values. Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) guided this case study, which drew on interviews with archives leaders and participants who completed an asynchronous course developed in collaboration with the organization’s leadership, as well as the organization’s documents related to a cultural competency initiated in 2021. Government archivists interviewed in this study support the goals of cultural competency, but due to the lack of a shared conceptual model, implementation remains fragmented. The study also identified multiple challenges that community members faced in implementing cultural competency, including limited staff time for professional development and competing organizational priorities. These findings expand understanding of cultural competency beyond external community engagement and contribute insight into contemporary implementation barriers, particularly in the context of shifting political climates, legislative restrictions, and other forms of organizational uncertainty related to DEIA initiatives. This work also contributes to the body of PAR and CBPR approaches to community engagement by demonstrating how cultural competency initiatives can support efforts to diversify the historical record.

Committee Members:
Jenifer Winter (COM), Chair
Hanae Kramer (COM)
Rich Gazan (LIS)
Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Punihei Lipe
Jane Chung-Do (Public Health), University Representative

The event showcased innovative student projects developed in collaboration with industry, government, nonprofit, and ������Ƶ partners, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of computer science and its real-world impact.

The 2026 ICS Capstone Project Day was recently featured in a ������Ƶ News article. Check it out to learn more about the event and the impressive work of this year’s capstone students:

Computer science students tackle real-world challenges through industry partnerships

Congratulations to Brook and all of the students on a successful Capstone Project Day!

Title: Instructional Support Personnel Development and Their Influence on Student Learning

Abstract:
Learning assistants, students who support their peers in lower-division courses, offer several benefits to the students they help and to themselves. However, novice instructional support personnel may lack confidence in their new roles due to their lack of pedagogical content knowledge, and this deficit in self-efficacy can limit their capacity to assist students. This document describes an embedded single-case study of a training program in which undergraduate students work as assistant TAs (ATAs) before they serve as learning assistants. This was a parallel mixed-methods study that examined written artifacts, classroom observations, aggregated student grades, interviews, and surveys. The results of this study showed that the experiences of ATAs in their first semester supporting students improved their perceived cognitive skills. Furthermore, the experiences from supporting students tended to produce a teaching style that focused on providing deep explanations and frequent feedback that was based in the pedagogical training of the ATAs and learning assistants.

Committee Members:
Michael-Brian Ogawa (Chair)
Martha Crosby
Violet Harada
Rich Gazan
Daniel Hoffman (University Representative)

The forum brought together cybersecurity leaders, researchers, and practitioners to discuss critical infrastructure, AI-driven cyber threats and defenses, supply chain security, cyber resilience, threat intelligence, emerging security challenges across the Indo-Pacific, and more.

CIS faculty member Mehdi Tarrit Mirakhorli also contributed to the forum as a panelist, presenting “Arms Race Between AI-Driven Attacks and AI-Powered Defenses.”

Brook and Dr. Tarrit’s participation in the forum reflects CIS’s commitment to engaging with timely issues in information science and cybersecurity.

Title: Decentralizing Information: Participation and Governance in Alternative Media

Abstract:
Alternative social media (ASM) environments are frequently positioned as more democratic and participatory alternatives to corporate platforms; however, the conditions under which participation becomes meaningful, sustainable, and equitable remain insufficiently examined. Conceptualizing ASM as a community-based, user-governed infrastructure, this study investigates how decentralized governance practices, user agency, and community-led moderation reconfigure power relations, participation, and norms of digital engagement. Grounded in critical media studies and participatory culture frameworks, and informed by the work of Chris Atton, Christian Fuchs, and Henry Jenkins, the project examines how users both shape and are shaped by the social and cultural dynamics of ASM environments.

Methodologically, the study employs a qualitative case study of Mastodon, integrating digital ethnography and qualitative content analysis. Data collection focuses on key empirical domains: platform documents (e.g., moderation policies and instance rules), hashtag-based discourse related to governance practices, and administrator perspectives on decision-making and community management. Through iterative coding and thematic analysis, this multi-method approach enables a systematic examination of how authority is distributed and negotiated across administrative and normative layers. In doing so, the study advances a more granular account of governance and power in decentralized social media ecosystems, with particular attention to their implications for participation, inclusion, and collective content regulation.

Dissertation Committee:
Rich Gazan, Chairperson
Jenifer Sunrise Winter
Wayne Buente
Wei Zhang, University Representative
Bo Xiao

On Thursday, April 2, 2026, Bob successfully defended his dissertation, “Coping with AI in the Workplace: Exploring Employee Attitudes and Behaviors in the Future of Work.” His research explores how employees are psychologically responding to the rapid integration of AI into their work environments.

The CIS community is proud to celebrate this incredible milestone!

Title: Coping with AI in the Workplace: Exploring Employee Attitudes and Behaviors in the Future of Work.

Abstract: The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into organizational systems is transforming employee job roles, work processes, and professional identities. While prior research emphasizes technological adoption and macroeconomic outcomes, less attention has been given to the psychological processes through which employees interpret and respond to AI-driven change.

Grounded on the transactional model of stress and coping, and informed by Conversation of Resources theory, this research conceptualizes AI adaptation as an evolving appraisal to the coping process.

Using a mixed-methods design, survey data from 305 white-collar employees in a Hawaiʻi-based health insurance health insurance technology organization were analyzed alongside 20 semi-structured interviews.

Quantitative regression analyses indicate that opportunity appraisal and AI self-efficacy significantly predict approach coping, whereas threat appraisal predicts avoidance coping. Social support strengthens coping engagement, while perceived organizational support functions primarily as a distal contextual resource rather than a direct behavioral predictor.

Qualitative thematic analysis identifies seven themes elaborating cognitive appraisal, emotional regulation, identity negotiation, and resource activation processes. Integrated findings advance a multi-level, resource-layered coping framework linking appraisal, proximal and distal resources, coping strategies, and well-being outcomes.

The research extends coping theory to emerging technological contexts and provides theoretically grounded implications for designing psychologically supportive and sustainable AI implementation strategies.

Committee Members:

Dr. Scott Robertson – (Dissertation Chair)
Dr. Jenifer Winter – (Committee Member – COM)
Dr. Rich Gazan – (Committee Member – LIS)
Dr. Wayne Buente – (Committee Member – COM)
Dr. Hyoung-June Park (University Representative – ARCHITECTURE)

Lolita has been teaching in the Communication Program, where she has made a meaningful impact on her students through her dedication, care and teaching excellence. She will begin teaching in the Shidler College of Business this upcoming fall.

Lolita will be formally recognized at the 2026 Mānoa Awards Ceremony, taking place on May 5, 2026, from 3 to 4 p.m. at Kennedy Theatre.

Please join us in congratulating Lolita on this well-deserved achievement!

Title:
Folk Theories of Institutional Failure: What Comparing Journalism, Medicine, and Academia Reveals About American Cynicism

Abstract:
Journalism, medicine, and academia are rarely studied together, yet the American public increasingly views them in strikingly similar terms — as institutions tainted by the pursuit of profit. Drawing on 100 hour-long qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of American adults in 2025, this talk presents findings from an in-progress book that takes a deliberately cross-institutional approach to understanding public cynicism toward what we call “knowledge institutions”: professions that gather, synthesize, and present information for the public good. Our comparative design surfaces patterns that discipline-specific research tends to miss. Whereas scholarship on media trust, patient trust, and confidence in higher education typically proceeds in separate silos, our interviews reveal a shared folk theory — a common narrative people tell themselves about how the world works — that cuts across all three domains: that capitalism has subordinated these institutions’ public service missions to private financial interests. This cynicism is neither partisan nor conspiratorial; liberals, conservatives, and independents articulate it in remarkably similar ways. This talk discusses the value of interdisciplinary, qualitative, interview-based research for illuminating how people construct meaning across institutional contexts, and considers what these findings suggest for scholars and practitioners working within — and across — knowledge institutions.

Bio:
Seth C. Lewis is Professor and Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, where he is also Director of Journalism. In 2026, he will join the University of Virginia as the inaugural Elcan Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Media Studies.

His research examines the social implications of emerging technologies, with a current emphasis on what AI and human-machine communication mean for journalism, media work, and everyday life as well as how technology is reconfiguring trust, expertise, and authority. His research on these topics has led to two forthcoming books. Journalism in the Age of AI: From Acceleration to Reimagination (Polity Press, with Rodrigo Zamith and Tomás Dodds) offers a comprehensive account of AI and news. American Cynicism: Why We Distrust Journalism, Medicine, and Academia (MIT Press, with Jacob L. Nelson) draws from extensive interview-based research to illuminate the narratives people tell themselves about knowledge institutions.

He has held visiting positions at Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, and Yale, among other universities.

Title:
From Identity to Immersion: Designing Systems that Influence

Abstract:
Digital systems increasingly shape how we construct identity, experience immersion, and respond to information. This talk traces the evolution of my research from early studies on online identity and avatar customization to more recent work on immersive and participatory systems, including virtual reality, digital story-drawing, and VR-based escape room. Beginning with the question of how self-created digital identities influence information processing, my work has examined how customization activates agency and motivation within mediated environments. As technologies evolved, this line of inquiry expanded to immersive systems, exploring how embodiment, presence, and interactivity amplify psychological impact. More recently, I have investigated inclusion as a design principle, studying participatory digital storytelling, culturally responsive health communication systems, and immersive interventions such as VR escape rooms designed to foster critical engagement with misinformation. Across these projects, I argue that influence is not simply embedded in messages but is structured into the design of systems themselves. By examining identity activation, immersive affordances, and inclusion in digital environments, this talk proposes a framework for understanding how interdisciplinary approaches can shape the next generation of immersive systems.

Bio:
Youjeong Kim is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research examines how digital identity, immersive media, and emerging technologies influence cognition and behavior. She has published extensively on avatar customization, virtual reality, AI-mediated communication, and persuasive systems in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior and Health Communication. Her recent work explores participatory digital storytelling, culturally responsive health communication systems, and VR-based misinformation interventions. She directs interdisciplinary projects that integrate system design, experimental research, and immersive media development.

Title: “Using Community Based Participatory Research, Actor-Network Theory, and Social Network Analysis to Explore Agency and Engagement Around Kaho’olawe in the Networked Publics of Instagram”

Abstract: Social media platforms have become an essential space for community engagement and yet, there is a gap in the literature at the intersection of Community Engagement Research and Social Media Research with regards to using the rich large-scale data sets provided by these platforms to examine and better understand small-scale engagement through a community-driven lens. Both the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission and the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana use Instagram as a primary means of online engagement with the greater community around Kaho’olawe. In a previous community-based needs assessment, both organizations identified the need to better understand the types of relationships and social phenomenon that exist in that space, how those online connections are influenced by the offline activities of the Kaho’olawe community, and how the platform can be better leveraged to advance the goals of restoring and revitalizing Kanaloa Kaho’olawe. This dissertation explored patterns of engagement exhibited by the Kaho‘olawe Community on Instagram. The use of hashtags by a sample of the Kaho‘olawe Community, and the patterns of engagement between and among members was examined through the lenses of Social Network Analysis, Actor-Network Theory, and Community Based Participatory Research. The results of the study found that the Kaho’olawe Community is not a single, bounded social group, but a layered, heterogeneous actor-network that crosses offline and online contexts. Community membership is enacted through multiple pathways that include physical access to the island as a volunteer with the KIRC or PKO, continued engagement with the KIRC and PKO beyond community access, self-declared alignment with the values and cultural practices related to Kaho’olawe, and digital engagement with the PKO and KIRC on the Instagram platform. Agency in both the offline and online spaces is established through practice, manifested as participation in huaka’i, ceremony, storytelling, and hashtag use. These results will be used by the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana and Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission to better serve Kaho‘olawe through social media communication. This work also contributes to the larger bodies of literature related to Community Engagement Research, Actor Network Theory, and Social Media Studies, by offering an example of using large-scale social media data to unpack small-scale community engagement.

Committee Members:
Dan Suthers, Chairperson
Rich Gazan
Scott Robertson
Patricia Amaral
Davianna McGregor, University Representative