Jiayun (she/her) pursues a mixed-methods scholarship, which bridges the feminist critical approach and the empirical tradition of media effects, to examine the interplay of communication, media and social justice. Her research integrates quantitative and qualitative approaches to comprehensively reveal how inequalities — manifested at both structural and individual levels — are (re)produced and challenged by communication, media, and technology. With this overarching concern, her research branches into two primary strands.
The first one explores how oppressions (especially those tied to identity, such as gender and race) are perpetuated in digital media and online discourse, and how individuals and communities resist them through creative, everyday communication and media practices. With a focus on the broader Chinese context, she has investigated (1) the gender politics baked into Chinese digital popular culture (e.g., gender-political conflicts around popular media products) and (2) how people resist oppression and perform agency through their engagement with media and communication (e.g., how Chinese female graduate students resist intersectional oppressions in U.S. higher education). Recently, she has extended this line of inquiry to the domain of emerging technology, Artificial Intelligence, and aims to examine how AI encodes and reproduces gender stereotypes, thereby perpetuating gender ideology and oppressions.
The second strand focuses on the impact of media and communication, exploring how they shape perceptions and attitudes in relation to social inequalities, as well as the well-being of vulnerable individuals. Her prior research mostly assessed the association between nationalism and anti-feminism, uncovering the psychological mechanisms through which oppression is reproduced. Building on this foundation, she is expanding this inquiry in two interconnected directions: (1) how media and communication shape the well-being of vulnerable individuals (e.g., international students, racial minorities), especially regarding social support, and (2) whether and how AI may be designed as an effective intervention for social justice through shaping individuals’ perceptions and attitudes towards critical issues.
Overall, the pursuit of justice lies at the very heart of her research agenda. She strives to advance a justice-oriented communication scholarship that not only theorizes power and resistance but also informs the design of more equitable technologies and media environments. Her work has been presented in various prestigious conferences, including ICA, NCA, AEJMC, IAMCR and #SMSociety.
She earned her research master’s degree in mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her bachelor's degree in journalism at Wuhan University.
