Ava Francesca Battocchio

News and Updates

December 2024:
- I am officially off the academic job market! I’m over the moon to announce that I will be starting as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the Fall. I’m so excited to be joining the community at Medill and to be heading back to Chicago!
July 2024:
- Recently back from ICA (and feeding kangaroos) in Australia. My co-authors and I were awarded a Top Student-Led Paper by the Political Communication Division for our work on internet access and political participation across rural and urban communities in Michigan. It was amazing to present this work, as well integrate insights from my ongoing fieldwork to provide context for our survey findings. This presentation also gave me the opportunity to use the data-driven maps I’ve been building using ggplot, as I work through elements of my dissertation. It’s these moments that make me particularly excited about doing mixed-methods work in that drawing connections and triangulating data from different angles paints a rich picture of not only what is happening but reasons as to why it might be happening.
- In other conference related news, the AEJMC schedule posted and I’m looking forward to talking about my work and interests in Philly. In addition to participating in the Job Hub, you can catch me at the following sessions:
  - Thursday, August 8 from 8:30 to 10 a.m.
    - Panel Communication Technology and Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Divisions: PFR Panel Session
      - Using Technology to Increase Academic Productivity: Managing Time, Project, and Collaboration
  - Friday, August 9 from 10:30 a.m to noon
    - Communication Theory and Methodology Division: High Density Refereed Research Paper Session
      - The Multidimensionality of being “Rural”: Geography, Media Use, and Mental Health
        Taewoo Kang, Ava Francesca Battocchio, Chuqing Dong, and Kjerstin Thorson (Michigan State)
  - Saturday, August 10 from 10:30 a.m. to noon
    - Community Journalism Interest Group (COMJIG): Scholar-to-Scholar (Poster) Paper Refereed Research Paper Session
      - Remoteness and Rural News: A Computational-Ethnographic Approach to Local News on Facebook in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
        Ava Francesca Battocchio, Brandi Stover, Jean Hardy, and Kjerstin Thorson (Michigan State)
May 2024: AEJMC decision day. This year I was 2/2 with Extended Abstracts getting accepted to Communication Theory and Methods and Community Journalism. I’m super grateful to my co-authors for the opportunity to collaborate with them. I’m also exceptionally proud of the EA going to Community Journalism, which features as second author Brandi Stover, my undergraduate research mentee. It’s going to be a busy summer with diss fieldwork, Australia for ICA, and now Philly for AEJMC. Also had an abstract with the NSF accepted to AOIR- unsure if I will be heading to England in the fall due to other possible obligations, including that I am officially on the job market for Fall 2025!
April 2024: Several major updates since the fall, aside from the fact that I still need a nap. First and most importantly, I defended my dissertation proposal earlier this month 🎉. On a similar note, while I was completing my proposal, I submitted 3 different grant applications to fund my mixed ethnographic and computational methods dissertation and was awarded all 3, coming in at a little under $13,000. I’m very grateful to the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, the College of Communication Arts & Sciences and the Charles J. Strosacker Graduate Research Fund for Health and Risk Communication in the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts & Sciences for supporting my dissertation and diss-related work. Other highlights include 3 publications making their way out into the world, lots of exciting progress on the NSF-funded project on volunteer moderators for local groups,and an ICA acceptance, which means I will be headed to Australia in June. Lastly, I’m getting ready to go on the market this summer and I’m very much looking forward to seeing where I land next.
October 2023: Busy (but exciting) couple of months– dissertation proposal writing in full swing, couple of fieldwork trips Up North, started my appointment for the next year as a Research Assistant on a NSF-funded project, had a publication accepted, and have a couple other manuscripts in various stages of getting out the door. Perhaps, more exciting news is that on November 2nd I will be presenting very early findings from over a year of ethnographic fieldwork alongside Jean Hardy, PhD, at the Merit Network’s Michigan Broadband Summit . (And then I will probably take a nap.)
July 2023: Outta the Bush and into the books: returned from a week of fieldwork Up North and dove right into the University of Michigan’s Digital Studies Summer Institute . Really excited to spend to spend the next two weeks learning and growing alongside an awesome group of social justice-oriented scholars and practitioners. Additionally, I will join the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life as an affiliate for the 2023-2024 academic year. In sum, lots of opportunities to connect with others doing super rad and important work.
June 2023: Had an awesome ICA in Toronto. But I guess the bigger news is that on June 1, I successfully defended my Comprehensive Exams which means I’m now a PhD Candidate 🎉 Excited to start working on my dissertation proposal and to head out into the field next week. But first, sleep.
May 2023: AEJMC acceptance came on the break day before my 4th and final Comprehensive Exam question. Heading to ICA next week – excited to see folks there
April 2023: accepted to University of Michigan’s Digital IDEAS Summer Institute with a scholarship
March 2023: abstract for ICA PolComm Grad Student Pre-Conference accepted – guess I’m going to Toronto early
January 2023: ICA acceptance – See you in Toronto!