SCCI 2026

Sunday, April 12


TimeEventLocation
6:30pm—8:30pmDinner
Sushi Ya
949 Franklin Ave.
Garden City, NY

Monday, April 13


TimeTopicPresentation
8:30amIntroduction to Data & ComplexityOpening: The Communication of Complex Information
Michael Albers, East Carolina University (retired)
The Meaning and Construction of Data Concepts
Jason Swarts, North Carolina State University
10:15amRisk CommunicationUndermining Risk in TPC: Extractive Industry, Cascading Disaster, and the Global Climate Crisis
Timothy R. Amidon, University of Rhode Island
An Emerging Vision of Visual Risk Literacy
Daniel P. Richards, Old Dominion University
Evaluating Air Quality Infographics Related to Wildfire using Rhetorical Topology and Eye-tracking
Kathryn Lambrecht, Arizona State University
 11:45amSponsorHofstra’s Human Factors and Engineering Program
Salvador Rojas-Murillo, Hofstra University
12:00pmLunch
 1:00pmKeynoteCommunicating the Complexity of Human Interiority: Moral Haloing, Recuperative Ethos, and Chatbot Love
Cathryn Molloy, University of Delaware
2:00pmData VisualizationWhen Data Speaks to Everyone: Visualization Genres as Boundary Objects in Public Health Communication
Shannon Sarantakos, Farmingdale State College
 Visualizing Legal Texts in Legal English Education in China: A Pedagogical Approach for Foreign-Related Legal Talent Development
Sophie Zhuo Yang, East China University of Political Science and Law
Teaching Data Visualization Using the ASCEND Model: Toward a Heuristic for Designing and Communicating Data
Curtis Newbold, University of Utah
3:45pmUser Experience DesignCritical Race Trauma-Informed Usability: Designing Ethical and Relational Recovery Literacies in Digital Health and Wellness
Codi Renee Blackmon, Johns Hopkins University
Contextualizing User Experience within Complex Citizen Science Projects
Ryan Weber, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Tuesday, April 14

TimeTopicPresentation
8:15amPoster SessionCommunicating with Diverse Integrity: Digital Environmental Communication Rhetoric
D’ettra Johnson, Sam Houston State University

Rehumanizing Data: Digital Humanities as An Antidote to Datafication
Reliance Enwerem, University of Central Florida

Ethical AI in Professional Writing: Pedagogical Implications from Student Reflection Analysis
Chenxing Xie, Katie Powell, Lora Anderson, Teresa Cook, Andre Curtis-Trudel, and Laura Wilson, University of Cincinnati

A Passage to the Yucatan: Visual Rhetoric and Usability of El Tren Maya
Joseph Williams, Louisiana Tech University

From Communication to Participation: Inviting Public Contributions to Complexity through Play
Piper Corp, St. John’s University
Howard Gray, Wavetable

Institutional Risk Communication about the Fukushima Radioactive Water Release in the Rhetorical Context of the Pacific Rim
Soyeon Lee, University of Texas at El Paso

Using the Peak-End Rule in Communicating Content in College Courses
Robert Tinajero, University of North Texas at Dallas

Linguistic Greenscapes: How Dispensary Signage Represents Complex Information
Michael Madson, Arizona State University
9:15amEmbodimentEmbodied Interactions: Teaching Engineers Ultrasound
Brenton Faber, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
9:45amFeeling Infrastructure: Embodied Experience and Complex Information in Transportation Influencers’ Videos
Angela Crow, James Madison University
Break
10:30amEthical Dimensions of Communicating Complexity: The Case of Biomining
Elizabeth Pitts and Nick Canada, University of Pittsburgh
11:00amLanguageRevisiting and Reimagining Communication Models of Healthcare Information
Drew Virtue, Western Carolina University
11:30amLunch & LearnWorkshop: Human-Centered Design
Lee Kim (Pfizer, AI4 Purpose)
1:00pmPersonasComparing Empathy Effects of Persona Style: Which Details Matter?
Abigail Bakke, Minnesota State University Mankato
Aakriti Neupane, Minnesota State University Mankato
Andrew Marz, Metropolitan State University
1:30pmDeveloping Personas Informed by Cognitive Biases
Quan Zhou, Metropolitan State University
Break
2:15pmSystems & InstitutionsInaccessible Institutions: Aesthetic Exclusion in Digital Designs
Munira Mutmainna, St. John’s University
2:45pmClosing RemarksConcluding Statements/Announcing Next Year’s Event
Lisa DeTora, Hofstra University
Daniel P. Richards, Old Dominion University
3:00pmEND