The School of Communication supports leading-edge discoveries to illuminate and understand the complexities of communication. More than 50 labs and centers engage in research using multiple methods and approaches. Interdisciplinary connections, collaboration, ample administrative support, and mentorship characterize the work and environment. Our community is globally renowned for its scholarly findings and clinical breakthroughs related to communication in all its forms.
The ATLAS Lab uncovers the inter workings of teams – how, when and why they work (or don't work). The lab enables the design of large, diverse, digitally connected teams, studying teams in the military, science, healthcare, disaster response, online communities and beyond.
Brainvolts studies numerous aspects of the auditory system, including its underlying brain mechanisms, the way musical input influences our ability to read and learn language and how conditions such as autism, aging, head injury, and HIV affect sound processing.
The Auditory Physiology lab focuses on cochlear nonlinearities and their origins. Using mice as a model to study genetic hearing loss, the lab focuses on the processes underlying cochlear amplification and how they are modulated by the central nervous system via efferent innervation from the medial superior olivary complex.
Northwestern University’s Autism Research and Clinical Collaborative is an alliance created by a contingent of Northwestern University labs that all conduct studies involving autism. Through Northwestern University’s Autism Research and Clinical Collaborative, we’re sharing our findings, applying our collective knowledge to real-life cases, and helping educate and mentor the rising generation of autism researchers and scientists.
Professor Marian conducts research on bilingualism, multilingualism, and linguistic diversity, and the consequences of knowing more than one language for the human linguistic, cognitive, and neural architectures. She is interested in language and cognition in linguistically and culturally diverse populations, and studies language processing, language and memory, language learning, and the effects of language on sensory perception, audio-visual integration, semantic concepts, decision-making, communication, and neural function in bilinguals and monolinguals. Other areas of research include bilingual assessment, neurolinguistics of bilingualism, and computational models of bilingual language processing. Research in the lab uses primarily eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, language sampling, standardized testing, and cognitive measures, but also computational modeling, functional neuroimaging and event related potentials.
The Black Arts Consortium (BAC) at Northwestern University cultivates an interdisciplinary approach to Black arts. Launched in 2012, BAC seeks to engage myriad perspectives, strengthen Northwestern’s involvement in Black arts, and connect with a broader community of scholars, practitioners and community members through research, pedagogy, practice and civic & community engagement.
The BE Lab investigates the language and cultural communicative practices of Black Americans, the descendants of formally enslaved Africans specifically. From the acquisition of Black American English by children, to its use in families, community practice, the arts, media, education and beyond, the BE Lab uses language as a tool to work for educational justice and general equity by identifying and seeking creative methods for eradicating existing barriers to the general well-being of Black Americans.
Opportunities available:
Graduate/PhD Students
Center for Applied Transgender Studies (CATS)
The Fellows who make up our Center each pursue field-defining research with profound practical implications. By coming together outside the disciplinary silos that define the academy, we hope to generate new insights and ideas that will better society.
CCPP advances interdisciplinary and collaborative communication scholarship informing public policy across a variety of policy domains including democratic governance, mis/disinformation, political violence, electoral integrity, COVID-19, and climate change.
Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC)
The Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC) was founded in 2002 as an interdepartmental forum for bringing together School of Communication faculty and students to address the emerging importance of globalization in communication studies. Although established in the School of Communication, the CGCC offers the opportunity for interdisciplinary scholarly exchanges to members of all Northwestern academic units.
The Northwestern University Center for Human-Computer Interaction + Design (HCI+D) brings together researchers and practitioners from across the University to study, design and develop the future of human and computer interaction at home, work and play.
The Center for Latinx Digital Media aims to create knowledge about digital media in Latinx and Latin American communities across the Americas. We conduct research, teach classes, and organize events to bring together students, scholars, and practitioners from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Center for the Study on Media and Society in Argentina (MESO)
The Center for Studies on Media and Society in Argentina (MESO) is a space for research and debate on media, culture and digital technology, founded by Northwestern and San Andrés universities.
Center of Media Psychology and Social Influence (COM-PSI)
To the extent that media have become so ubiquitous and immersive, but also terribly distracting and polarizing, there is a pertinent need to understand the psychology behind our relationship with it. These tensions are at the heart of COM-PSI, which explores the emotional, cognitive, and metacognitive processes that underlie media selection and the effects of exposure on behavior and decision-making.
This program seeks to elucidate mechanisms regulating neural coding in the developing auditory system. The pursuit of understanding the maturation of neural coding (i.e., how brain cells process sound) is important because deficits in neural coding result in numerous auditory pathologies. These include, but are not limited to, auditory neuropathy and temporal processing disorders.
The Community Data Science Collective is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research group, made up of mostly social scientists applying mostly empirical and design research methods to the study of online communities and organizations. Among other things, we seek to understand both how and why some attempts at collaborative production — like Wikipedia and Linux — build large volunteer communities and high quality work products. Our research lies at the intersection of communication, sociology, and human-computer interaction.
The Computational Journalism Lab is an interdisciplinary research group studying the impact of advances in algorithms, automation, and AI on the production and dissemination of news information in society. It leverages computational, qualitative, and design-oriented methods with an eye towards creating broader impacts.
The Computational Multi-Modal Communication Lab is a multi-institutional, collaborative research group designed to deepen our understanding of multimodal communication in our contemporary media landscape, using computational and qualitative methods. Our research covers a broad range of key communication questions such as digital propaganda, visual misinformation, climate change, social movements, and the implications of AI-generated media.
The Creative Interfaces Research + Design Studio conducts research surrounding AI literacy and human-AI interaction. We design and build interactive, embodied learning experiences for spaces like museums and public libraries to broaden public understanding of AI, and we explore how to design and develop AI that can co-create with people.
The mission of the Early Intervention Research Group (EIRG) is to support and enhance early development of infants and toddlers. The following goals guide this mission: to empower families to implement effective early intervention strategies, to increase implementation of evidence-based and family-centered practices in early intervention, and to understand the best ways to adapt and customize intervention strategies based on child and family characteristics.
The Community Data Science Collective is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research group, made up of mostly social scientists applying mostly empirical and design research methods to the study of online communities and organizations. Among other things, we seek to understand both how and why some attempts at collaborative production — like Wikipedia and Linux — build large volunteer communities and high quality work products. Our research lies at the intersection of communication, sociology, and human-computer interaction.
Our focus is understanding how changes to hearing and cognitive abilities affect communication. We study solutions that are customized to individual abilities, including the best ways to select and adjust hearing aids for real-life listening needs.
The Humanity & Technoscience Lab studies the history and politics of science, technology, and media to produce research that explains the ways past, present, and future societies and cultures influence and are influenced by our world’s technoscience.
At the Lab on Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge (LINK), we strive to understand and predict group behavior in networks and socio-technical systems. Using techniques that include social network analysis, applied machine learning, and computational social science, we explore ideas around collective intelligence, creation and diffusion of knowledge, and the dynamics of communication and innovation.
The neonate neurobiology lab is interested in advancing our understanding of how the newborn nervous system develops and how it reacts to environmental challenges that can lead to neurodevelopmental issues later in life.
Opportunities available:
Graduate/PhD Students
Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact
NNSI researches groups of nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and community partners, which we call networks. Its mission is to find and publicize practices that enable these networks to make the greatest social impact.
At the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Laboratory at Northwestern University, we research language and other abilities associated with autism, fragile X, and related conditions. We also investigate their associated genetic, environmental, and neural features.
Northwestern University Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning (NUCASLL)
Northwestern University Center for Audiology, Speech, Language, and Learning (NUCASLL) provides communication and learning services to the community, trains future clinicians, and partners with researchers to bridge evidence, innovation, and treatment.
Opportunities available:
Graduate/PhD Students
Study Participants
Undergraduate Research Assistants
In addition to providing options for undergraduates, graduate students and PhD candidates, options for AuD students are available.
The Org Futures Lab investigates how communication and technology transform organizations how knowledge flows, workplaces evolve, and people connect. Our research designs foster inclusive and resilient workplaces, helping organizations navigate complexities and adapt to the changing world of work.
Opportunities available:
Graduate/PhD Students
Otoacoustic Emissions Laboratory
We study the mechanisms of hearing in the peripheral auditory system.
Opportunities available:
Graduate/PhD Students
Study Participants
Undergraduate Research Assistants
For more information, visit the Siegel Lab website.
PedzSTAR Lab: Pediatric Speech Technologies and Acoustics Research Lab
Our research team studies ways to use advanced software tools to understand how young children make speech sounds and to detect when they are having trouble learning how to talk. We use speech biomarker technology to detect speech disorders and to measure speech intelligibility.
Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion and Creation of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts
The Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts creates, supports, and examines original narrative screenwriting, television writing, and media making centered on mental health. Student filmmakers, faculty, and board members will engage with the studio lab through new works creation, courses, and special events aimed at tackling complex topics, amplifying marginalized voices, challenging stereotypes, modeling best behaviors on stage and screen, and pursuing healing through innovation and inquiry.
The READ Lab uses cognitive-behavioral assessments to better understand children’s reading comprehension and language development in order to identify factors that may contribute to difficulties in these areas.
Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Laboratory
The Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) research group advances social network theories, methods, and tools to better understand and meet the needs of diverse communities. SONIC develops cutting-edge techniques to study and improve social and knowledge networks in distributed working groups, online communities, virtual teams, and other large communities. Using a comprehensive methodology, SONIC researchers model, assess, validate, and enable the emergence of social and knowledge networks.
SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology, a group that focuses on live-processing interfaces deployed in the interests of theatrical storytelling. Group assembles artists into formations to explore themes of social possibility in theater performances, symposia, workshops, and publication projects.
The NU Social Media Lab studies how social media — defined broadly as technologies that facilitate social behavior among people — are used for work and play. We are interested in understanding both how social media are used today, and how technologies might be designed to better support people’s existing goals and enable them to do new things.
The SoundBrain Lab examines the neurobiological computations that underlie speech perception and learning, using an interdisciplinary, multimodal, computational and lifespan approach.
The Swallowing Cross-Systems Collaborative (SCSC) at Northwestern University uses a clinical-research framework to improve the quality of life for people suffering from dysphagia. Within our state-of-the-art facility, we utilize refined diagnostic equipment to identify deficits in upper aerodigestive physiology, and test the effect of novel therapeutic regimens.
