College of Communication and Information

School of Information Sciences

Faculty News

  • CCI Welcomes 11 New Faculty this Fall

    Eleven new faculty have joined the College of Communication and Information this year, ready to add their expertise, scholarship, and instruction to their respective schools, the college, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Here’s a little bit more about them: The School of Communication Studies  Lecturer of Practice Abigail Barnes Barnes comes to the school…

  • CCI Celebrates Faculty Promotions at Convocation

    The College of Communication and Information honored seven of its faculty who earned promotions this year at the 2023 CCI Convocation. The work these faculty do, in their research, classrooms, and service work, will continue to make an impact on their fields and on future generations to come. Here’s a little bit about them: School…

  • CCI’s Links up with World Data System as a Leader in Open Science Initiatives

    Caption: Meredith Goins, director of World Data System, speaks with attendees at the World Data Systems Conference in Knoxville in summer 2023 A communication college working with the Department of Energy is not a very common occurrence. But the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has never been afraid of charting new courses, and the College of…

  • SIS Professor Dania Bilal Works with PhD Student & Others to Learn How to Use Social Robots to Help People with Dementia

    SIS Professor Dania Bilal has explored research in recent years centered on artificial intelligence (AI) from an information sciences perspective, exploring how people interact with various AI and robot interfaces. She most recently partnered with doctoral student, Fengpei Yuan, and her advisor, Professor Xiaopeng Zhao, at the University of Tennessee Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering,…

  • SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May Writes Planning and Assessment Book with SIS Alum & Hodges Librarian Regina Mays

    SIS Associate Professor Rachel Fleming-May was a public and academic librarian before she decided to pursue her doctorate in information sciences, and that experience has informed what she researches and how she teaches. In both, she “tends to focus on finding better ways to do the things I did as a practitioner with maybe not…

  • Associate Professor Awa Zhu Elected ASIS&T Deputy SIG Cabinet Director

    After serving in different positions over several years in two Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Special Interest Groups (SIGs), Associate Professor Awa Zhu was recently elected to serve as the Deputy SIG Cabinet Director for ASIS&T. She will transition into the role at the end of the upcoming ASIS&T Annual Meeting, which is…

  • SIS Faculty, Students to Participate in ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting

    At the end of this month, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will be well-represented at the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) in Salt Lake City. It is at this conference that SIS Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa will move into the position of ASIS&T President-Elect Nov. 2, but many others from the SIS…

  • PhD Student Jessica Barfield Named ASIS&T Emerging Scholar for AI Voice Research Done with Professor Dania Bilal

    A collaboration between the College of Communication and Information PhD student and  School of Information Sciences professor has resulted in innovative research that reaches into the future of AI-powered voice digital assistants and explores how it can be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. This research resulted in a co-authored paper and an award for the doctoral…

  • Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski Earns NASKO’s Best Paper Award Examining Aristotle’s ‘Categories’

    What does an ancient Greek philosopher have to do with information sciences? SIS Assistant Professor Brian Dobreski answered that in a spring 2021 special topics course, Knowledge of Organization Systems, when he had students read and discuss Aristotle’s writing, “Categories.” Not only did it provide some interesting discourse, it inspired Dobreski to write a paper,…

  • New SIS Director Abebe Rorissa Elected to be ASIS&T President

    Just as new School of Information Sciences Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa stepped into his role July 1, 2021, it was announced that he was elected to be president of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). Rorissa’s biography and position statement can be viewed here on the ASIS&T site. He has been heavily…