Cynthia Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. She received her Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University in Radio/TV/Film and Biological Sciences, with a minor in Asian American studies. Upon graduating, she produced independent films while also working at COPE Health Solutions, a non-profit health care organization, managing their health workforce development division, implementing and overseeing program operations at multiple partner hospitals across Southern California. In 2010, Dr. Wang received her M.A. in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, where her thesis examined how YouTube comments of classical music posts negotiated ideas of the “expert,” and the “democratization” of discourse in online spaces. In 2016, after receiving her PhD from USC’s Annenberg School of Communication, where her dissertation explored patterns of time, temporality, autonomy, and agency in the lives of health care practitioners, she joined the faculty at Cal State LA, which is her mom’s alma mater. Dr. Wang’s research interests, which are framed in critical theory and cultural perspectives, are varied, and interrogates the impact of digital communication technologies and social media on social relations, cultural practices, and power dynamics. More recently, she has been interested in the role critical theory and rhetorical perspectives play in the discourse around social justice issues, particularly as mediated by social network platforms. She is the founder of The arqive, a digital location-based LGBTQ story-telling platform.