Cynthia Wang is a 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 how conflict and difference intersect with the works of diversity and inclusion. Her work can be found in such journals as Social Media + Society and Time & Society, and she is an author and co-editor of the books Indie Games in the Digital Age (Bloomsbury), Communicating Across Difference: Negotiating Identity, Privilege, and Marginalization in the 21st Century (Cognella), and From Model Minority to Model Athlete: Perceptions of East Asian and Asian American/Canadian Athletic (Palgrave McMillan).
She is the founder of The arqive, a digital location-based interactive LGBTQ story-telling map.