Mark Aakhus
Interim Dean and Professor of Communication
Administration, Faculty, Staff, PhD COM Faculty
Biography
Mark Aakhus’s research is distinguished by his novel approach to investigating the relationship among communication, argumentation, and design in digital society. He uses discourse analysis methods, incorporating computational social science and digital ethnography, to investigate technological and organizational interventions aimed at improving interaction and reasoning in decision-making and conflict management. His scholarship explains the consequences ideas about the design of communication and argumentation have for professional conduct, organizational processes, and information infrastructures.
Aakhus co-authored the award-winning book "Argumentation in Complex Communication," which received the Distinguished Book Award from the Philosophy of Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He co-edited the pioneering "Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance." His research has been funded by prestigious organizations, including the Kellogg and Hewlett foundations, Sun Microsystems, and the National Science Foundation. He chaired the Language and Social Interaction Division of the International Communication Association, served on the National Communication Association’s Research Board and co-chaired its Human Communication and Technology commission. He co-directed the Rutgers Community Design for Health and Wellness Interdisciplinary Research Group and is an affiliate of the RAD Collaboratory, Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.
Aakhus’s current research focuses on artificial intelligence as a puzzle of communication, communication’s designability – making the case for what can and should be designable, and contestability by design for accountable algorithmic systems, platforms, and organization. These address fundamental questions about how ideas about communication matter in the intentional and emergent design of infrastructures and institutions for communication
Education
Ph.D., Communication and Management Information Systems, University of Arizona
M.A., Communication (Language and Social Interaction), Washington State University
B.A., Political Science and Journalism, University of North Dakota