The 2026 SC&I Scholarly Incubator Explores the Core Questions Driving the School’s Work

The Rutgers School of Communication and Information (SC&I) 2026 Scholarly Incubator, titled "Key Questions," brought together the school’s scholarly community to address, investigate, and discuss a central topic: What are the fundamental shared questions SC&I scholars pursue that make the school an intellectual hub for basic research and foundational scholarship on communication, information, and media and their intersections?

Interim Dean Mark Aakhus, who organized the incubator, said the aim of the event was to "collectively reflect on questions that motivate our work. In particular, how our work connects us to, and yet also distinguishes us from, other kinds of research enterprises, schools, and institutions around the world."

Aakhus encouraged all SC&I faculty members, doctoral students, and staff to participate, noting that the conversation addressed the school’s research, teaching, and service mission, as well as how the school operates to fulfill that mission.

Highlighting that the intellectual core of SC&I is organized around the concepts of communication, information, and media, Aakhus said, “We recognize the cultural power of these terms in everyday life. They shape how individuals think, orient themselves, and act in the world. Institutions, organizations, and technical systems are built on ideas about communication, information, and media, and what this built environment is, should be or could be depends on those ideas. Through collective reflection, we aim to better articulate the coherence—whether visible or not—across our individual and project-level work in these areas.”

During the incubator, faculty members were divided into breakout sessions focused on exploring the intellectual terrain of communication, information, and media.

The aim of the event was to collectively reflect on questions that motivate our work. In particular, how our work connects us to, and yet also distinguishes us from, other kinds of research enterprises, schools, and institutions around the world.

SC&I Interim Dean Mark Aakhus 

Each group was charged with developing one or more fundamental or “moonshot” questions that, Aakhus said, lie at the core of the school’s collective work. Participants were encouraged to consider, “If SC&I did not exist, what would be different about the world?”

Following the breakout sessions, faculty reconvened to share the questions they developed and discuss their motivational and foundational relevance, as well as how they distinguish SC&I.

The breakout group discussions highlighted the key unique facets of SC&I while conversing on a common theme. As one group put it, "Because SC&I brings communication, information, and media into one intellectual engine, we ask, how do communication, information, and media shape what it means to be a social being, to advance foundational understanding of identity, culture, and human connection to shape more equitable and inclusive social institutions through interdisciplinary research spanning communication, media studies, information science, and critical culture?"

At the conclusion of the event, faculty members submitted notes from their breakout sessions to Aakhus, who will compile them as a record to inform future discussions and initiatives.

Since 2017, SC&I Scholarly Incubators have examined a wide range of topics, including Fake News and a Post-Truth Society (2017), Pedagogy (2018), Ethics (2019), Engaged Scholarship (2021), Inclusive Discovery (2023), Innovation in Digital Research (2024) and Teaching in the AI Era (2025).

The idea for an annual Scholarly Incubator originated with Aakhus, then dean for research, and Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Dafna Lemish, who was serving as dean for programs. The goal, according to Aakhus, was to create a forum that “functions as a think tank, allowing us to look collectively at the immediate and long-term future of our research, teaching and outreach by drawing on the shared wisdom of our community.”

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