Rutgers University Board of Governors Approves Promotions of Ognyanova, Scharp, and Singh
The Rutgers Board of Governors announced today the promotions of three Rutgers School of Communication and Information faculty members. Katherine (Katya) Ognyanova, Kristina Scharp, and Vivek Singh have been promoted from associate professor to professor, effective July 1, 2026.
"I'm so pleased that Katya, Kristina, and Vivek are being recognized with promotion to full professor, said Interim Dean Mark Aakhus. "These three colleagues have each demonstrated the very best a research university offers the world with their field-defining scholarship, excellence in teaching, and societally relevant, impactful engagement."
Katherine (Katya) Ognyanova
Associate Professor of Communication
Promoted to Professor of Communication
Katherine Ognyanova studies the effects of social influence and technology on civic and political behavior, confidence in institutions, information evaluation, and public opinion formation. Her methodological expertise is in computational social science, network science, and survey research.
Recently, her work has examined the association between misinformation exposure and trust in science, media, and politics. She is also investigating public perceptions of and trust in artificial intelligence (AI).
Ognyanova is the director of the Rutgers Computational Social Science Lab. She is one of the founders and a principal investigator for the COVID States Project and the Civic Health and Institutions Project, two large multi-university initiatives exploring public attitudes to politics and health. Ognyanova is also a PI of the National AI Opinion Monitor, an initiative tracking public perceptions, knowledge, and trust in artificial intelligence technologies.
Kristina M. Scharp
Associate Professor of Communication
Promoted to Professor of Communication
Kristina M. Scharp researches the experience of marginalization through three interrelated processes (the three “Rs”): Remaking disrupts taken-for-granted assumptions that foster inequity; resistance challenges hegemonic structures and ideologies; and resilience illustrates the ways people cope with and respond to major disruptions in their lives.
She most often examines these three “Rs” in the contexts of relational distancing, complicated health diagnoses, and disenfranchised student populations.
Most recently, Scharp has co-authored two theories—the Theory of Communicative Disenfranchisement (TCD) and Communicative Relational Distancing Theory (CRDT)—and developed a new qualitative method, Thematic Co-Occurrence Analysis (TCA).
She also has two co-edited books forthcoming in 2026: "Handbook of Communication and Reconciliation: The Final Step in Achieving Nonviolent Social Change." These projects collectively contribute to a better understanding of the process of marginalization and the groups most disenfranchised by it.
Vivek K. Singh
Associate Professor of Library and Information Science
Promoted to Professor of Library and Information Science
Vivek Singh’s research is distinguished by its interdisciplinary approach to exploring the dynamic relationship between human behavior and information technology. His studies integrate human data, social science theories, and cutting-edge computational techniques to design innovative, human-centered AI systems that empower and protect individuals.
Singh’s work is fundamentally human-centered in two critical ways: developing AI-driven algorithms that enhance human well-being by addressing complex societal challenges (such as cyberbullying detection and mental health support), and ensuring that these algorithms uphold core human values, including privacy protection and fairness in decision-making.
His contributions advance the ethical integration of AI and the social sciences, fostering responsible, equitable, and impactful applications of data science.
In 2024, he received the inaugural ASIS&T SIG Social Media Senior Researcher Award for his pioneering contributions. Singh recently served as program co-chair for the ACM Web Science Conference 2025.
Learn more about the Rutgers School of Communication and Information.
