Xiaodong Yan

Xiaodong (Sergey) Yan, (He/Him/His), is a 2nd year Ph.D. student affiliated with Community and Social Interaction (C&SI) in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder's College of Communication, Media, Design, and Information (CMDI). He is a Research Assistant at Center for Communication and Democratic Engagement, and a Graduate Fellow at Barney Ford Lab for Civic Thought & Engagement. Before moving to the United States, he obtained a B. A. (2021) in The Art of Announcing and Anchoring from Liaoning University, China, and an M. A. (2024) in Communication from Wuhan University, China. His recent publications appear in Digital Journalism, Asian Journal of Communication, and China: An International Journal.  

As a social interaction analyst who is committed to the field of Applied Communication, he probes into mundane “seen but unnoticed” interactional dynamics. Substantially, His research interests primarily center on participatory deliberative democracy, civic activities and democratic engagement. He draws on Community-Based and Civically Engaged Research methodologies, Ethnography of Communication, and Ethnomethodology, exploring how micro-level situated communicative practices can facilitate and/or inhibit democratic values.  

Secondarily, informed by Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, and Post/De-colonial Approaches, he also eager to debunk intersectional oppression in Ethnic and Gender Politics within “digital communities”, primarily employing critical approaches of discourse analysis to examine how stigmatized, marginalized, and dirtied people historically and/or contemporarily (re)construct, challenge and negotiate identities matters to reclaim their agency within popular online communities (e.g. Reddit, Quora).