Faculty Fellows

Dr. Patricia Aufderheide is a 2017 Fulbright Scholar at Queensland University of Technology, and University Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at American University, and founder of the Center for Media & Social Impact, where she continues as Senior Research Fellow. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the School of International Service and the History department at American University. Her books include Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (University of Chicago), with Peter Jaszi; Documentary: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford), The Daily Planet (University of Minnesota Press), and Communications Policy in the Public Interest (Guilford Press). She co-coordinates the Fair Use and Free Speech project at the Center with Prof. Peter Jaszi of the Washington College of Law. She has been a Fulbright and John Simon Guggenheim fellow and has served as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival. Aufderheide has received numerous journalism and scholarly awards, including the George Stoney award for service to documentary from the University Film and Video Association in 2015, a research award from the International Communication Association in 2011, Woman of Vision award from Women in Film and Video (DC) in 2010, a career achievement award in 2008 from the International Digital Media and Arts Association and the Scholarship and Preservation Award in 2006 from the International Documentary Association.

Dr. Diana L. Burley is Vice Provost for Research at American University (AU) where she is also Professor of Public Administration and Policy and Professor of IT & Analytics. Named one of SC Magazine’s Eight Women in IT Security to Watch in 2017 and the 2017 SC Magazine ReBoot awardee for educational leadership in IT security, Dr. Burley is a cybersecurity expert who regularly conducts cybersecurity training for executives across North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East on managing cybersecurity risk, assessing the threat environment, and strengthening organizational cybersecurity posture.

She has testified before Congress, is a member of the US National Academies Board on Human-Systems Integration, and an affiliated researcher with the Cyber Operations Group of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Prior to AU, Dr. Burley was a professor at George Washington University where she directed the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P) – a 26-member national consortium dedicated to strengthening the cyber infrastructure of the United States. She led the Cyber Corps program and managed a multi-million-dollar computer science education and research portfolio for the US National Science Foundation, and has written over 90 publications on cybersecurity, information sharing, and IT-enabled change; including her 2014 co-authored book “Enterprise Software Security: A Confluence of Disciplines.”

Honors include: 2016 Woman of Influence- by the Executive Women’s Forum in Information Security, Risk Management and Privacy; the 2014 Cybersecurity Educator of the Year; and a 2014 Top Ten Influencer in information security careers. She is the sole recipient of both educator of the year and government leader of the year awards from the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education and has been honored by the U.S. Federal CIO Council for her work on developing the federal cyber security workforce.

Dr. Erran Carmel is a tenured full Professor at the Information Technology department, Kogod School of Business at American University. In the 1990s he co-founded and led the program in Management of Global Information Technology. In 2005-2008 he was department Chair. In 2009 he was awarded the International Business Professorship and in 2012 he was named Kogod UPS Scholar. He has been a Visiting Professor at Haifa University (Israel), University College Dublin (Ireland), and at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile). In 2008 he was awarded the Orkand Endowed Chaired Professor at the University of Maryland University College. He teaches Information Technology (I.T.) and researches the globalization of technology work: crowdsourcing, impact sourcing, global software teams, and offshore outsourcing. He also leads the business school’s “Business in the Capital” initiative to play a larger role in regional businesses and in regional policy. In 2014-2016 Carmel was interim Dean of the Kogod School of Business. Carmel led the launching of two online programs, improved the schools rankings, launched two new centers, and raised more than 6 million dollars. He has written over 100 articles, reports, and manuscripts. He consults and speaks to industry and professional groups. For more on his research, speaking, and other activities, see his web page.

Dr. Aras Coskuntuncel is a term faculty member in the School of Communication at American University, teaching research methods and digital culture. Aras recently completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Media and Social Impact, where he led and contributed to multiple award-winning research projects. He completed his Ph.D. at American University in communication in 2020, studying the struggle to control the flow of information in the digital era in the case of Turkey. His research explores the relationships among media, technology, democracy, and social movements. 

Aras has taught a variety of classes at American University since 2016. He also taught at Catholic University of America and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Aras graduated with his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s media studies program. Before coming to the United States, he was the diplomacy and foreign news editor at the Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language newspaper in Istanbul, Turkey. Aras received his B.A in Political Science and Public Administration at Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. He has presented and published his research in English and Turkish.

Dr. Randall Henning is Professor of International Economic Relations (IER) and Faculty Chair of the IER Program. He specializes in international and comparative political economy, global governance and regional integration. He has focused recently on international regime complexity, resilience of multilateral cooperation and the future of the International Monetary Fund and regional financial institutions. Challenges posed by the global pandemic and recession for emerging-market and developing countries, debt sustainability, Europe’s monetary union, and the global financial system are topics of special interest. He has authored or coauthored numerous books and journal articles on these issues.

Chelsea L. Horne is a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Literature at American University. Her research interests encompass digital rhetoric, science and technology, cyber, cultural studies, information/media literacy, communications law, and Internet governance. As a writer, her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, LitHub, The Paterson Literary Review, The Buffalo News, Washington Independent Review of Books, Café Americain, and elsewhere. Horne has presented her scholarly work at conferences both nationally and internationally and has taught workshops and master classes in four continents. For her fiction, she has twice received DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities grants as an Arts and Humanities Fellow.

Dr. Nathalie Japkowicz is a Professor of Computer Science at American University. She was previously with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa where she led the Laboratory for Research on Machine Learning for Defense and Security. Over the years, she has supervised over thirty graduate students, received funding from Canadian Federal and Provincial institutions (NSERC, DRDC, Health Canada, OCE, MITACS CITO), worked with private companies (Girih, Larus Technologies, Weather Telematics, TechInsights, Ciena)  and published over 100 articles, papers and books including Evaluating Learning Algorithms: A Classification Perspective, with Mohak Shah (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Big Data Analysis: New Algorithms for a New Society, with Jerzy Stefanowski (Springer, 2016).

Kathryn A. Kleiman is a Practitioner-in-Residence at the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic and part of the American University Washington College of Law’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). She joins AUWCL from Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy (Visiting Research Scholar 2018-2019). She is also a Fellow of the AU School of Communications Center for Media & Social Impact.

Professor Kleiman is a recognized leader in Internet governance. She was part of the group that formed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a co-founder of ICANN’s Noncommercial Users Constituency and a member of the final drafting for the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (global rules of domain name dispute arbitration). Professor Kleiman has served on numerous ICANN committees and task forces, including ones dedicated to privacy of domain name registration data in the WHOIS databases and fair and balanced policies for protection of intellectual property and free speech in the domain name system. Kleiman currently serves as co-chair of ICANN’s Review of All Rights Protections Mechanisms Policy Development Process Working Group, a group dedicated to the review of protections created to protect trademarks during the creation of future new top level domains.

Her research interests include Internet governance, development of private multistakeholder models for global technology policy, protection of intellectual property and free speech online, cross-border data flows and privacy laws, clinical education, ethics and artificial intelligence. She speaks on these issues in forums around the world, including global/regional Internet governance convenings.

Dr. Gwanhoo Lee is Professor of Information Technology and Analytics at American University's Kogod School of Business. Professor Lee teaches digital leadership/strategy and edge of IT to undergraduate students and project management to MBA students. His primary research areas include digital innovation and digital transformation including the Internet of Things and digital health care, smart government, business model innovation, software development agility and complexity, project management, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and information privacy. He has consulted for the World Bank and worked closely with IT executives from large U.S. organizations including 3M, American Red Cross, AMTRAK, Cargill, CSC, Deloitte, Freddie Mac, GAO, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, IBM, Marriott, Medtronic, Northwest Airlines, Pfizer, and World Bank. He is currently an adviser to Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI). His research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the ACM,Journal of Information Technology, Information & Management, Government Information Quarterly, Information Technology and People, Journal of Information Technology Management, IEEE Pervasive Computing, International Conference on Information Systems, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Americas Conference on Information Systems, and Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. He was the runner-up for the best paper award for OCIS division in Academy of Management Meeting in 2007.

Dr. Kathryn Montgomery, Faculty Fellow Emerita, is Professor and Director of the Communication Studies Division in the School of Communication at American University. She is also founding Director of AU’s 3-year PhD program in Communication. Dr. Montgomery has written and published extensively about the role of media in society, addressing a variety of topics, including the politics of entertainment television; youth engagement with digital media; and contemporary advertising and marketing practices. In addition to numerous journal articles, chapters, and reports, she is author of two books: Target: Prime Time – Advocacy Groups and the Struggle over Entertainment Television (Oxford University Press, 1989); and Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet (MIT Press, 2007). Before moving to Washington, D.C. in 1990, she taught television and media at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Los Angeles. Throughout her career, Montgomery’s research, writing, and testimony have helped frame the national public policy debate on a range of critical media issues. From 1991-2003, she was co-founder and President of the nonprofit Center for Media Education, where she spearheaded a national campaign that led to the passage of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the first federal legislation to protect children’s privacy on the Internet. She received her Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Eric J. Novotny, Faculty Fellow Emeritus, is the Hurst Adjunct Professorial Lecturer in the School of International Service at American University. He has been appointed Senior Advisor, Democracy and Technology, at the U.S. Agency for International Development. In this position, Dr. Novotny will be designing and managing a large portfolio of programs that use advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) to stimulate economic growth, improve democratic processes, and reform governance policies in developing countries. Some of these efforts are stand-alone technology and governance projects while others will embed advanced ICTs in larger development projects in applied areas such as service delivery and critical infrastructure. USAID has assistance programs in 80 countries worldwide. He holds a B.A. in Political Science, and M.A. in Government, and a Ph.D. in International Relations from Georgetown University, as well as a M.Phil in Management Studies from Oxford.

Dr. Sasha Cohen O’Connell is a Professorial Lecturer & Executive in Residence in the Department of Justice, Law & Criminology, School of Public Affairs, American University where she currently teaches cyber policy at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Additionally, she serves as the Director of the Terrorism and Homeland Security Policy Master’s program at American as well as a Senior Advisor in the National Security Sector of Guidehouse LLC (formerly PwC Public Sector) where she continues to engage with federal law enforcement agencies on issues of strategic concern. O'Connell's career in public service includes time in academia and the executive branch. She has spent the majority of her career at the FBI where she served most recently as the organization's Chief Policy Advisory, Science and Technology and as the Section Chief of Office of National Policy for the FBI's Deputy Director where she led policy engagement with the National Security Council on a wide breadth of issues. Among other roles, O'Connell ran the FBI's Strategy Management Office where she led implementation of the Balanced Scorecard for the FBI's Director and served as Chief of the Executive Staff for the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division where she led strategic planning, performance evaluation, training, and communications for the Bureau’s criminal programs. During her time at the FBI O'Connell focused her energy on enhancing strategic, risk-based decision making; driving cross-programmatic strategic initiatives; building partnerships across government and private sector; and driving strategic communications and outreach to enhance the public's understanding of the role of federal law enforcement. As a founding board member of #NatSecGirlSquad, Ms. O'Connell mentors women entering the national security and law enforcement space and advises organizations on matters related to enhancing diversity in the national security space. O’Connell holds a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College as well as an MPA and Doctorate in Public Administration from American University.

Dr. Saif Shahin is an Assistant Professor of Digital Culture at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and a non-resident Faculty Fellow of the Internet Governance Lab. His scholarship focuses on critical data studies, social media studies, global media and politics, and media sociology, and is underpinned by a normative commitment to social justice. His research has been featured in high-impact peer-reviewed journals including Information, Communication & Society; Social Science Computer Review; American Behavioral Scientist; The International Journal of Press/Politics; and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. His latest research looks at “big data” as a sociopolitical phenomenon, the interplay of emotion and cognition in digital discourses, and the technosociology of online identity construction. He works with qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods of research — including machine learning, social network analysis, and sentiment analysis. He previously worked as a journalist in India, England, and the Middle East, and continues to contribute commentaries and news analyses on current affairs to publications worldwide.

Dr. Aram Sinnreich is an Associate Professor at American University’s School of Communication, in the Communication Studies division. Sinnreich’s work focuses on the intersection of culture, law and technology, with an emphasis on subjects such as emerging media and music. He is the author of two books, Mashed Up (2010), and The Piracy Crusade (2013), and has written for publications including the New York Times, Billboard and Wired. Prior to coming to AU, Sinnreich served as Assistant Professor at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, Director at media innovation lab OMD Ignition Factory, Managing Partner of media/tech consultancy Radar Research, Visiting Professor at NYU Steinhardt, and Senior Analyst at Jupiter Research. He is also a bassist and composer and has played with groups and artists including progressive soul collective Brave New Girl, dub-and-bass band Dubistry, and Ari-Up, lead singer of the Slits. Along with co-authors Dunia Best and Todd Nocera, Sinnreich was a finalist in the 2014 John Lennon Songwriting Contest, in the jazz category.

Melanie Teplinsky is an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL) and serves on the advisory board of CrowdStrike, Inc., a next-generation cybersecurity technology company valued at over $1 billion.  Before joining WCL, Ms. Teplinsky practiced technology law at Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where she counseled multinational clients on a wide array of cyberlaw issues including cybersecurity, data protection, and electronic surveillance. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Ms. Teplinsky has deep technical, legal, and policy experience in both the public and private sectors.  Pursuing her childhood passion for cryptography, Ms. Teplinsky began her career as an analyst at the National Security Agency when she was just sixteen. She went on to serve in a technical capacity at the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Center for Communications Research in Princeton, New Jersey; analyze U.S. encryption policy at NIST’s Computer Security Lab; and study networked technologies at SAIC’s Center for Information Strategy and Policy. During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Teplinsky served in the Executive Office of the President (EOP), tackling a wide variety of information technology policy issues. Today, Ms. Teplinsky writes and speaks extensively on cyberlaw and policy issues.  Her publications include law review articles, book chapters, op-eds, and numerous articles. Ms. Teplinsky is a Harry Truman National Scholarship recipient and served as a law clerk to the honorable Judge Rya W. Zobel in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (1999-2000 Term).