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Xiaochen Angela Zhang

Xiaochen Angela Zhang

Assistant Professor

Xiaochen Angela Zhang

Office: Gaylord Hall 3019
Email: angelazhang@ou.edu

Education:
PhD
, University of Florida

Scholarly highlights:

  • Received the National Science Foundation CAREER award to study the construction and communication of social and transactive knowledge networks for disaster community resilience (funded 2023-2028).

  • Received multiple top paper research awards in the International Communication Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

  • Research published in more than 25 peer-reviewed journals including Mass Communication & Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Computers in Human Behavior

  • Experience and interest in community-engaged research projects collaborating with community organizations and engaging students in community service-learning projects

  • Active in interdisciplinary collaborations with fields such as computer science, data science, engineering, sociology, and social work on projects related to misinformation and disaster community resilience

Xiaochen Angela Zhang (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an assistant professor in public relations. Her research interests span both corporate crisis communication and disaster risk communication in natural and manmade disasters. 

Her research primarily aims to understand how people process crisis and risk information and how we can communicate better during crises. For example, her work examines how linguistic cues in crisis messages affect people process crisis information, how and why risk information is propagated on social media, and how users communicate and cope on social media after crises. For corporate crisis communication, her research examines effectiveness of crisis prevention strategies such as CSR and DEI communication, as well as crisis response strategies. For disaster risk communication, her research examines interorganizational and organization-to-public strategies to improve community disaster response and disaster resilience.

Dr. Zhang recently received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award ($520,000) to study the construction and communication of social and transactive knowledge networks for disaster community resilience. Over a 5-year span (2023-2028), Dr. Zhang will study how relationships and communication among non-profits, community groups and local government agencies can improve disaster resilience, resource allocation, and emergency management by enabling direct and lateral organizational interactions. (See OU press releaseNorman Transcript, and News 9 interview)

Dr. Zhang has received multiple research awards, including the 2016 Bob Heath Top Paper Award from the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association (ICA), the 2022 Race in Public Relations Award and the 2023 First Place Paper Award (teaching category) from Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) for her research on corporate CSR and DEI communication, corporate crisis communication, and public relations ethics education. Her research has been published in top-tier journals including Mass Communication & Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Computers in Human Behavior.

Teaching graduate- and undergraduate-level courses on research methods, crisis and risk communication, and strategic communication ethics, Dr. Zhang received the 2020 Owen Kulemeka Teacher of the Year Award from Gaylord College. She received the 2021 Teaching Intellectual Virtual Project Award from OU to study ethics pedagogy and to develop undergraduate- and graduate-level communications ethics courses. She is active in engaging students in service-learning projects where students collaborate with community organizations to help tackle communication problems