About me
This is an archive of my faculty website. My last semester at UNI was Spring 2018. I have moved on to pursue a career in software engineering. You may contact me at jdavcs@gmail.com, or check here for my latest news.
I am an Assistant Professor in the Interactive Digital Studies program at the University of Northern Iowa. I teach courses in the Department of Communication Studies and the Department of Computer Science. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Maryland (2013), my MS (2008) and MA (2007) from the University of Northern Iowa, and my Diploma (1998) from St. Petersburg State University, Russia. I joined the Department of Communication Studies at UNI in August 2013.
My interests are spread across the domains of computer science, digital humanities, and news media. As a researcher, I am interested in (a) digital archives and, especially, metadata and user interfaces for exploring large photo collections; and (b) computational analysis of (mostly) media texts. As a programmer, my primary focus has been on content management system architecture and generative programming, mostly in the context of web development; I've also done work on search and information retrieval, computational linguistics and ediscovery. Programming brings me joy, which is why - being an academic - I end up writing code for scholarship and research in a variety of fields. As an educator, I try to convey this excitement of writing code (and learning how to build things) to my students.
My courses
Previous Semesters
- CS 1120: Media Computation / Spring 2018
- COMM 2555: Interactive Digital Communication / Spring 2018
- CS 1510: Introduction to Computing / Fall 2017
- COMM 2555: Interactive Digital Communication / Fall 2017
- CS 3110: Web Application Development / independent study / Fall 2017
- CS 1120: Media Computation / Spring 2017
- COMM 2555: Interactive Digital Communication / Spring 2017
- CS 1100: Web Development: Client-Side Coding / Fall 2016
- COMM 2555: Interactive Digital Communication / Fall 2016
- CS 1120: Media Computation / Spring 2016
- COMM 3159: Communication & Code / Fall 2015
- UNIV 4555: Interactive Digital Studies Practicum / Spring 2014
- COMM COR 2020: Introduction to Research Methods / 2013-2014
- COMM 4198: Independent Study (web development with PHP/MySQL) / Fall 2014
Contact me
315 Lang Hall
Cedar Falls, IA 50614
phone
email