Emily is a doctoral student and a Presidential Fellow in the Department of Communication. She studies extremism communication online, morality, and the intersection of political and health communication. Her current research interests revolve around understanding how political leaders respond to their own personal health issues and other public health crises, such as mass shootings. She is particularly interested in the role of political discourse and news reporting in shaping public perceptions and policy responses in these contexts. 

Educational Background

• PhD (current), University at Buffalo
• MA,  University at Buffalo, 2023
  
• BA, University at Buffalo, 2021

Current Research

• Lapan, E., Ophir, Y., Kountz, K., Walter, D., Tenzek, K. E., Wang, R., Nikolaev, A., & Semenov, A. (In progress). A pill of many colors: Negotiating extremist red-pill ideologies on Reddit.
• Lapan, E., Tenzek, K. E., Lattimer, T. A., Ophir, Y., Gillis, S., & Heneveld, K. (In progress). Senate after stroke: Employing critical disability theory to interpret the temporal nature of illness and political discourse.
• Lapan, E., Hahn, L., Velho, R., Andreeva, I., Lattimer, T. A., Taggart, M., Gillis, S., & Heneveld, K.  (In progress). Who acknowledges what harm with what effect? Investigating U.S. congressional Twitter posts about mass shootings and audience responses to them. 

Academic Achievements

Lapan, E., Ophir, Y., Kountz, K., Walter, D., Tenzek, K. E., Wang, R., Nikolaev, A., & Semenov, A. (2024). A pill of many colors: Negotiating extremist red-pill ideologies on Reddit. American Political Science Association’s 120^th annual meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

Lapan, E., Tenzek, K. E., Lattimer, T. A., & Gillis, S. (2024). Senate after stroke: Employing critical disability theory to interpret the temporal nature of illness and political discourse. K.C. Health Communication Conference, Lexington, KY. April 4-6, 2024.

Tenzek, K. E., Lee, D., Lattimer, T. A., Lapan, E., & Mackenzie, L. (2024). Opportunities for engagement: Reconstrual, final conversations and post-traumatic growth in a Military context. 74th annual meeting of the International Communication Association conference, Gold Coast, Australia. Interpersonal Communication Division.

Tenzek, K. E, Lapan, E., Ophir, Y., & Lattimer, T. A. (2023). Staying connected: Alzheimer’s hashtags and opportunities for engagement and overcoming stigma. Journal of Aging Studies, 66, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101165.

Tenzek, K. E., Lattimer, T. A., Heneveld, K., Lapan, E., Neurohr, M., & Gillis, S. (2023). Mediated depictions of mental health, chronic care, and literacy: A narrative analysis of Randall’s mental health journey in the television series, This is Us. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1204973.