{"id":76613,"date":"2025-12-08T11:55:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=76613"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:55:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T18:55:03","slug":"in-the-spotlight-dec-8-12-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlight-dec-8-12-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Spotlight: Dec. 8-12, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">E-mail your announcements to\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"mailto:Inside@nau.edu\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Inside@nau.edu<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, or use\u00a0our\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/news-tip\/#.YEjwNWhKg2w\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">online submission form<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25cf\" data-font=\"Calibri\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\u25cf&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;multilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">School of Communication assistant professor\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sun Kim<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and associate professor\u00a0<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Zhan Xu<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0presented their experimental study on VR first-person shooter games at the 2025 National Communication Association Convention in Denver. The duo\u2019s research explored how playing VR shooting games can affect someone\u2019s feelings toward real firearms,\u00a0ultimately finding\u00a0that gameplay had a limited influence on participants\u2019\u00a0views. The study was recently published in the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/10447318.2025.2594147\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">International Journal of Human\u2013Computer Interaction<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25cf\" data-font=\"Calibri\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\u25cf&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;multilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Kim\u00a0was also the first author of the article \u201cTrends in theoretical public relations research in the 21st century: Longitudinal analysis and comparison of leading journals,\u201d published in the online journal\u00a0PRism. The paper focuses on emerging trends in public relations theory and\u00a0methodology, highlighting the field\u2019s move toward interdisciplinary, data-driven work.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\u25cf\" data-font=\"Calibri\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\u25cf&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;multilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Caleb Churchill<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, School of Communication assistant teaching professor and photography program coordinator, was featured in multiple creative projects this fall. He was included in\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Red Thread<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, the fifth chapter of Conveyor Studio\u2019s contemporary artist publication, and a group exhibition with the artist-run STNDRD initiative at Chicago\u2019s Purple Window Gallery. Additionally, Churchill received a 2026 Creative Flagstaff grant to fund an outdoor exhibition space in Flagstaff, designed to present two years of work made by local and nationwide artists.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/in-the-spotlight-dec-8-12-2025\/\">Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs. Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community? E-mail your announcements to\u00a0Inside@nau.edu, or use\u00a0our\u00a0online submission form. School of Communication assistant professor\u00a0Sun Kim\u00a0and associate professor\u00a0Zhan Xu\u00a0presented their experimental study on VR first-person shooter games at the 2025 National Communication Association Convention in Denver. The duo\u2019s&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}