Kevin Han

Gang (Kevin) Han, Ph.D., is professor at Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State University (ISU). Han received a doctorate in mass communications in 2007 from S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he was the research assistant to the John Ben Snow Professor for three years. Before joining ISU in 2009, Han was Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia. Prior to moving to the U.S., Han was in the faculty of the Journalism School at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) where he was also a research fellow at the nationally accredited Center for Information and Communication Studies.

An Emerging Scholar entitled by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in the U.S., Han’s primary research interests include health communication, strategic communication, social influence and social networking, mainly from comparative perspective with an emphasis on international implications. Han’s peer-reviewed articles have appeared in leading journals such as Health Communication, Journal of Medical Internet Research, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Journal of Consumer Health on Internet, Informatics for Health and Social Care, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, Public Relations Review, Asian Journal of Communication, Newspaper Research Journal, International Journal of Strategic Communication, American Journal of Media Psychology, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, among others published in top journals in China. His book chapters have been published by Sage (London), Routledge (New York), Gakubunsha (Tokyo), Peter Lang (New York), Regent Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Vision Press, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas (U. of Texas, Austin), The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, Shanghai Jiaotong University Press, Fudan University Press, and Shanghai People’s (China).

Han’s teaching area covers health communication, quantitative research methods, (mass) communication theory, public relations, social media and social networking, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Over the past 15 years, Han has been invited to give lectures or teach as a guest professor at leading universities across the mainland China. Besides, he worked with the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University as a visiting scholar during the 2018-19 academic year. At both ISU and HKBU, Han has been advising more than 40 graduate students (master’s and doctoral) as either the major professor (chair) or the member of their program of study committees.

A Kappa Tau Alpha member, Han has served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Public Relations Research, and of Asian Journal of Communication, for more than a decade. A member of the Advisory Board of Communication Studies, Han also frequently provides review service to a number of top-tier journals (e.g., Communication Research, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Health Education & Behavior, Communication Theory, JMCQ, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Environmental Communication, International Journal of Public Opinion, to name a few), as well as to premier international conferences (ICA, NCA, AEJMC, etc.). Serving as the Research Co-Chair for Mass Communication & Society Division of AEJMC, and as a Steering Committee member of Chinese Communication Association (CCA) in the U.S., Han won the Excellence in Service award in 2015.