Kenneth Lachlan

Professor

Department Head

Department of Communication

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Education

Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2003

About

Kenneth A. Lachlan is Professor and Department Head in the Department of Communication at the
University of Connecticut. Prior to joining UConn in 2015, Ken was the Founding Chair of the
Communication Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He holds research
affiliations with UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention and Policy, and the
Sustainable Global Cities Initiative. He served as the Editor in Chief of Communication Studies from
2016 to 2018, and is currently the Editor of Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication
Research. His research interests include the functions and effects of social media during crises and
disasters, community-level risk mitigation interventions, and the role of cognitive processing styles in
responding to emergency messages.

Courses Taught

• Comm 3000Q: Research Methods in Communication
• Comm 3300: Effects of Mass Media
• Comm 5002: Research Methods (graduate level)
• Comm 5150: Crisis and Risk Communication (graduate level)

Research Interests

• Psychological Effects of Mass Media
• Emergency and Crisis Communication
• Risk Communication
• Information Seeking and Uncertainty Reduction
• Social Robotics

Research Affiliations

UConn Video Game and Media Effects Laboratory

UConn InCHIP (Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy)

Western Michigan University Social Robotics Laboratory

Curriculum Vitae