Hi there, welcome to my homepage! I'm Abby QIN Youran (秦悠然). My parents picked my Chinese name "悠 (yōu) 然 (rán)" (carefree) from a hermit's poem, hoping I could free myself from normative expectations and live an authentic life. I have always been striving for that.

I am currently a Ph.D. student in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I also hold two doctoral minors in Cartography & Geographical Information Systems and Sociology respectively. 

I study the dynamics of intergroup communication and public opinion formation in different sociopolitical contexts. 

• In the U.S. context, I conduct geospatial analyses of various ecological factors predicting political homophily and collective actions.

• In the transnational Sinophone context, I study how information flows through a contentious multicultural public sphere and creates political repercussions. 

Apart from research, I co-run a Computational Communication Cooperative with Wil M. Dubree, teach communication theories, research methods, and strategic communication, and cook for people I care about ❤️