CHILDREN’S DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER

Dear All,

I am writing to announce that Dr. Kaveri Subrahmanyam, who founded CDMC with me in 2001 and has served as Associate Director ever since, has very recently departed Los Angeles to become Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Florida. After more than 20 years of a wonderful and productive collaboration, I am very sad to lose her at Children’s Digital Media Center, Los Angeles. However, I am thrilled that she has taken such an important position at UNF and congratulate her on her new role. As we lose our Cal State LA branch, we look forward to collaborative possibilities at UNF.

I am also very happy to announce that Dr. Yalda Uhls, formerly Senior Researcher at CDMC and founding Director of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers, will become the new Associate Director of CDMCDr. Uhls is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at UCLA, where she teaches a popular undergraduate course, Digital Media and Human Development and the author of Media Moms & Digital Dads: A Fact not Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age

At the same time, the research activities of CDMC have taken several new turns:

1. As you will see from the articles linked on this page, as so much living and learning has become virtual during COVID-19, we are now studying cultural and behavioral shifts, brought about by the pandemic. We study COVID-related changes in online behavior in the U.S. and around the world. We also study the psychological impact of increased digital communication on well-being during the pandemic.

2. With our international collaborators, we have been investigating how mobile technologies impact cultural values and human development with research projects around the world: Northern Arabs and Bedouins in Israel, Maya in Chiapas, Mexico, and cohorts in Romania who experienced the transition from Communism at different ages.

We welcome you to CDMC and look forward to sharing the many dynamic connections of digital media to culture, society and psychological development.

Best wishes,