Northern Illinois University
Department of Communication
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Shupei Yuan is a communication scholar whose research examines how people encounter, interpret, and respond to science and other forms of expert knowledge. Her work spans science, risk, environmental, and strategic communication, with a particular interest in how communication shapes public trust, engagement, and decision-making around complex and consequential issues.

Her research takes place across a wide range of science-and-society contexts and publics. Her work has examined how scientists engage public audiences, how farmers use weather and climate information in making agricultural decisions, how organizations communicate about environmental and social responsibility, and how high-school students with disabilities engage with STEAM and prepare for college transitions. Across these settings, she is interested in how communication connects scientific and institutional knowledge with the experiences, expectations, and decisions of different publics. This work has been supported by organizations including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication, and the Illinois Community College Board, including through NIU's Huskies BELONG program.

As a 2026–27 SNF Agora Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Yuan is extending this broader research agenda toward questions of disagreement, trust, and dialogue around science. Her fellowship work examines how people understand the sources of disagreement around scientific issues and how communication can create conditions for continued engagement across differences. This work brings her research on science communication into conversation with broader questions about how people navigate uncertainty, competing forms of knowledge, and disagreement in public life.

Her recent work also explores artificial intelligence both as a communication tool and as a subject of science communication. She co-guest edited the 2026 special issue of Science Communication, “Science Communication in the Age of AI: Agency, Authority, and a Field in Motion,” which examines how AI is changing the practice and study of science communication. Her work in this area considers how emerging technologies may reshape relationships among expertise, agency, authority, trust, and public understanding while building on her broader interest in changing communication environments.

Yuan has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, and her scholarship has received more than 10,000 citations. Her work has appeared in leading journals including Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Science Communication, Public Understanding of Science, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. She serves as Associate Editor of Science Communication. Yuan received her Ph.D. in Media and Information Studies from Michigan State University.