Ria Gualano

I am a PhD Candidate at the Cornell University Department of Communication. ​Broadly, my research centers the communication of disability through emerging technologies and the arts, which I have examined through projects on disability and neurodiversity arts and disability representation through virtual reality (VR) avatar movement and appearance.

 

I am particularly interested in participatory research methods and organized the Spring 2024 Invisible Aspects of Disability and Neurodiversity arts exhibition at Cornell. As a 2025 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow, I continued this work through field research and organized the Spring 2026 Cripping Time Across Realities arts exhibition, which incorporated virtual and augmented reality technologies alongside physical, digital and virtual art. 

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Prior to Cornell, I earned a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Theatre Arts from Johns Hopkins University. During my time at there, I led projects on the psychological effects of social media use and collaborated with teams on research related to memory, interpersonal relationships, and well-being. ​​