Professor, researcher, mentor builds 'communities of thought'

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.— Faculty member Andrea Miller said building “communities of thought” is their favorite thing about working in higher education. That is why their teaching and research philosophies share similar qualities – open, inclusive, interdisciplinary.

“I want all students to feel as comfortable as possible in my classroom spaces,” said Miller, who has a dual appointment as an assistant professor of telecommunications in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and of women’s, gender and sexuality studies in the College of the Liberal Arts. “I want it to be a generous place where students learn together and with each other."

Miller is a first-generation college graduate from Dushore, Pennsylvania, a borough of 450 people an hour northeast of Williamsport. They said growing up in a town with “far more deer than people” helped them appreciate different backgrounds and shape their perspective on education.

“I look at each student as unique individuals,” Miller said. “I am not interested in ticking boxes. Instead, getting to work with students in groups, on one-on-one bases and in mentorship capacities is what I find most exciting.”

Miller teaches emerging telecommunication technologies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels and, this fall will be teaching a graduate seminar on feminist technology studies. They said these interdisciplinary courses welcome students from many different majors, including information sciences and technology, art education, rural sociology and more.

“In each class, we develop our own vernacular, because the students come from such radically different backgrounds,” Miller said. “Interdisciplinarily, it’s a lot of fun.”

That mindset gets to the core of what drives Miller’s academic energy. “I really don't know how to not be interdisciplinary," they admitted. Instead, they see themselves as an intellectual conduit as both a researcher and a teacher.

It wasn’t always that way, Miller said. In many ways, joining the Penn State faculty in 2022 was not only a homecoming for Miller, but the result of a decision made early on as an undergraduate.

‘I was hooked’

“Being from such a rural part of the state, I think that, like many people, I couldn't imagine my life really beyond my county and my region,” Miller said. “So, the most radical possibility for employment was teaching high school. I knew I wanted to teach. I just didn't have any reference points or the imagination to consider that it could be at a level beyond secondary education.”

Miller attended a small liberal arts college in North Carolina before transferring to the University of South Carolina Upstate. A series of events would unfold that greatly altered their career path.

USC-Upstate didn’t have a women’s and gender studies major; however, students could create their own program. So, after experimenting with several other majors, including history, French and English, Miller didn’t necessarily find what they were looking for. Instead, they built it.

“I was trying to find where I fit. I took my first WGSS class, and I was hooked,” Miller said. “So, my focus since has been at the intersection of feminist theory, feminist studies of media and feminist studies of technology.”

Miller did not slow down. They earned a master’s degree from Georgia State University and a doctorate from University of California-Davis. Shortly after, they joined Florida Atlantic University as an assistant professor and the integration of Miller’s love of teaching and their passion for interdisciplinary research was complete.

Today, Miller says they cannot imagine doing anything else. One important aspect to their teaching philosophy is treating every student the same — no matter the background, grade level or interest.

“I look at [students] as unique individuals who are coming to meet me where they're at in the classroom,” Miller said. “And I always emphasize that once I’m your teacher, you have a mentor for life. You can always come back to me. My email inbox is never closed.”

Krishna Jayakar, professor and head of the Department of Telecommunications, has admired Miller’s success since they were hired. He said Miller’s work with students has been exceptional.

“Part of the reason Andrea was hired was for the joint graduate program between Bellisario and WGSS,” Jayakar said. “They stepped right into that role. Their scholarship is truly resonating with our students." 

On the Augusta River

Miller’s research explores how technology, environments and social systems intersect. They examine how technological infrastructures emerge from specific historical and geographical contexts, all with a focus on militarism, digital cultures and feminist technology studies.

For example, Miller has a book coming out soon, "Securing the cyber ecosystem: Politics of remediation in the liberal security state." The book originated from their dissertation work and examines the concept of the "cyber ecosystem" as a tool for the U.S. security state. Through research in Georgia and South Carolina, it traces the cyber ecosystem's history from Cold War defense and ecological projects to modern cybersecurity.

“In many ways, the project offers an alternative history of cybernetics, with much of my research focused on the relationship between the Savannah River nuclear reservation and the Georgia Cyber Center,” they said. “The cyber center was a new campus being built during the time of my fieldwork. So, I got to experience it from all stages of development and architectural design and construction.”

The center is the largest U.S. state-sponsored cyber security campus integrating government, military, higher education and industry in one location. Miller said it’s being used as an example for similar spaces focused on workforce development and cybersecurity at a time when government finds itself struggling to keep up with industry.

However, these economic developments come at a cost, Miller said, threatening the displacement of Augusta’s historically Black downtown. “In order to understand present cybersecurity-driven development, the book goes all the way back to the legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction.”

For instance, Miller traces the journey of Augusta Powder Works, a Confederate manufacture of gun powder to that of another mixed-use cybersecurity development, the Augusta Cyber Works. Over the years, the site would have several other purposes, including a milling operation and a cotton production. Miller is interested in what that means to the building, the industries and the city, which is adjacent to the Augusta River.

The Feminist Technocultures Lab

This past spring semester, Miller launched a lab that combines feminist science and technology studies with principles of interdisciplinary collaboration. They say it’s always been a dream, and they credit Jayakar, Bellisario College dean Marie Hardin, and WGSS department head Alicia Decker for providing the needed support.

“They all celebrated and encouraged the idea [of starting the lab],” Miller said. “And we’ve really taken off running.”

There are already 29 students — both graduate and undergraduate — participating. The students represent the Bellisario College, Liberal Arts and the College of Information Sciences and Technology. Miller has received interest from students at other departments, as well as other universities.

“It is really important for our graduate students to be learning from and with our undergraduate students, because we're all coming with different backgrounds and bases of knowledge,” Miller said. “I know that I learn an incredible amount from all of my students.”

The lab members are developing proposals for an upcoming conference, and Miller says other activities are fashioned to fit the needs of the students.

“If they're applying to graduate school or if they're giving job talks or presenting their first conference papers or working on dissertation chapters … we read together, we write together, we think together,” Miller said. “I am so grateful and excited to see how students have taken the space and run with it.”

Jayakar said he is excited too: "Andrea is hitting all the right notes in research, teaching and service. A book under contract with a top-notch academic publisher, grants both internal and external, teaching contributions at every level from introductory courses to graduate seminars and meaningful service.

"It is interdisciplinary work at its finest."