About

Researcher, teacher, and cat person.

Hanako is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Communication and Culture program at York University and Ryerson University in Canada. She received an MSSc in Media Management from the University of Tampere, Finland, focusing on audience engagement and the Canadian broadcast television industry. She obtained her BA from McMaster University in Communications. Hanako has a strong background in methods (both quantitative and qualitative) and has a passion for condensing research into comprehensive theoretical framework, and summarizing her research by building concise and applicable models. She recently completed comprehensive examinations on the topics of creativity and automation, domestication of ICTs, and co-creation and ICTs. Her dissertation is focused on participatory innovation processes for ‘smart’ health devices, the nature of human input into systems that develop due to these devices, and the potential of the outputs of these systems to impact healthcare services and greater society. Hanako is also a graduate researcher with the Audience Lab at the Faculty of Communication and Design at Ryerson University where she works with industry partners to understand challenging questions related to audience research, digital communication, and human-computer interaction.