Profile picture of Waseq Rahman

Waseq Rahman

Doctoral Student
Graduate Employee
mrahman3@uoregon.edu
Phone:
Office: 312 Allen Hall
City: Eugene

Biography

Waseq completed his bachelors and masters in Mass Communication & Journalism from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He began his career working in various social development campaigns for organizations like UNICEF, PLAN International, WLF in a communications capacity. He became interested in story-telling while working in a major climate change film in Bangladesh. In the SOJC, Waseq has been studying the omnipresent and multifaceted role of entertainment in contemporary culture.

Research

Waseq's scholarship primarily explores how audiences engage with entertaining, interactive, and educational media content. With an umbrella focus on entertainment media effects, his research program interrogates two distinct trajectories. The first strand probes effective message design for strategic communication campaigns. In this research, Waseq studies serious games and virtual environments as tools for environmental communication. The second strand investigates the functional roles mediated entertainment can play for individuals and communities. In his most recent projects, Waseq examines user experience of cognitive enhancement from playing games, and novel avenues for building sense of community for diverse student bodies on campus through collegiate esports programs.