Leila Bighash

Leila Bighash is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Arizona. Her research examines how people navigate information in organizations, particularly how information visibility influences what people can know and infer about one another and their environments. Her work focuses on communication networks, privacy, uncertainty, and expertise recognition across digital and organizational settings.

Her work examines questions such as how people gain information by observing others’ interactions, how visible connections can signal expertise, and how the structure of an organization’s information environment can shape uncertainty and employee attitudes. She uses a range of methods, including experiments, surveys, social network analysis, and digital trace data. Her research has appeared in journals including Communication Theory, Management Communication Quarterly, Computers in Human Behavior, and the International Journal of Communication.

Bighash earned her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She teaches courses in organizational communication, communication technology, research methods, and communication networks.

Dr. Bighash will not be accepting graduate students for Fall 2027.

Selected Publications

Gillig, T., Bighash, L., & Shaikh, S. (2024). Effects of all-gender workplace facilities signage on adults’ attitudes toward transgender and nonbinary people and policies. Communication Studies, 75(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2249192

Sidnam-Mauch, E. & Bighash, L. (2021). How controversy leads to commitment: Predecisional distortion in reactions to premarket products through online review systems. Computers in Human Behavior, 124, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106902

Bighash, L., Alexander, K., Hagen, C., & Hollingshead, A. (2020). A model for social eavesdropping in communication networks. International Journal of Communication, 14, 3704–3726. https://www.ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/13787

Hagen, C., Bighash, L., Hollingshead, A., Shaikh, S., Alexander, K. (2018). Why are you watching? Video surveillance in organizations. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 23(2), 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-04-2017-0043

Bighash, L., Oh, P., Fulk, J., & Monge, P. (2018). The value of questions in organizing: Reconceptualizing contributions to online public information goods. Communication Theory, 28(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12123