Profile

Diane Maloney-Krichmar was in the first cohort of students admitted into UMBC’s Language, Literacy and Culture (LLC) Ph.D. Program in 1997. “There were virtually no programs like this on the East Coast,” she says. “It’s a unique interdisciplinary program.” Participating departments include Africana studies, American studies, education, English, modern languages and linguistics, sociology/anthropology and the women’s studies program. “The program answered an unfulfilled longing I had to find an intellectually challenging program that would help me think in new ways about major social issues.”

After graduating from Bowie State University with a degree in social work, Krichmar began working for Bowie State, first as a minority recruiter, and then as assistant dean of the School of Graduate Students and Continuing Education. After 27 years spent in administration at Bowie, she decided it was time to pursue something new.

Krichmar’s dissertation focuses on a “knee injury” online community. The online group was formed largely because people suffering from knee injuries felt that they weren’t getting all of the support that they needed from their immediate environment. An online community allows them to ask questions that may be embarrassing or difficult to ask a doctor, such as the hardships of undergoing surgery, share experiences with others and find social support during a difficult time in their lives. Krichmar became interested in this community because of studies conducted by Dr. Jennifer Preece, her dissertation advisor, which indicated that the Web site was a very successful and empathic online community. Preece found the community when she injured her knee in a skiing mishap.

Another distinguishing feature of the online community is that it has members from a variety of cultures and age groups. For example, teens and adults, from the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Germany provide information and support for each other through exchanges on the bulletin board.

Krichmar’s two-and-a-half year study has included extensive observations, interviews with Web site members and an evaluation of the entire Web site using sociability and usability heuristics. In addition, she has analyzed messages posted to the community using social network analysis, group membership role analysis and interaction process analysis to build a thick and rich description of social interaction in the community.

Throughout her studies, mentoring has played a paramount role for Krichmar. Her own interest in online communities arose because of her mentor Jennifer Preece, an information systems professor who was guest lecturer in a class taught by sociology professor J. Kevin Eckert entitled Cyberspace, Culture and Society. All of a sudden, Krichmar found herself immersed in the world of online communities. Slowly but surely she started to publish papers with Preece and fellow students. This summer, she’ll be teaching the same Cyberspace course she took just a couple of years ago.

“I’ve benefited a lot from doing this at my age,” says Krichmar. “I found that, having come to school now, I have had to learn a lot of new things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. It’s been incredibly energizing and empowering. Now I’m thinking about 20 more years doing teaching, research or something else!”

You can view the online community that Diane Maloney-Krichmar researched at: http://216.218.188.27/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl