Soumia Bardhan PhD

Ph.D. Communication University of New Mexico, U.S.
M.A. Communication University of Madras, India
B.A. with Honours University of Calcutta, India

My research sits at the intersections of intercultural communication, global communication, and Islamic studies. Using rhetorical criticism and textual analysis as my key methods, I explore the communicative strategies and deliberative capacities of diverse Muslim communities as well as the reception and framing of such Islamic discourses by Western actors. Since the traditions of both intercultural communication and rhetorical studies in the U.S. have historically been shaped by white, Western, Anglo-Saxon theorizing, my work expands the boundaries of the discipline by centering non-dominant (often Muslim or Arab) voices and experiences in Communication scholarship.

I have conducted grant-funded fieldwork in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and India and my work has appeared as essays in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books published by top academic presses, and invited encyclopedia entries, book review, and public-facing scholarship (details in ‘Select Publications’). I am currently completing a monograph examining the political rise and fall of the Islamist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt between 2005-2015. I use perspectives from rhetoric, religion, politics, and technology to decipher how this decade shaped the global identity of the MB and examine the rhetorical affordances digital fora present to non-state actors in authoritarian contexts to participate effectively in the global discursive arena.

I teach courses related to intercultural/critical intercultural communication; intercultural and transnational rhetoric; religion, culture, and communication; communication theories; history and philosophy of communication studies; qualitative research methodologies; gender, politics, and Islam; and direct Study Abroad courses focusing on Islam and intercultural dialogue in Spain, France, Morocco, and India. As a certified mediator, I also teach mediation (creative dispute resolution) courses. I have taught in India, China (including CU Denver’s International College Beijing program), the Middle East, Japan, and the U.S. I have won several curriculum development grants, including University of Notre Dame’s Global Religion and Research Initiative grant to develop an interdisciplinary course titled “Religion and Communication in the Middle East.” I have published (December 2019) a co-edited book titled “Internationalizing the Communication Curriculum in an Age of Globalization” (Routledge Research in Communication Studies series).

I served as a Big 12 Faculty fellow (2017-2018) and am an Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) fellow. I served as a director on the board of the International Communication Association and chair of its Intercultural Communication Division (2019-2021). I am currently a member of the Membership and Internationalization Committee of the International Communication Association. I am also a member of the advisory board of the National Communication Association-China Global/International Collaborations Committee (2018-present). I served on the National Communication Association’s Task Force on Fostering International Collaborations in research, teaching, and service (2015-2019). I served on the editorial board of Journal of International and Intercultural Communication (2018-2021) and am an associate editor for Frontiers in Intercultural Communication (2020-present).

Book

1. Turner, P. K., Bardhan, S., Holden, T. Q., & Mutua, E. M. (Eds.). (2019). Internationalizing the Communication Curriculum in an Age of Globalization. New York: Routledge.

Authored Chapters-

i. Bardhan, S. (2019). Internationalizing the communication curriculum: Benefits to stakeholders. In Turner, P. K., Bardhan, S., Holden, T. Q., & Mutua, E. M. (Eds.), Internationalizing the Communication Curriculum in an Age of Globalization (pp. 11-20). New York: Routledge.

ii. Bardhan, S., Colvin, J., Croucher, S., O’Keefe, M., & Dong, Q. (2019). Intercultural communication: A 17-year analysis of the state of the discipline. In Turner, P. K., Bardhan, S., Holden, T. Q., & Mutua, E. M. (Eds.), Internationalizing the Communication Curriculum in an Age of Globalization (pp. 23-35). New York: Routledge.

Peer-Reviewed Publications (Articles and Chapters)

1. Bardhan, S. (2022). #egyptian and #tunisiangirl: The (micro)politics of self-presentation on Instagram. International Journal of Communication, 16.

2. Bardhan, S., & Cutter, D. (2021). Recruiting foreign warriors: Function of moral and temporal tropes in the Islamic State’s “Dabiq”. Rhetoric and Public Affairs, 24, 483-520.

3. Bardhan, S., & Foss, K. (2020). Revolutionary graffiti and Cairene women: Performing agency through gaze aversion. In Charrad, M & Stephan, R. (Eds.), Women Rising: In the Arab Spring and Beyond (pp. 267-281). New York: New York University Press. (Grant-funded)

4. Bardhan, S. (2018). Affordances of websites for counterpublicity and international communication: Case of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 19, 3-11. (Lead article & forum piece)

5. Bardhan, S. (2018). The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and “Ikhwanweb”: Deliberative ethic/voice in a counterpublic’s rhetoric? Journal of Public Deliberation, 14. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.295 (Now Journal of Deliberative Democracy)

6. Bardhan, S. (2017). Rhetorical approaches to communication and culture. In J. Nussbaum (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.501

7. Bardhan, S. & Wood, R. (2015). The role of culture in civil society promotion in the Middle East: A case study approach with technology for social networking. Digest of Middle East Studies, 24, 111-138. (Grant-funded)

8. Bardhan, S. (2014). Egypt, Islamists, and the Internet: The Muslim Brotherhood and its rhetoric of dialectics in “Ikhwanweb”. Digest of Middle East Studies, 23, 235-261. Reviewed by Mark Allen Peterson, Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, Miami University, in Connected in Cairo- https://connectedincairo.com/2014/12/07/the-muslim-brotherhood-on-line-i... (2014)

9. Oetzel, J. G., Dhar, S., & Kirschbaum, K. (2007). Intercultural conflict from a multilevel perspective: Trends, possibilities, and future directions. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 36, 183-204.

Invited Encyclopedia Entries and Book Review

1. Bardhan, S. (2020). Islamic Relief Worldwide. In B K. Paul (Ed.), Natural Hazards and Disasters: From Avalanches and Climate Change to Water Spouts and Wildfires (pp. 299-304). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

2. Gonzalez, A. & Bardhan, S. (2017). Intercultural rhetoric. In Y. Y. Kim (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication. Wiley Publications. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0066

3. Bardhan, S. (2015). Book review- Jeremy Bowen’s “The Arab uprisings: The people want the fall of the regime”. Contemporary Islam, 9, 413-421.

4. Bardhan, S. (2014). Iran, social media, and unrest. In K. Harvey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics (pp. 732-735). Sage Publications.

5. Bardhan, S. (2014). Evolution of social media and the Arab Spring. In K. Harvey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics (pp. 482-486). Sage Publications.

6. Bardhan, S. (2014). Anonymous and the Arab Spring. In K. Harvey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics (pp. 57-60). Sage Publications.

Invited Public-Facing Publications

1. Bardhan, S. (July, 2020). Intercultural communication and postcolonialism. Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research (SIETAR) India Newsletter (p. 3).

2. Bardhan, S. (May, 2017). Internationalizing the communication curriculum. Spectra, 53, 18-23. National Communication Association.

CU Denver Undergraduate

• Intercultural Communication
• Religion, Culture, and Communication
• Global Communication

Graduate

• Intercultural Communication
• Religion, Culture, and Communication
• Introduction to Graduate Work in Communication
• Transnational Rhetoric

CU Denver-International College Beijing

• Mediation (Undergraduate)
• Global Communication (Undergraduate)
• Communication and Citizenship (Undergraduate)