New Faculty Member Joining COMM in the Fall

Published: May 10, 2019
Dr. Soumia Bardhan headshot

From the Department of Communication...
 
I am delighted to announce that Dr. Soumia Bardhan will be joining us in the fall as an Assistant Professor of Communication.

Dr. Bardhan earned her BA (with Honors) in English Literature from the University of Calcutta, her MA in Communication from University of Madras, and her PhD in Communication from the University of New Mexico. She was most recently an Assistant Professor of Communication and Director of Global Communication Initiatives at Kansas State University.

Dr. Bardhan’s research interests are interdisciplinary and informed by intercultural/international communication and Islamic studies. By focusing on the intersections of culture, religion, politics, gender, and new media, she explores: a) the interactional dynamics of Western/non-Muslim and Arab/Islamic rhetorical/textual traditions; b) the multi-vocal discursive practices within Islam; c) the rhetoric of Muslim communities in marginalized contexts; and d) the role of new media in the cultural-political transformation of Arab societies. A commitment to facilitating intercultural/international understanding/relations, civic engagement, social justice, and shaping public policy drives her research and scholarship.

She has conducted grant-funded fieldwork in Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, and India. She has presented her research and received top paper awards at national and international conferences, and her work has appeared in the peer-reviewed Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Journal of Public Deliberation, Digest of Middle East Studies, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Contemporary Islam, and in books published by leading university presses. She is currently working on a scholarly book examining the political rise and fall of the Islamist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt between 2005-2015. She uses perspectives from rhetoric, religion, politics, and technology to decipher how this decade shaped the global identity of the MB and examines the rhetorical affordances digital fora present to non-state actors in authoritarian contexts to participate effectively in the global discursive arena.

Dr. Bardhan teaches courses related to intercultural/critical intercultural communication; intercultural rhetoric; religion, culture, and communication; communication theories; history and philosophy of communication studies; qualitative research methodologies; gender, politics, and Islam; and directs Study Abroad courses focusing on Islam and intercultural dialogue in Spain, France, Morocco, and India. As a certified mediator, she also teaches mediation (creative dispute resolution) courses. Professor Bardhan has taught in India, China (including for our very own ICB program), the Middle East, Japan, and the U.S.

In the fall at CU Denver, she will be teaching COMM 4270 Intercultural Communication and COMM 6013 Introduction to Graduate Work in Communication.

Dr. Bardhan is vice chair/ chair-elect of the Intercultural Communication Division of the International Communication Association (2017-2021). She also serves on the National Communication Association’s Task Force on Fostering International Collaboration in research, teaching, and service.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Bardhan! Her University of Colorado Denver email will be soumia.bardhan@ucdenver.edu. For now, she can be reached at sbardhan@ksu.edu.
 
I also appreciate the search committee of Sarah Fields, Stephen Hartnett, Amy Hasinoff, Hamilton Bean, Alana Jones, and Larry Erbert as well as fulltime faculty members and Michelle Medal for their work in making this important hire. We are excited about Dr. Bardhan’s planned contributions to our community.