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Soumia Bardhan, associate professor of Communication and director of the International Studies at the University of Colorado Denver, received the 2026 Anita Taylor Outstanding Article Award from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender (OSCLG).
The award honors one article each year as the best published scholarship in communication, language, and gender. Bardhan was recognized for her solo-authored article, “Women and Revisionist Quranic Exegesis: ‘The Sublime Quran’ as a Transnational Feminist and Spiritual/Moral Project,” published in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, a leading journal in the field.
Research With Real-World Relevance
Bardhan’s article examines the work of Laleh Bakhtiar, an Iranian American, Sufi Muslim woman and convert whose English translation of the Qur’an, The Sublime Quran, challenged long-standing interpretive authority.
According to the OSCLG selection committee, Bardhan’s article stood out for how it treats Bakhtiar’s position with nuance and care. The committee highlighted the article’s central argument: rather than framing Islamic tradition and feminist innovation as opposites, Bakhtiar’s project brings them into conversation.
In a moment shaped by ongoing Islamophobia and intensified scrutiny of Muslim scholars and communities, the committee described the work as bold and timely for challenging reductive stereotypes about Islam and Muslim women.
The Question That Drives the Work
At the heart of Bardhan’s scholarship is a question with deep stakes in communication, culture, and power:
Who gets to decide what a sacred text means, and what happens when a woman claims that authority for herself?
Bardhan’s article invites readers to sit with that question without forcing simple answers. It’s the kind of scholarship that reflects CU Denver’s commitment to real impact: research that meets the world as it is, while helping imagine what it could be.
Bardhan has described it as a project a scholar can carry alone for a long time before anyone else sees it, especially when the material resists easy conclusions.
National Recognition Through OSCLG
OSCLG selects the Anita Taylor Award winner through a national committee of scholars, drawing nominations from articles and book chapters on communication, language, and gender published during the prior year.
Bardhan will be recognized at the OSCLG Awards Dinner during the organization’s annual conference, October 8–10, 2026, in Philadelphia.
About The Organization For The Study Of Communication, Language, And Gender
The Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender is an academic association welcoming students, scholars, practitioners, and industry professionals at all career stages. Through its annual conference and its peer-reviewed journal, Women & Language, OSCLG supports creative, theoretical, applied, critical, and empirical research across feminist communication scholarship.
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