Soumia Bardhan (Ph.D., University of New Mexico) is assistant professor of Intercultural/International Communication at University of Colorado Denver.
She was most recently an assistant professor of Communication and director of Global Communication Initiatives at Kansas State University.
Professor Bardhan’s research interests are interdisciplinary and informed by Intercultural Communication (communication dynamics of difference based on religious, historical, and political values) and Islamic/Religious Studies. By focusing on the intersections of culture, religion, and politics, she explores: a) the interactional dynamics of Western/non-Muslim and Arab/Islamic rhetorical traditions; b) the multi-vocal discursive practices within Islam; c) the rhetoric and deliberative capacity of Muslim communities in marginalized contexts; and d) the role of new media and deliberation in the cultural-political transformation of Arab societies. She has conducted grant-funded fieldwork in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and India; presented her research at numerous national and international conferences (NCA, MESA, ICA); 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 as peer-reviewed chapters in books published by top university presses. A commitment to facilitating intercultural relations, civic engagement and democratic capacity building, social justice, and shaping public policy drives her research and scholarship. 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.
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. She has taught in India, China, the Middle East, Japan, and the U.S. Her teaching philosophy is informed by critical pedagogy and intercultural praxis.
Bardhan serves as a director on the board of the International Communication Association and is chair of its Intercultural Communication Division (2019-2021). She also served on the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Task Force on Fostering International Collaboration in research, teaching, and service. She is exploring NCA’s research internationalization and is working to organize an NCA summer conference in India. She has also co-edited a book (with members of the NCA Task Force) on internationalizing the communication curriculum, published by Routledge and forthcoming in Fall 2019.
Selected publications:
Turner, P. K., Bardhan, S., Holden, T. Q., & Mutua, E. M. (Eds.). (Forthcoming). Internationalizing the communication curriculum in an age of globalization: Why, what, and how. New York: Routledge.
Bardhan, S. & Foss, K. (Forthcoming). Revolutionary graffiti and Cairene women: Performing agency through gaze aversion. In Charrad, M & Stephan, R. (Eds.), Women rising: Resistance, revolution, and reform in the Arab Spring and beyond. New York: New York University Press.
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.
Bardhan, S. (2018). The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and ‘Ikhwanweb’: Deliberative ethic/voice in a counterpublic’s rhetoric? Journal of Public Deliberation, 4(1), Article 5.
Bardhan, S. (2017). Rhetorical approaches to communication and culture. In J. Nussbaum (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press.
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(1), 111-138.
Bardhan, S. (2014). Egypt, Islamists, and the Internet: The Muslim Brotherhood and its rhetoric of dialectics in ‘Ikhwanweb’. Digest of Middle East Studies, 23(2), 235-261.
For access to publications, visit her page on Academia.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 