Pallavi Guha, Ph.D.

Biography

Pallavi Guha is an Associate professor of journalism at Towson University. She is the author of Hear #Metoo in India: News, social media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism, published by Rutgers University Press. Her book has been positively reviewed in Ms. Magazine, Women in Academia Report, Baltimore Sun, International Journal of Communication, Cultural Sociology, and other publications. Her research focuses on anti-rape and sexual harassment activism on mass media and social media platforms, gender roles in the electoral campaign, and social media, for which she won multiple awards and grants, including the 2019 AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the discipline of mass communication. Dr. Guha has been a research stakeholder of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, an initiative of President Biden, since May 2022. She also serves on the TU Academic Senate Executive Committee and is StarTUp Entrepreneur Faculty Fellow. Additionally, Dr. Guha chairs and mentors graduate students and serves on the advisory council board of Girls Report, Inc to support young girls' civic media journalism curriculum in Nepal, focusing on gender empowerment. Dr. Guha’s educational background lies in the intersection of politics and media. She has a Ph.D. in journalism and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. Before coming to academia, Dr. Guha was a journalist, working for leading media organizations, including BBC News and The Times of India.

Selected Publications

Guha, P (May 2023) Power to #MeTooIndia: The Future of the Movement in Post-COVID-19 India, South Asian Review, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02759527.2023.2211382

Guha, P (November 2022). When sexual assault becomes political campaign: Understanding sexual assault narrative on social media platforms during political campaigns in India. Women Studies in Communication, special issue. Taylor & Francis. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2022.2136899 

Guha, P (November 2022). Off-limits: The role of news and social media in developing sexual assault and harassment as a campaign issue during the Indian Parliamentary elections of 2019. Global Media and Communication, Sage publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665221135110

Guha, P (February 2021). Hear #metoo in India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism. Rutgers University Press: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/hear-metoo-in-india/9781978805729 

Guha, P. (2021) Review of Book Review: MeToo: the impact of rape culture in the media by MeToo: the impact of rape culture in the media by Meenakshi Gigi Durham. Media Practice and Education 22 (3), 1-2.

Guha, P. (January 2020) Facebook, WhatsApp and selective outrage: Anti-rape feminist activists of India treading inequality in digital activism. In Guntarik, O & Grieves, V (eds). From Sit-Ins to #revolutions: The changing nature of protests. Bloomingdale publications.

Gajjala, R & Guha, P. (July 2019) Feminist Digital Streets. In Digital Diaspora: Labor and Affect in Gendered Indian Digital Publics. Rowman and Littlefield International.

Guha, P. (May 2019) Representations of Politics. The International Encyclopedia of Media Literacy. Wiley Publications.

Selected media appearances

• Expert panelist on WorldCanvass: The Global Implications of MeToo, broadcast on WYAP FM, West Virginia. (2022)
• Author talk on Hear #MeToo at the Writers Live! Enoch Pratt Free Library (2021)
• Featured speaker on Rescuing from Patriarchy in Women’s International News Gathering Service (2021)
• Author feature on Global Assault in Washington Independent Review of Books  (2021)
• Featured in the February 2021 Ms. Magazine List of feminist books and authors February  (2021)

Honors & Awards:

• Awarded and selected as Center for Community News Faculty Champion, supported by Knight Foundation to support my news reporting students to cover the 2024 U.S. Presidential elections from the standpoint of issues crucial for first-time and first-generation college student voters in the Baltimore region.   (2024)
• Award from Solutions Journalism Network to lead Student Media Challenge Reporting on Student Mental Health Challenge (2024)
• DEFCon: Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium Teaching Fellow (Andrew Mellon Foundation) to develop a course on DEI in Mass Communication (2022)
• Recognized for making positive changes through research at the Howard County Commission for Women's inaugural "So She Did" initiative (2021)
• Faculty Development and Research grant for research on #Metoo and social and news media political campaign in India (2020)
• Open Education Resource teaching grant from the Kirwan Commission and the University System of Maryland  (2020)
• Winner of AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award or the best Ph.D. dissertation in the field of mass communication research excellence (2019)

Courses Taught

• TSEM 102: Media Literacy
• MCOM 352: Media Criticism
• MCOM 383: News Reporting
• MCOM 385: Mass Media and Society
• MCOM 390: Mass Communication Research
• MCOM 617: International Communication (graduate course)

Graduate Thesis Directed/Chaired

• Representation Matters: Understanding how Black Women are portrayed in Television programs (May 2024 - May 2024)
• Feminist approaches to Interpersonal communication in sororities (May 2020-May 2021)
• Grieving in a Digital World (January 2022-December 2022)
• The examination of Howard University’s responses to 2021 #BlackburnTakeover (January 2022-December 2022)
• Intimate partner violence framing on social media platforms (January 2022-current)