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Dr. Raka Shome

Raka Shome

Dr. Raka Shome is an international scholar known for receiving the 2016 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Critical and Cultural Studies Division of National Communication Association for her writings in postcolonial studies in media/communications, transnational feminism and globalization. She is also known for her current research interests in Asian modernities, racism and media in an international context, transnational relations of India, transnational cultures in media and gender, as well as transnational politics of knowledge in communications . She is the writer and editor in many prestigious communication articles as well as the author of the book Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture.

History and Background

Shome was born and grew up in Kolkata, India where she did her undergraduate studies at St. Xavier’s college, known at the time as one of India’s top colleges. She came to the United States to complete her Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Georgia . She is currently employed at the National University of Singapore which is known as the number one university in Asia. She teaches an undergraduate course, Philosophy of Communication and New Media along with a graduate course on Technological Embodiments.

In her previous years, she held faculty appointments at the following schools: London School of Economics and Political Science, Arizona State University and University of Washington. From 2011 to 2012, Shome also served as the Inaugural Harron Family Endowed Chair of Communication at Villanova University, Pennsylvania. More recently, Shome has spoken and lectured at London School of Economics and Political Science, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University in Utrecht, Netherlands, Sodertorn University in Huddinge Municipality, Sweden, Goethenberg University in Gothenburg, Sweden and the Rhetoric Society of America in Madison, WI .

Scholarly Work/Research Interests

As a communication scholar, Shome has specific research topics that interest her the most. These topics consist of "media and Asian modernities, transnational politics of knowledge production, transnational feminism, gender, culture, and migration, transnational flows of mediated cultures in the global south, and postcolonial cultural studies". Shome focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to her research as it is closely related to social justice .

Shome is also well-known for her book, Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture where she took her research of postcolonial theory, globalization, transnational feminism and Whiteness and evaluated how they intersected in media. This book emphasizes images of white female celebrities and how these images provide ideologies of white femininity in western cultures across the nation. These images come from a variety of white women from Princess Diana to Angelina Jolie. This book captivates the idea that Princess Diana is not an overexposed celebrity, but rather an image in the public eye of white femininity. Shome’s book has been reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, Quarterly Journal of Speech and many others .

Journal editor

 Shome has co-guest edited a number of special journal issues, including “Postcolonialism” in International Communication Association Journal in August of 2002. Continuing the years of work Shome has contributed to the communications field, she currently is serving on multiple editorial boards in the nation’s leading communication journals such as, Communication Theory, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Women Studies in Communication, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication .

Awards, Honors, Grants

• 2016 she received the Distinguished Scholar Award, Critical and Cultural Studies Division of National Communication Association.

• 2016 she received a $10,000 Research Grant, Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society, Villanova University.

• 2013 she won an Outstanding Article Award, Critical and Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association, for “Global Motherhood’: Transnational intimacies of White femininity,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28(5), 388-406.

• 2004 she won an Outstanding Article Award, Critical and Cultural Studies Division of National Communication Association, for “Space Matters,’ in Communication Theory 13(1), 39-56.

• 2003 she won the co-awardee Distinguished Scholarship Award, the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association.

• 2000 she won the "New Investigator Award," for Outstanding Scholarship, Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of the National Communication Association.

Further Readings/Scholarly Work

Book

Shome, R. (2014). Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture. University of Illinois Press.

Shome, R. (2016). Gender, nation and colonialism: Twenty first century connections. Cultural Studies-Critical Methodologies, 16(4), 347-350.

Shome, R. (Ed.) (2012). Media, culture, and asian modernities. Journal of Global Media and Communications, 8(3), 199-214.

Shome, R., Hegde, R. & Grossberg, L. (2002). Postcolonial approaches to communication: Charting the terrain, engaging the intersections. Communication theory, 12(3), 249-270.

Journal Articles

Shome, R. (2016). Gender, nation and colonialism: Twenty first century connections. Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies, 347-350.

Shome, R. (2016). When postcolonial studies meets media studies. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 245-263.

Shome, R. (2013). The obligation of critical (rhetorical) theorists to build theory. Western Journal of Communication, 77(5), 514-517.

Shome, R. (2012). “Asian modernities”: culture, politics and media. Global Media and Communication, 8(3), 199-214.

Shome, R. (2012). Mapping the limits of multiculturalism in the context of globalization. International Journal of communication.

Shome, R. (2011). ‘Global motherhood’: The transnational intimacies of white femininity. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28(5). 388-406.

Shome, R. (2010). Postcolonial studies and communication studies: Mapping new terrains. Journal of Global Mass Communication, 2(3), 8-17.

Shome, R. (2009). Postcolonial reflections on the ‘internationalization’ of cultural studies. Cultural Studies, 23(5-6), 694-719.

Shome, R. (2006). Transnational feminism and communication studies. Communication Review, 9(4), 255-267.

Shome, R (2006). Rethinking the diaspora: Call centers, India, and new technologies of hybridity. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(1), 105-124.

Shome, R (2006) Interdisciplinary research and globalization. Communication Review, 9, 1-36.

Shome, R (2003). Space matters: The power and practice of space. Communication Theory, 13(1), 39-56.

Shome, R. & Hegde, R. (2002). Culture, communication, and the challenge of globalization. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 17(2), 172-189.

Shome, R. & Hegde, R (2002). Postcolonial approaches to communication: Charting the terrain, engaging the intersections. Communication Theory, 12(3), 249-270.

Hegde R & Shome, R. (2002). Postcolonial scholarship: Of productions and directions. An interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Communication Theory, 12(3), 271-286.

Shome, R. (2001). White femininity and the discourse of the nation. Feminist Media Studies, 1(3), 323-342.

Shome, R. (2000). Outing whiteness. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 17(3), 366-371.

Shome, R. (2000). Media and colonialism: Race, rape, and "Englishness" in the jewel in the crown. International and Intercultural Communication Annual, 23, 135-157.

Shome, R (1999). A response to Bill Starsota’s 'On the intersection of rhetoric and intercultural communication'. Intercultural and International Communication Annual, 22, 157-162.

Shome, R (1998). “Caught in the term ‘postcolonial: Why the “postcolonial” still matters. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 15(2), 203-212.

Shome, R (1996). Race and popular cinema: The rhetorical strategies of whiteness in 'City of Joy'. Communication Quarterly, 44(4), 502-518.

Shome, R (1996). Postcolonial interventions in the rhetorical canon: An 'other' view. Communication Theory (1), 40-59.

Book Chapters

Shome, R. (2016). Postcolonial Theory. International Encyclopedia of Communication and Philosophy. Wiley Blackwell.

Shome, R. (2010). Internationalizing critical race communication studies: transnationality, space, and affect. In. R. Halualani & T. Nakayama (Eds.), Blackwell Companion to Critical Intercultural Communication Studies, (pp. 149-170). Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.

Shome, R. (2006). Challenges of international women of color in higher education in the US: The complicated "rights" of belonging in globalization. In Omar Swartz (Eds.), Communication and Social Justice, (pp. 105-126). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbraum Inc.

Shome, R (1999). Whiteness and the politics of location: Postcolonial reflections. In T. K. Nakayama & J. Martin (Eds.), Whiteness: The Communication of Social Identity, (pp. 107-128). Oakland, CA: Sage Publications.

Online Article

Shome, R. (2014). Postcolonialism. Key concepts in intercultural dialogue, 28. [Trans. Into Spanish and Italian]. Edited W. Hurtwitz. Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

See also

• Postcolonialism
• Transnational feminism