Hemant Shah
Ph.D., Indiana University
Professor

Education:
University of California-San Diego
B.A., Communication and Sociology, 1979

Purdue University
M.A., Communication, 1982

Indiana University
Ph.D., Mass Communication, 1987

Courses:
In-Depth Reporting
International Communication
Mass Media and Minorities
Critical and Cultural Approaches to Media Studies
Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies

Research areas:
Global media and cultural identity, development theory and history, mass media representation of race and ethnicity.

Recent publications:
Hemant Shah and Michael C. Thornton (2004). Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict: Competing Visions of America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hemant Shah (2008). “Communication and marginal sites: The Chipko Movement and the dominant paradigm of development communication.” Asian Journal of Communication 18(1).

Hemant Shah and Karin Wilkins (2005). Reconsidering geometries of development. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 3(4): 395-416.

Hemant Shah and Seungahn Nah (2004). Long ago and far away: US newspaper construction of racial oppression. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 5(3), 259-278.

Biography:
Hemant Shah is a professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication. He earned his Ph.D. in mass communication from Indiana University, his M.A. in communication studies from Purdue University, and his B.A. in communication and sociology from the University of California-San Diego.

Shah joined the faculty in 1990 and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on mass media, race and ethnicity; international communication; mass communication in developing nations; and critical and cultural approaches to mass communication research.

In both the U.S. and international contexts, Shah’s research investigates the role of mass media in various types of social change, such as national development, the construction of cultural identities, creation of racial anxieties, social movements, and other similar processes. Shah has conducted fieldwork in India and Uganda and his research has been published in Communication Theory, The Communication Review, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Howard Journal of Communication, International Journal of Intercultural Communication, Journalism Monographs, Journalism Quarterly, Media Asia, and other journals. Shah is the co-author of Newspaper Coverage of Interethnic Conflict: Competing Visions of America, a book analyzing general circulation and ethnic minority newspaper reporting of interracial conflict in three US cities.

Shah is affiliated with the UW Asian American Studies Program, and the Global Media and Democracy in Asia Research Circle of the UW International Institute. Shah is also active in campus initiatives on diversity and multicultural education. He is the Faculty Diversity Liaison for the School of Journalism & Mass Communication.