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Ambar Basu, Ph.D.

   

health communication, subaltern studies

Assistant Professor
813.974.2145
CIS 3032
abasu@cas.usf.edu

Dr. Basu joined the faculty in August 2008. His research focuses on marginalization, Subaltern Studies, culture and health communication. His recent projects look at HIV/AIDS communication practices in sex worker communities.

Undergraduate course offerings

  • Health Communication
  • Small Group Communication
  • Global Issues in Health Communication

Graduate course offerings

  • Cultural Perspectives on Health Communication
  • Globalization, Culture, and Communication

Representative publications

  • Basu, A., & Dutta, M. (in press). Born into Brothels: Neocolonial moves and unheard voices. Feminist Media Studies.

  • Basu, A., & Dutta, M. (2009). Sex workers and HIV/AIDS: Analyzing participatory culture-centered health communication strategies. Human Communication Research, 35, 86-114.

  • Basu, A., & Wang, J (2009). Branding as a health campaign marketing strategy: The why and how. Journal of Communication Management, 13(1), 77-91

  • Mattson, M., & Basu, A. (2009). Centers for Disease Control’s Diethylstilbestrol Update: A case for effective operationalization of messaging in social marketing practice. Health Promotion Practice, (early release via journal website).

  • Basu, A., & Dutta, M. (2008). The relationship between health information seeking and community participation: The roles of motivation and ability. Health Communication, 23(1), 70-79

  • Bodie, G., Dutta, M., & Basu, A. (2008). Explaining social disparities in online health use: The integrative model of e-health use. In A. Lazakidou, & K. M. Siassiakos (Eds.), Handbook of research on distributed medical informatics and e-health. University of Piraeus: Greece.

  • Basu, A., & Dutta, M. (2008). Participatory change in a campaign led by sex workers: Connecting resistance to action-oriented agency. Qualitative Health Research, 18(1), 106-119.

  • Basu, A., & Dutta-Bergman, M. (2007). Centralizing context and culture in the co-construction of health: Localizing and vocalizing health meanings in rural India. Health Communication, 21(7), 187-197.

Research Interests

Health communication, culture, and marginalization: My research explores the intersection of culture, structure, marginalization and health communication. It locates culture as organic and fundamental in the framing of communicative patterns; and it examines how meanings are shared and health discourse is negotiated in the context of multiple cultural, political, economic, and development agendas in marginalized spaces.

One of my most recent projects explores how commercial sex workers make sense of their marginalized living contexts and formulate communication strategies to address locally-articulated structural needs related to health and HIV/AIDS.

Reflexivity as methodology: Embedded within and embracing the indices of ethnography, autoethnography and postcolonial studies, my research traverses the indeterminacies and vulnerabilities that come with questioning my self, my politics, and my privilege in the processes I adopt to co-create knowledge in marginalized cultures. Reflecting on and deconstructing the lens(es) I use to engage in knowledge creation are core methodological concepts I study even as they shape the “method” of my work.

Education

Ph.D., Department of Communication, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2008

M.Sc., Economics, Calcutta University (India), 1995

B.Sc., Economics (Honors), Mathematics, Political Science, 1993.