Srividya “Srivi” Ramasubramanian will join the Newhouse School this fall as the Newhouse Professor, an endowed chair position. Ramasubramanian, who holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from Pennsylvania State University, is a leading communication scholar whose work addresses contemporary global issues relating to media, diversity and social justice.
Srividya “Srivi” Ramasubramanian is the first woman and person of color to hold the Newhouse Professor endowed chair position.
Ramasubramanian’s areas of expertise include critical media effects, data justice, digital cultures, intersectionality, applied communication and mixed methods. She will teach courses on critical approaches to digital media, social justice and data equity.
“The appointment comes at an exciting time for the Newhouse School. Professor Ramasubramanian’s research-focused background will help us lead and shape the future of scholarship within the areas of race and media, diversity, social activism and social justice,” says Newhouse dean Mark J. Lodato. “Welcoming her groundbreaking scholarly achievements will complement the breadth of ongoing research initiatives by faculty here at Newhouse, allowing for the broadest possible impact in the larger academic community and across Syracuse University.”
Ramasubramanian comes to Syracuse from Texas A&M University, where she is a Presidential Impact Fellow and professor of communication, and served as associate dean of liberal arts. She is the founding director of the Difficult Dialogues Project and CODE^SHIFT (Collaboratory for Data Equity, Social Healing, Inclusive Futures, and Transformation), which brings together data scientists with social justice scholars. She is also the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Media Rise. She is the incoming editor-in-chief of Communication Monographs, the flagship journal of the discipline, and is the first woman of color to hold the position.
“Professor Ramasubramanian’s track record of publicly engaged scholarship and service, combined with her rigorous and creative approach to research, makes her an outstanding addition to our world-class Syracuse University faculty,” says Interim Provost John Liu.
Ramasubramanian is widely recognized for her pioneering work on race and media, media literacy initiatives, implicit bias reduction and scholar-activism. She has over 100 publications to her credit, including in top-tier journals, books, encyclopedias and major media outlets. Her latest book, “Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: Power of Numbers for Social Justice” (with Erica Scharrer), connects social science research with social justice scholarship. She is the recipient of the International Communication Association’s Applied Public Policy Research Award, National Communication Association’s Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship and the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Outstanding Media Literacy Researcher Award.
At Texas A&M, Ramasubramanian co-founded the First-Gen Freshmen Mentoring Program and started the Communicating Diversity Student Conference. Her commitment to teaching excellence has been recognized with the Association of Former Students College-Level Distinguished Teaching Award, Center for Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellowship, Service-Learning Faculty Fellowship and several Graduate Faculty Mentoring Awards.
The Newhouse Professor endowed chair was established at the school by the S.I. Newhouse Foundation in 1964. Ramasubramanian is the first woman and the first person of color to hold the position.
