smita.misra@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 x41529
Location: ML 304
Smita Misra is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her research primarily focuses on physician advocacy, particularly examining the organizational strategies and professional tactics employed by medical expert witnesses in refugee proceedings. In her current manuscript, Misra challenges the assumption that scientific objectivity and political advocacy are mutually exclusive, exploring the barriers and possibilities for physician-advocates and activists who operate within a culture of suspicion. Her secondary research area addresses migrant resistance, contributing to emerging conversations on sousveillance. Misra explores how migrants utilize silent observation and tracking as forms of resistance, speaking back against dehumanizing conditions. Her work has been recognized and supported by multiple SSHRC-funded awards.
She teaches courses in Critical Health Communication, Science Communication, Communication, Resistance and Social Change, Race and Racism, and Public Speaking. She also advises graduate students on the intersections of culture and health communication, in the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory at UWaterloo.
Recent Publications:
- Misra, S. (2024). Physician Advocacy in a “Culture of Disbelief”: A Critical-Interpretive Study of Asylum Medicine. International Journal of Communication. (Forthcoming)
- Misra, S. (2024). Refugee Sousveillance: Observation and Co-optation in The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives. Communication, Culture, and Critique. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcae024