smita.misra@uwaterloo.ca
519-888-4567 x41529
Location: ML 304
Smita Misra-Latty is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Waterloo. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research sits at the intersection of critical health communication, science and technology studies (STS), rhetoric of health and medicine, and race and migration studies. Her work examines how health, credibility, and expertise are produced, contested, and governed within sites of medical advocacy and im/migrant health.
Her research focuses on physician-advocacy, medical activism, and the mediation of care under conditions of surveillance and suspicion. Recent projects examine forensic medical exams for asylum seekers. Currently, she is examining racialized metabolic discourses, focusing on the figure of the “skinny fat” body, within global health and nutrition cultures. Across these projects, she foregrounds how race, gender, migration status, and institutional power shape whose knowledge is trusted and whose care is deemed legitimate.
Dr. Misra-Latty’s work has appeared in journals such as Communication, Culture & Critique, International Journal of Communication, and Frontiers in Communication. At UW, she teaches courses in science communication, critical health communication, and race and racism. She is committed to mentorship and public-facing scholarship, and collaborates with students, clinicians, and community organizations. Her work bridges academic research and engaged scholarship, with an emphasis on translating critical insights into accessible, socially responsive forms.
Recent Publications:
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Misra-Latty, S. (2025). Physician Advocacy in a “Culture of Disbelief”: A Critical-Interpretive Study of Asylum Medicine. International Journal of Communication.
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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