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Keya Saxena

Keya Saxena

Assistant Professor
Department of Communication | Communication Studies

Education

University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Communication and Media Studies, June 2025
  • Master of Arts, Media Studies, June 2017

Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India

  • Master of Arts, Development Communication, May 2015

University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

  • Bachelor of Arts (Honors), Journalism, May 2013

 

Bio

Keya Saxena is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies. Her research, grounded in communication and critical cultural studies, examines how media can serve as a tool for socio-political change, particularly in the Global South. More specifically, her work explores the intersections of civic engagement, comedy, and social movements. Dr. Saxena specializes in qualitative methods and has worked on research projects in Peru, Ghana, India, Colombia and the US. 

Before entering academia, she worked with the International Labor Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and UNAIDS and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in New Delhi. Her work centered around communications based advocacy on gender, menstrual health management, child marriage, HIV/AIDS and adolescent sexual and reproductive health. 

She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on social movements, politics, rhetoric and communication research.  

Courses

  • CA 592: Media & Social Movements
  • CA 456: Social Media & Politics
  • CA 424: Rhetorical Criticism
  • CA 300: Foundations of Communication Research 

Publications

Saxena, K. & Martinez, G. (in press). Women of Medellin's Comuna 13 and Documentary Film Teachers: Re-claiming Personal Stories and Narratives for Social Change. Chapter for an edited volume Documentary Film in Latin America and the Caribbean: Perspectives and Practice

Saxena, K., & Ofori-Parku, S. S. (2024). ‘Funny’ Politics: Stand-up Political Comedy, Public Engagement, Critical Thinking, and Opinion Sharing in India. Journal of Creative Communications, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586241252201

Saxena, K. & Martinez, G. (2024) Collaborative Film Making for Socio-political Transformation in Colombia: A Decolonial Perspective. Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, Issue 62.
https://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/Saxena-Martinez/index.html

Saxena, K. (2024). Cracking up: Black feminist comedy in the twentieth & twenty-first century United States: by Katelyn Hale Wood, United States, University of Iowa Press, 2021, 204 pp., $28.91 (paperback), ISBN 9781609387723. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 1–3.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2024.2371127

Saxena, K. (2023). That’s a ‘Sign’!: How Placards Communicated Disapproval of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India. Communication Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2210631

Markowitz, D. M., Blackburn, K. G., Saxena, K., Marion, J., Olivarez, O., Hernandez, R., Woodworth, M. T., & Hancock, J. T. (2022). The Truth Project. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 41(4), 450–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211067821

Martinez, G., & Saxena, K. (2021). Mapping the promises and perils of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic: Peru’s case. Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, Issue 60. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc60.2021/MartinezSaxena-PeruEducation/index.html