Assistant ProfessorEDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison (American Cultural & Literary Studies)
M.A & M.Phil, Delhi University
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Humanitarian Communication
Immersive Technology (Virtual Reality)
Media Ethics
Visual Studies
Refugee Studies
Media and Forced Migration
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Dr. Bimbisar Irom seeks to understand how communication practices can better serve vulnerable populations. His cross-disciplinary research draws—in theory, method, and interest—upon his humanities background to address urgent communication questions. Irom’s work focuses on the two areas of humanitarian communication and qualitative political communication. His humanitarian communication research engages with multiple media platforms ranging from newspapers to immersive Virtual Reality (VR). He examines how communication systems operate in crises situations to craft relationships of proximity, distance, and empathy between media consumers and ‘distant sufferers’ depicted on the screens and pages of media devices. Irom’s political communication research responds to events that have an urgent bearing on the functioning of a robust democracy. This includes investigating how emergent media affordances can provide accurate content and studying misinformation spread.
TEACHING
ComStrat 563. Ethics for Professionals (online)
ComStrat 561. Persuasion for Professional Communicators (online)
Com 440. Media Ethics
Com 421. Intercultural Communication and Globalization (online)
Com 400. Communicating Science and Technology
Com 324. Reasoning and Writing
ComSoc 301. Foundations of Persuasion (online)
Com100. Foundations for Excellence in Writing in Communication
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Irom, B., Borah, P. & Gibbons, S.* (forthcoming). Representing the Rohingya refugees: A mixed- methods content analysis of visuals. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.
Borah, P., & Irom, B. (forthcoming). To donate or not to donate: Visual framing of the Rohingya refugees, pre-support for refugee policies, and donation intentions. Journal of Refugee Studies.
Irom, B. (2019). Mediating Syria’s strangers through Levinas: Communication ethics and the visuals of children. Communication Theory, 29(4), 441-462. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz013.
Irom, B. (2018). Virtual reality and the Syrian refugee camps: Humanitarian communication and the politics of empathy. International Journal of Communication, 12, 4269–4291.
Irom, B. (2016). Towards a worldly post-9/11 American novel: Transnational disjunctures in Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland. Journal of Transnational American Studies 7(1).
Irom, B. (2012). Alterities in a time of terror: Notes on the sub-genre of the American 9/11 novel. Contemporary Literature, 53(3), 517-547. doi:10.1353/cli.2012.0030.
Irom, B. (2012). Between “Retreat” and “Engagement”: Incomplete revolts and the operations of irony in E.L. Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel. Studies in American Fiction, 39(1), 61-85. doi:10.1353/saf.2012.0001.
Irom, B. (2012). “moves to places not quite on the schedule”: Irony and the ethics of action in Joan Didion’s Democracy. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 53(1), 66-81. doi: 10.1080/00111611003717725
Note: Asterisk (*) indicates student author at the time the research was conducted.
SELECTED RECENT AWARDS
‘Top Journal Article Award’ (2019). National Communication Association Conference (Philosophy of Communication Division). Awarded for Mediating Syria’s strangers through Levinas: Communication ethics and the visuals of children. Communication Theory, 29(4), 441-462.
Samuel H. and Patricia W. Smith Teaching and Learning Grant (2013). Awarded by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Washington State University.