Renu Pariyadath, Ph.D.

Teacher-Scholar and Culture Builder

recent posts

    about

    I’m an Assistant Professor of Communication at University of South Carolina Upstate. I study strategic organizing around issues of development in the Global South and environmental justice, especially in the context of transnational resistance to global restructuring. My scholarship engages critical cultural studies, environmental communication and non-profit organizational communication, and borrows widely from transnational feminist theory, and sociological and anthropological scholarship on transnationalism. I teach environmental communication, communication for social change, ethics in human communication, organizational communication, and gender and communication. I received my doctorate in communication studies from the University of Iowa with a graduate minor in gender, women’s and sexuality studies, and have a master’s degree in communication from The Ohio State University. I am actively involved in environmental justice movements in the U.S. and in India and was previously an international working journalist.

    Scholarship

    Building Inclusive Communities, From Bhopal to Higher Education

    Image of Sambhavana Clinic, Bhopal, India

    Much of my work focuses on how communities redefine ideas like “home,” “development,” “sustainability”, and “belonging”, especially among Indian migrants and grassroots organizations. I’ve received awards for research on the role of communication in challenging stereotypes, redistributing power, and building connection across difference. Recently, I co-authored a paper on linguistic minorities in higher education that won top honors and connects to my broader work on co-creating vibrant learning and work environments, through inhabiting transitional and liminal spaces of discomfort.

    I’ve also spent several years working on the long-term impacts of the Bhopal gas disaster, both through writing and public advocacy. My time with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal continues to inform how I approach questions of fairness, accountability, sustainability, and transnational social change.

    My work draws from many fields including communication studies, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. At the heart of it all is the commitment to listen well, ask better questions, and build more just and inclusive organizations and communities.

    Selected Publications:

    • Pariyadath, R. (Forthcoming, 2026). Beyond Accommodations: Enabling Learners, Faculty, and Staff, Embracing Neurodiversity for all. In Andrew Eddy, Timothy Frawley, Blánaid Gavin, Etain Quigley, Charlotte Valeur (Eds). Anticipated 2026. Neurodiversity and Higher Education. (Anticipated 2026). Routledge Taylor & Francis.
    • Pariyadath, R. (Forthcoming, 2025). Relational Remittances: Privileged Migrants Reimagining Development as Equitable Relationships with the Marginalized. In Diotima Chattoraj (Ed.). Privileged Migrants Across the Globe: Experiences of Inclusion, Exclusion and Mobility (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003567745.
    • Yueh, H. S. & Pariyadath, R. (2023) Speaking “Broken” English: Linguistic Minorities Building Cross-Cultural Alliances in US Higher Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2023.2181452
    • Pariyadath, R. (2020). Decolonize Your Textbook: Confronting White America and the North-South Divide in the Critical Intercultural Communication Classroom. In Webber, Carolyn (Carolina) Rosas (Ed). Working in the Margins: Domestic and International Minority Women in Higher Education. New York: Peter Lang. 33-55. https://doi.org/10.3726/b14794
    • Pariyadath, R. Keyword# 93: Transnationalism. Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue. Center for Intercultural Dialogue. 2018.
    • Pariyadath, R. & Kline, S. L. (2016). Bridging Difference: A Sense-Making Study of the Role of Communication in Stereotype Change. In Camara, S.K, Drummond D.K and Hoey, D. M. (Eds). Communicating Prejudice: An Appreciative Inquiry Approach. Nova Publishing Inc. 1-20. 
    • Pariyadath, R. From BP To Bhopal: Migrant Practices of Cultural Translation For Equitable Development In The Global South (2015). In News from Somewhere: A Reader in Communication and Challenges to Globalization, Eds. Broudy, Daniel, Klaehn Jefferey and Winter, James. Eugene: Wayzgoose Press. 243-258.
    • Pariyadath, R. & Shadaan, R. Solidarity after Bhopal: Building a Transnational Environmental Justice Movement (2014). Environmental Justice, 7(5). 115-150. https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2014.0013

    Selected Recent Convention Activity/Acceptance:

    • “Shifting the Edge of Environmental Disaster Narratives: Countering the Official Narrative on Bhopal Using the Right to Information Act.” Panel on Storytelling in/through/with Community-Engaged Environmental Research. Conference on Communication and Environment. Tasmania, Australia. June 2025.
    • Faculty Fellows Ambassadors: Enhancing Community Engagement On & Off Campus. Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, Minneapolis. October 2024.
    • Diaspora and Development: The Promise and Perils of Inclusion in Transnational Citizenship. Paper accepted for presentation at The Minzu (Ethnicities) University of China Announces an International Communication Conference on “Convergence, Diversity, and Development.” Beijing, China. June 14 – 16, 2024.
    • Panelist on Freedom (?) from Organizational Learning Barriers: Strategies for Improving Training from Organizational, Instructional, and Training Communication Specialists, National Communication Association, National Harbor, DC, November 2023.
    • Traversing the Middle Way: Moving Beyond Privilege or Loss Narratives in Im/migration Diaspora Discourse. Paper presented at the Southeastern Immigration Association Studies. Greenville, SC. April 2023.
    • “We all Live in Bhopal”: Connectedness and Strategic Universalism in Transnational Environmental Justice Appeals. Paper presented at the National Communication Association. Virtual. May 2022.
    • Presence by Proxy: Using Diasporic Privilege for Rights-Claiming Spaces in the Global City. Panel presentation on Reconceptualizing Migration and Displacement in Extraordinary Times, Association for Asian Studies (AAS), March 2021.
    • Panelist on Internationalizing Communication Pedagogy: Integrating Global Consciousness and Boundaries of Self-Other in the Age of COVID-19 at the annual National Communication Association (NCA), November 2020.
    • A Southern Story: Engaging Discussions on Local and Global Sustainability through Service-Learning Courses. Panel presentation at the annual National Communication Association (NCA), November 2020.