Ishita Sinha Roy

Headshot of Ishita Sinha Roy
Department: Communication, Media, & Performance
Email: iroy@allegheny.edu
Office Phone: (814) 332-4384
Office Building: Vukovich Center for ComArts
Office Room: 310
Box #: 45
Faculty Website

Professional Title/s

Professor

Faculty Credentials

B.A., M.A., University of Bombay; M.A., Ph.D., Annenberg School for Communication University of Southern California

Biographical Information

Dr. Ishita Sinha Roy teaches Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication, Media, and Performance. She also teaches branding and integrated marketing courses that are part of the Business Economics gateway courses. Her media and cultural studies courses are also part of the Public Humanities curriculum. Many of Dr. Sinha Roy's courses strongly emphasize global perspectives and issues, media and cultural literacy, hands-on projects, and community-engaged learning.

Areas of Expertise

Media Studies; Postcolonial and Critical Cultural Studies; Integrated Marketing Communications; Branding and Storytelling; Technologies, Bodies and Identities; Commodity and Popular Cultures.

Dr. Ishita Sinha Roy is a recipient of the Thoburn Award for Excellence in Teaching at Allegheny College. She is deeply invested in student-faculty collaborative research, and has supervised students almost every summer, supported by various internal and external grants. Her research on nation-branding and the politics of competing global media representations and discourses led to her recent book on India’s nation-branding efforts Manufacturing Indianness (Peter Lang, 2019). She is currently working on a new manuscript on nationalism and surveillance.

From 2020-23, Prof. Sinha Roy co-facilitated Cohort IV of the Global Citizens Scholars (GCS) Program at the college. During the COVID-19 lockdown she and a small team of these GCS students produced a children’s anti-domestic violence book that will be used in domestic violence workshops. Her pedagogical approach integrates experiential learning and community engaged learning into courses, linking academic content with hands-on collaborations with community partners and career professionals. Her research and teaching interests in global media and cultures has resulted in various experiential learning (EL) Allegheny College study abroad seminars for students to emerging economies across various countries in Asia and Africa, and to South Africa. She also leads alumni global learning seminars abroad.

As Faculty Study Away Coordinator, and co-Principal Investigator on an Andrew W. Mellon global grant, Dr. Sinha Roy has contributed professionally to internationalizing this campus. Having served as the Provost’s Faculty Liaison for the campus-wide Sustained Dialogues diversity initiative, she continues to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion on this campus. From 2020 she has been one of two Allegheny faculty ambassadors on the Great Lakes College Association’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Faculty Leadership Council.

Apart from working with students on high-impact practices tied to local and global initiatives, Dr. Sinha Roy is faculty advisor for the Rotaract chapter at the college, the South Asian Students’ Association, and the Allegheny College Orchesis Dance Company.

More Information

Fall 2024 Office Hours:
Tuesdays & Thursdays 3:00-5:00pm
Wednesdays 12:00-1:30pm
or by appointment

Requests for a half-hour appointment can be made by clicking here.
Other meeting times for appointments can be arranged by emailing a request, at least a week in advance.