Transnational Assemblages: Social Justice and Crisis Communication during Disaster
By Sweta Baniya
Copy edited by Meg Vezzu and Kurt Austin. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
This book recognizes local knowledge and marginalized perspectives during disasters to create opportunities for tackling social injustices in post-disaster situations. With grounded case studies of the 2015 Nepal earthquake and 2017 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Baniya showcases how locals in marginalized and colonized spaces overcome disaster-created complexities via coalitional and transnational engagements. Ultimately, this project illustrates how technical communicators can perform transdisciplinary disaster management research to minimize the impacts of catastrophic disasters affecting the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Table of Contents
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1. Transnational Assemblages in a Globalized World
2. Non-Western Disaster Response during the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake
3. Decolonial Approaches of Disaster Response during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
4. Social Justice–Oriented Technical Communications in Global Disaster Management
Appendix A. Twitter Use Case Description Form
Appendix B. Twitter Customer Order Form
Appendix C. Interview Questions
Appendix D. Disaster and Crisis Communication Course Syllabus
Appendix E. Crisis Communication Assignment
About the Author
Sweta Baniya, originally from Nepal, is an assistant professor of rhetoric and professional and technical writing and an affiliate faculty of Women and Gender Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Through a transnational and non-Western perspective, her research focuses on transnational coalitions in disaster response, crisis communication, non-Western rhetoric, and transnational feminism. Her dissertation received the 2021 CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication-Honorable Mention. She is also the recipient of the CCCC Chairs’ Memorial Scholarship (2020), CCCC Scholars for the Dream Award (2019), CPTSC and Bedford/St. Martin’s Diversity Scholarship Award (2019), ATTW Amplification Award (2019), and Kairos Service Award for Graduate Students and Adjuncts (2019), among others. Her scholarship has appeared in Technical Communication Quarterly, Technical Communication, Enculturation, Journal of Business & Technical Communication, Community Literacy Journal, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Programmatic Perspective, and Journal of Technological Studies, among others. Her research and collaborative community work has been funded via Digital Justice Seed Grant by the American Council of Learned Societies, 4-VA Initiative, USAID, SIGDOC’s Career Advancement Grant, CCCC’s Research Initiative, among others. She teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at Virginia Tech that focus on rhetorics in the global society, global community engagement, intercultural communication, user documentation, and disaster /crisis communication. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as English News Reader and Editor at Nepal’s national radio, Radio Nepal, for eight years as well as worked as a journalist for the Nepal Bureau of Xinhua News Agency. Similarly, she also worked as Communications Officer for United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) in Nepal, Teach for Nepal, and DanChurch Aid. Her research and teaching blends her multitude of professional experiences.
Publication Information: Baniya, Sweta. (2024). Transnational Assemblages: Social Justice and Crisis Communication during Disaster. National Council of Teachers of English; The WAC Clearinghouse. https://wac.colostate.edu/books/swr/assemblages/
ISBN: 978-0-8141-0195-7 (PDF) | 978-0-8141-0194-0 (ePub) | 978-0-8141-0193-3 (pbk.)
Publication Date: July 24, 2024
Contact Information:
Sweta Baniya: baniya@vt.edu
Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Series Editor: Stephen Parks, University of Virginia
This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). It is available in a print edition from the National Council of Teachers of English.
Copyright © 2024 by the Conference on College Composition and Communication of the National Council of Teachers of English. 186 pages, with figures, references, and index. This book is available in print from National Council of Teachers of English as well as from any online or brick-and-mortar bookstore. Available in PDF and ePub formats for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website.