About

Soma Basu

I am a doctoral researcher at the Research Centre for Communication Sciences (Taru) at Tampere University, Finland, combining my academic work with two decades of investigative journalism across South Asia and Africa. My research explores how violence is sensed, mediated, and remembered, drawing on sensory ethnography, non-human witnessing, and post-human and transhuman studies. Supported by the Kone Foundation, I am currently investigating how rumours interact with memory in post-conflict contexts and contribute to affectuated violence.

I investigate how human and non-human actors co-produce memory, meaning, and experience, focusing on the material and mediated environments in which these processes unfold. My work combines ethnographic observation, sensory and affective, and decolonial and participatory approaches to trace how infrastructures, technologies, and emergent forms of perception shape social and cultural life. I am particularly interested in understanding the interactions between bodies, objects, and digital media under post-human conditions.

My background as an investigative journalist shapes how I approach fieldwork, attuning me to everyday textures and the political ecologies of fear. I have led multi-university research projects on media, culture, and digital politics, including studies on India’s Hindu majoritarianism. Through my engagement with sensory ethnography, mediated memory, and infrastructures, I explore how violence reverberates across bodies, technologies, and imaginaries. I have a post-graduate diploma in English Journalism (2008), Masters degree in Mass Communication (2016) and completed the integrated MPhil-PhD coursework at Jamia Millia Islamia’s AJK Mass Communication and Research Centre (2021) before starting my PhD at Tampere University. My last stint in journalism was as the India Editor of the Fact Check division of Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Featured image: A woman, branded a witch, sees me off from her hut after an interview in Ayodhya Pahar, Purulia, in 2012. Photo: Soma Basu

Awards and Recognitions

  • 2022 – NIAS SUPRA Nordic Fellowship at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark: Four-week program at NIAS for PhD supervision, peer review, and feedback.
  • 2018-2019 – RISJ Fellowship at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University: Studied 200+ political WhatsApp groups and 60,000+ messages for Islamophobic hate speech analysis.
  • 2020 – Best Paper Award (Mass Communication): JTA Multidisciplinary International Conference, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
  • 2019 – Best Article Award (Human Rights Category): Youth Ki Awaaz.
  • 2017 – Kurt Schork Memorial Award for International Journalism: Investigative story on organ trafficking.
  • 2015 – UN Correspondents Association Global Prize for Climate Change: Coverage of 2013 Uttarakhand floods.
  • 2015 – Finalist, Kurt Schork Memorial Award: Missing forensic evidence coverage from Bhopal gas tragedy.
  • 2012 – Press Institute of India & ICRC Award: Reporting on victims of armed violence.
  • 2012 – CMS-Panos Young Environment Journalist Award: Coverage of climate change & Cyclone Aila in the Sunderbans.

Media Appearances

My work has been featured in over 50 publications, including BBC, Time Magazine, Financial Times, CPJ, and Reuters. I have also appeared on TV, radio, podcasts, and as a panelist at forums addressing natural/man-made disasters, illegal mining, human trafficking, social media, and mental health.

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