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Shaunak Sastry

Bio: Shaunak Sastry is an academic researcher from University of Cincinnati. The author has contributed to research in topics: Public health & Health communication. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 21 publications receiving 223 citations. Previous affiliations of Shaunak Sastry include Florida State University College of Arts and Sciences & Purdue University.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This project looks at how meanings of HIV/AIDS are discursively constructed within the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was launched in 2003 under the presidency of George W. Bush and has been heralded as the largest global public health intervention program in history.
Abstract: Drawing upon a postcolonial lens, this project looks at how meanings of HIV/AIDS are discursively constructed within the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was launched in 2003 under the presidency of George W. Bush and has been heralded as the largest global public health intervention program in history. Building on existing literature that theorizes the interrelationships of public health and national security, global surveillance, and transnational hegemony, the postcolonial theoretical standpoint interrogates how such meanings are constructed within PEPFAR. A postcolonial deconstruction of the 2009 PEPFAR report to the Congress revealed three meanings of HIV/AIDS that were discursively constructed in such policy documents: (a) the "Third World" as a site of intervention, (b) U.S. altruism as "lifting" the burden of the soul, and (c) AIDS, economics, and security. The themes put forth the linkages among the symbolic representations in neocolonial configurations and the politics of material disparities across the globe, thus issuing a call for the creation of participatory and dialogic spaces for engaging subaltern voices that are typically treated as targets of policy and intervention discourses.

37 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take a critical stance towards the market-based impetus of neoliberalism as articulated in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest comprehensive effort against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Abstract: Neoliberal ideologies, implicated in increasing global inequality, have significantly influenced how global health interventions are conceived and executed. In this article, we take a critical stance towards the market-based impetus of neoliberalism as articulated in the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest comprehensive effort against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Using a variety of PEPFAR policy documents, our analysis points to the operation of a neoliberal “common sense” that provides a justification for intervention. Our analysis resulted in three themes: (a) the body as labor, (b) the gendering of the intervention, and (c) political economies of partnerships.

34 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article uses a narrative analysis framework to study the Ebola-related messaging on the official Facebook pages of the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control in the wake of the recent epidemic in Western Africa.
Abstract: In this article, we critically analyze the implications of "Epidemic 20"-specifically the formative role of social media (as an exemplar of Web 20 technology) in disseminating information during epidemics We use a narrative analysis framework to study the Ebola-related messaging on the official Facebook pages of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the wake of the recent epidemic in Western Africa Using as our corpus all the messages on these pages between the period of July 1 and October 15, 2014, our analysis traces the development of an ontological Ebola narrative: a specific, historically contingent, ideological plot that reaffirms contemporary Western anxieties around emerging infections Our analysis focuses on the evolution of this ontological narrative from a) consulting and containment, to b) an international concern, and c) the possibility of an epidemic in the United States

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A thematic analysis of the constructions of HIV/AIDS in India in the mainstream U.S. news media was conducted and three themes emerged: India as a site of biomedical control; the economic logics of HIV-AIDS; and AIDS, development, and the “Third World.”
Abstract: As a field of inquiry, postcolonial health communication seeks to apprehend processes implicated in the construction of “primitive” versus “modern” with respect to issues of health. In the case of HIV/AIDS, the sociocultural representations of the disease have a profound impact on how the disease is configured medically and symbolically in dominant cultural imagination. Postcolonial constructions of disease are mobilized around the political and economic interests of the dominant power structures in global spaces. In this article, a thematic analysis of the constructions of HIV/AIDS in India in the mainstream U.S. news media was conducted. A corpus of news articles from the Lexis-Nexis database was created with the keywords “HIV,” “AIDS,” and “India.” Three themes emerged from the study: (a) India as a site of biomedical control; (b) the economic logics of HIV/AIDS; and (c) AIDS, development, and the “Third World.”

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article discusses how communication interventions can attend to the relationship between trucker health and the structural barriers they encounter and presents three themes: the everyday violence of trucking, health as sacrifice, and migration and HIV/AIDS.
Abstract: Long-distance truck drivers (truckers) in India have been identified as a "high-risk" group for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and are consequently the targets of prevention and education-based interventions. While such interventions have addressed risk at the level of individual behavior, little attention has been paid to the structural barriers to health for truckers. Research among truckers in India has ignored the economic, social, and cultural context of health. In this article, I employ the culture-centered approach (CCA) to health communication in documenting truckers' narratives of health, which are innately connected to social and institutional structures around their lives. The data included 36 narrative interviews that I conducted as part of my fieldwork with Indian truckers, in addition to field notes and a reflexive journal. Through a reflexive analysis of these narratives, I present three themes: (a) the everyday violence of trucking, (b) health as sacrifice, and (c) migration and HIV/AIDS. I discuss how communication interventions can attend to the relationship between trucker health and the structural barriers they encounter.

23 citations


Cited by
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01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: Familiarity, ease of access, trust, and awareness of risks, will all be important for the future.
Abstract: 萨义德以其独特的双重身份,对西方中心权力话语做了分析,通过对文学作品、演讲演说等文本的解读,将O rie n ta lis m——"东方学",做了三重释义:一门学科、一种思维方式和一种权力话语系统,对东方学权力话语做了系统的批判,同时将东方学放入空间维度对东方学文本做了细致的解读。

3,845 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, a research has been done on the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak" by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, which has been explained into much simpler language about what the author conveys for better understanding and further references.
Abstract: In the present paper a research has been done on the essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak’ by’ Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’. It has been explained into much simpler language about what the author conveys for better understanding and further references. Also the criticism has been done by various critiques from various sources which is helpful from examination point of view. The paper has been divided into various contexts with an introduction and the conclusions. Also the references has been written that depicts the sources of criticism.

2,638 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hardt and Negri as discussed by the authors present a history of war and democracy in the age of empire, with a focus on the role of women and women in the process of war.
Abstract: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. 2004. New York. Penguin Books. 448 pages. ISBN: 0143035592 (paper).

1,244 citations