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Picture Credit: Virginia Tech

I am from Nepal. I currently serve as an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Professional and Technical Writing at the Department of English at Virginia Tech. I am also an Affiliate Faculty of Center for Coastal Studies at Virginia Tech that Coastal Studies’ whose mission is to provide solutions to the complex challenges emerging in the coastal zone. I received my Doctorate degree (PhD) in Rhetoric and Composition from the Department of English at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.

Currently, I am working on a book, Transnational Assemblages: Social Justice Oriented Technical Communication in Global Disaster Management which is under initial contract with the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric book series. With case studies of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake & 2017 Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, this book provides strategies for researchers and practitioners in rethinking digitally complex, varied modes of risk and crisis communications in global disaster management via social justice and transcultural frameworks.

 My dissertation work has received the 2021 CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication-Honorable Mention. Recently, I have been awarded the Coalition of Community Writing Emerging Scholars Award. I have received (14) different major prize and awards for my scholarship, contribution, and excellence in the field that have national and international recognition. Some of the selected awards are: CCCCs Chair Memorial Award 2020, CCCCs Scholars for Dreams Awards 2019, CPTSC and Bedford St. Martin’s Diversity Scholarship Award 2019, ATTW Amplification Award 2019, and 2019 Kairos Service Award for Graduate Students and Adjuncts. Additionally, I have received multiple grants (9) within my institution as well as within her field. Likewise, I have received national and international fellowships (5).

Currently, I have around 28 publications (single-authored and collaborative) which are published (22), and accepted for publication (6). My recent publications in Enculturation highlight the importance of transnational women activists in disaster response. Likewise, my piece in the Journal of Business and Technical Communications showcases the importance of tackling misinformation during the time of a global pandemic. I have three forthcoming articles in Technical Communications Quarterly, Technical Communications, and Reflections Journal all of which are focused on disasters and issues of the global pandemic.  I teach both graduate and undergraduate courses at Virginia Tech that focus on rhetorics in the global society, international community engagement, and risk communications. My scholarship is heavily influenced by my work as a communication practitioner and community organizer. My research centers around transnational conversations around disaster response, non-western rhetorical traditions, and feminist rhetorics. I am also one of the founding members and former moderator of #NextGen, the first international graduate student listserv.

I have two Masters’s Degree in English. Before investing myself fully in this scholarly journey, I worked as an English News Reader and Editor for Nepal’s national Radio – Radio Nepal for eight years and also worked as a journalist for the Nepal Bureau of China’s official- Xinhua News Agency for almost three years. Leaving journalism, I invested myself in the world of Professional Writing by taking jobs as “Communications Officer / Associate”  by working with non-profit organizations including the United Nations. Meanwhile, I enjoy writing fiction, poetry and monologues in my personal blog as well as in local newspapers back home in Nepal. I also curate them in my personal blog: The Coffee House Revival

Here’s my Cv

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Contact and Other Information

Interdisciplinary Research

This research aims at finding out how the intersections of humanities and technology during the freshmen year will help students develop better rhetorical understanding of the real world like the corporate world, social world, political world.

Risk and Crisis Communication

Risk Communications is my major research area. Ranging from my dissertation project to various publications, I am invested in finding ways to minimize environmental, and natural risks via establishing proper communication mechanisms.

Community Engagement

Community Engagement is the heart and soul of my teaching philosophy. My research on risk communication is also motivated by how can community be engaged during the time of risk.

“Sweta is committed to her work and spends a lot of time preparing for class. I hope that continues to partner with an organization in Lafayette because I learned a lot about communication and professional ethos through my contact with the organization and the Service Learning Office. There was a lot of writing in this course, and practicing writing definitely helped me to improve. Additionally, our first project that was focused on applying to a job helped me to craft and extremely well-written cover letter and resume that I used for applying to the Fed”


(Student, Fall 2018 Undergraduate Class Business Communication)

Students Response

The instructor offered constructive feedback on every assignment to improve our papers. She not only made the class discussion-based, but she also “taught” the subject matter effectively. Many times, instructors just give discussion questions for the students but never explain the core concepts. However, her presentations have been/will be very helpful for my future reference. I also liked how she designed the course, i.e., reading responses, 2 conference papers, and 1 journal paper. Although it seems a little hectic, still, it worked for me very well. At the end of the semester, I have almost 2 manuscripts ready for sending to journals. I also liked the reading list. All the readings gave me a comprehensive understanding of publics, counterpublics, transnational and transcultural publics, assemblages, crisis publics, and affective publics.

(Student, Spring 2021, PhD Seminar: Rhetoric in Society)

Student Response