I am a Professor of Communication at Wake Forest University; my research and teaching interests include: media, technology, culture, data collection, data management, and issues surrounding Indian culture. I also am credited with the invention of the idea of narbs and my principal research, writing, and practical concerns are in the ways in which technology is constantly reshaping our everyday life practices and calling into question how we live our life within a constantly changing global space. I use the theoretical approach of the primacy of mediated narratives in contemporary life as reported at themediawatch.com. I was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur), Wake Forest University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My most recent efforts have been COVID-19 relief work in Calcutta, India.

Education/Training

Personal Statement and Expertise

I have developed a teaching and research program over the last three decades that includes several interconnected areas of emphasis within an interdisciplinary ecosystem. One is the development of novel approaches to data collection, analysis, interpretation and visualization.  My work in the area of “survey research” has looked at different kinds of sampling, mixed-mode data collection to minimize sampling and other forms of error, novel ways to analyze structured and unstructured data in the realm of Big Data and interpreting and visualizing the data for purposes of policy development.  A second related line of research examines the development and role of digital technologies in everyday life.  I consider the ways in which the abundance of data create opportunities and challenges with respect to issues such as privacy, surveillance and related concerns. Both these approaches define by scholarship and professional work, especially the work done by Management Learning Laboratories (www.m-l-l.org).

I offer expertise in focus group moderation, questionnaire design, sample design, design of data collection methods, analysis of structured and unstructured data using the narb analysis technique, interpretation of data, critical cultural analysis of discourse and popular culture artifacts.  I have worked with more than 120 recreation agencies across the USA in developing needs assessment and citizen data collection techniques working with my research colleagues under the aegis of MLL.

Positions

2020-2021                    Secretary to the University Senate, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

Summer 2020              Faculty Instructor for PLC course to train faculty to do remote teaching

2019-2020                   Chair of the College Senate, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2019-                           Faculty Advisor, South Asia Student Association, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2013-                           Senior Faculty Fellow, Johnson Hall, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2008-2011                   Chair, Dept. of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2000-2008                   Director of Grad. Prog., Dept. of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2007-                           Professor, Dept. of Public Health Sc., Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2007-                           Professor, Dept. of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2001-2007                   Associate Professor, Dept. of Public Health Sc., Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2001-2007                   Associate Professor, Dept. of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

2003-2006                   Founding Director, Survey Research Center, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

1994-2000                   Assistant Professor, Dept. of Communication, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC

1990-1994                   Head of Sampling, Survey Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL

Selected Honors and Awards

2021                            Invited to serve as a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the School of Mass Communication of Adamas University in India

2021                            Founding President of the Communication Association of India

2012                            Wake Forest University Bryant/Groves Family Faculty Fellowship

2011                            Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award

Contribution to Research and Pedagogy

The process of collecting individual and community data has transformed over the three decades that I have been involved with the field starting with my work at the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois.  My research has examined and developed innovations in data collection using different modes starting with telephone data collection to the development of mixed-mode data collection combining analog and digital technologies with the goal of reducing errors related to data collection and incorporating the analysis of unstructured data.  To this end, I have developed a specific theoretical approach for the analysis of unstructured data using the narrative paradigm and have been credited with the invention of the narrative-bit (see, www.narbs.info). My publications and the classes I teach demonstrate this progression in the field of data collection and the application of the innovations in different domains of data collection with specific emphasis on public recreation.

Publications:

• Mitra, A. (2017).  Collecting Citizen Input Updated edition.  Sagamore Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2017).  Overcoming the Flaws of Needs Assessments: The New Realm of Big Data.  NRPA Magazine.
• Mitra, A. (2017). Managing and Visualizing Unstructured Big Data.  In (Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, Ed), Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition.
• Wolfson, M., Champion, H., McCoy, T. P., Rhodes, S. D., Ip, E. H., Blocker, J. N., Martin, B. A., Wagoner, K. G., O'Brien, M. C., Sutfin, E. L., Mitra, A. and DuRant, R. H. (2012), Impact of a Randomized Campus/Community Trial to Prevent High-Risk Drinking Among College Students. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 36: 1767–1778. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2012.01786.
• Mitra, A. (2011).  Collecting Citizen Input.  Sagamore Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Research: Inventing With Computers (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2005).  Weaving a new web.  Parks and Recreation, June 2005
• Mitra, A. (2002).  Deciding what programs to offer.  Management Strategy, 26(2), 1,4.
• Mitra, A. (2001).  Thinking of recreation needs assessments.  Parks and Recreation, 36, 5, 16-18.
• Mitra, A. (1999).  The importance of comprehensive needs assessment for parks and recreation agencies.  Management Strategy, 23(1), 1-7.
• Mitra, A. and Lankford, S. (1999).  Research Methods in Park, Recreation and Leisure Services.  Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing.
• Mitra, A. (1998).  Construction and utilization of community surveys. In (Ed.  Joseph J. Bannon), Leisure resources:  Its comprehensive planning.  Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing.
• Mitra, A. (1998).  Needs Assessment Plans.  Management Strategy, 22(3), 4.
• Mitra, A. (1994).  Use of Focus Groups in the Design of Questionnaires for Needs Assessment.  Evaluation and Program Planning, 17(2), 133-140.

Courses:

1. Empirical Research in Communication at the undergraduate and graduate level
2. Graduate seminar on doing research practice

I have examined the ways in which digital technologies have an impact on everyday life.  These include the analysis of the benefits and burdens of the adoption of new technologies and applications that have becomes ubiquitous in the public sphere.  Using methodologies of narrative analysis of large amount of unstructured data (see, www.themediawatch.com) I have demonstrated how the data can offer alternative narratives based on the voices of people as opposed to the utterances of institutional media.  In particular, I examine the relationship between fundamental aspects of everyday life like privacy, free speech, the process of identity formation, the process of creating profiles and the processes of surveillance. My publications and the classes I teach demonstrate this progression.   

Publications: 

• Mitra, A. (2021).  Modern Day Surveillance Ecosystem and Impacts on Privacy.  IGI Global.
• Mitra, A. and Khosrowshahi, Y. (2019).  The 2018 Facebook Data Controversy and Technological Alienation.  In (Khosrow-Pour, Ed.) Encyclopedia of Organizational Knowledge, Administration, and Technologies. IGI Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2019).  Television as a Surveillance Tool.  In (I. Deliyannis, Ed.) The Future of Television - Convergence of Content and Technology, Intech Publications.
• Parthasarathi, V. and Mitra, A. (2017).  Indian TV Anchors on Twitter: Technological Practice and Textual Form.  In (Tong, J. and Lo, S., Eds), Digital Technology and Journalism.  London, UK: Palgrave McMillan.
• Mitra, A. (2017).  Collecting Citizen Input Updated edition.  Sagamore Publications.
• Mitra, A. and Mamani, S. (2014).  Using narbs to create narrative maps from unstructured Big Data: A case study.  International Journal of Business Innovation and Research.
• Mitra, A. (2013).  Mapping Narbs.  In (Greg Wise, Ed), New Visualities, New Technologies: The New Ecstasy of Communication, Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Mitra, A. (2012).  Collective Narrative Expertise and Using the Narbs of Social Media.  In (Takseva, Ed), Social Software and the Evolution of User Expertise: Future Trends in Knowledge Creation and Dissemination, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Mitra, A. (2012).  Narbs as a Measure and Indicator of Identity Narratives.  In (Dudley, et. al., Eds), Investigating Cyber Law and Cyber Ethics: Issues, Impacts and Practices, Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Mitra, A. (2011).  Using narratives from social network to manage teacher-student interaction.  In (Méndez-Vilas, Ed), Education in a technological world: communicating current and emerging research and technological efforts, Formatex Research Center.
• Mitra, A. (2010). Multiple e-identity narratives on social networks. Proceedings of the Ethicomp 2010 Conference.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Creating a Presence on Social Networks via Narbs.  Global Media Journal, 9(16).
• Mitra, A. (2014).  Digital DNA: Managing your Narbs.  Rupa Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Alien Technology: Coping with Modern Mysteries.  Sage Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Video: Moving Images and Computers (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Communications: From E-mail to the Cyber Community (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Music: Computers That Make Music (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Games: Computers at Play (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2010).  Digital Security: Cyber Terror and Cyber Security (The Digital World).  Chelsea House Publications.

Courses:

1. Technologies of Communication - undergraduate
2. Communication and Technology – undergraduate and graduate
3. Digital DNA – undergraduate and graduate
4. Communication, Technology and Entrepreneurship - undergraduate

I have applied the methods of critical cultural narrative analysis to media related to India.  With my connections with India, this has been a vital part of my research with the goal of understanding the ways in which India and people of Indian origin are represented in various media discourse, especially the ones that are produced and circulated from the West.  I have examined the way in which media, and later the discourse of the Internet, have produced specific identity narratives that eventually predicate the way in which people of Indian origin, and the country in general, is perceived in the West. My publications and the classes I teach illustrate this area of research.

Publications: 

• Mitra, A. (2016).  India on the Western Screen.  Sage Publications.
• Mitra, A. (2013).  The trans-Indian: perspectives on real vs. virtual identity in the age of the internet.  In (A. Sahoo and J. G. de Kruijf, Eds), Indian Transnationalism Online, Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
• Jain, P., Mitra, A., & Hazen, M. (2011).  Exposure to Television Programming and Hybridity in India: An Empirical Test.  Media Asia.
• Mitra, A. (2010). Quality of life of call center employees in India: Changes via Education. Proceedings of the ICE-B Conference.
• Mitra, A., (2008).  Working in cybernetic space.  In South Asian Technospaces, New York, NY: Peter Lang Publications.
• Mitra, A., (2008).  Bollyweb.  In Global Bollywood, New York, NY: New York University Press.
• Mitra, A. (2008). Quality of life of call center employees in India. Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia Annual.
• Mitra, A. (2007). Using Blogs to Create Cybernetic Space: Examples from People of Indian Origin. Proceedings of the Ethicomp Conference 2007.
• Mitra, A. (2006).  Towards finding a cybernetic safe place: Illustrations from People of Indian Origin.  New Media and Society, 8(2), 251-268.
• Mitra, A. (2005).  Creating Immigrant Identities in Cybernetic space: Examples from a Non-Resident Indian Website.  Media, Culture and Society, 27(3), 371-390.
• Mitra, A. (2004).  Voice of the marginalized on the Web.  Journal of Communication, 54(3).
• Mitra, A. (1999).  India through the Western Lens.  New Delhi, India: SAGE.
• Mitra, A. (1993).  Television and Popular Culture in India.  New Delhi, India: SAGE.

Courses:

• First Year Seminar on South-Asia - undergraduate
• Summer Study Abroad course in India – undergraduate and graduate
• Intercultural Communication – undergraduate and graduate
• International Communication – undergraduate and graduate

Additional Information: Funded Projects

Recreation Needs Assessment. Funded by: City of Boynton Beach, FL. Year: 2020

Needs assessments and attitude and interest study to gauge how general population feels about the public recreation in the community. Specific tasks included moderation of focus group meetings, questionnaire development, sample selection, coordination of data collection using a mixed-mode design, data analysis and visualization and the preparation of recommendations based on the data. The unique aspect of this study was that it was conducted during the Covid-19 “stay at home” orders. There was appropriate use of digital meetings, interviews, and data collection for this study. Role: Principal Investigator

Special-needs population community development. Funded by Thrive Non-Profit, Winston-Salem, NC. Year: 2020

Needs assessments and attitude and interest study to gauge how families with members with special needs feel about the development of a residential community for the special needs population and their care givers. Specific tasks included moderation of focus group meetings, questionnaire development, sample selection, coordination of data collection using a mixed-mode design, data analysis and visualization and the preparation of recommendations based on the data. Role: Principal Investigator

Rawabi Study.  Funded by Eudemonia Institute, Winston-Salem, NC. Year: 2019

The study was designed to gauge the way in which the residents of Rawabi view the unique development of the city within the contested area of the “West Bank” in the Middle East.  Specific tasks included moderation of focus group meetings, data analysis and visualization and the preparation of recommendations based on the data. Role: Co- Principal Investigator

Recreation Needs Assessment. Funded by: City of Athens, TN. Year: 2019

Needs assessments and attitude and interest study to gauge how general population feels about the public recreation in the community. Specific tasks included moderation of focus group meetings, questionnaire development, sample selection, coordination of data collection using a mixed-mode design, data analysis and visualization and the preparation of recommendations based on the data. Role: Principal Investigator

Recreation Needs Assessment. Funded by: City of Port St. Lucie, FL. Year: 2017

Needs assessments and attitude and interest study to gauge how general population feels about the public recreation in the community.  Specific tasks included moderation of focus group meetings, questionnaire development, sample selection, coordination of data collection using a mixed-mode design, data analysis and visualization and the preparation of recommendations based on the data.  Role: Principal Investigator