Keya's research interests are founded in critical cultural studies where she focuses on the intersection of international communication, media activism, gender and social justice, especially in the Global South. She is a doctoral candidate and her dissertation employs semi-structured interviews, textual analyses, and social media discourse analyses to explore the usage of stand-up comedy for socio-political activism in India. Specializing in qualitative methods, Keya has worked on research projects in Peru, Colombia, Ghana, India and the United States. Having an interdisciplinary and globally engaged research, she teaches at Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies department at UO.
Keya completed her undergraduate degree from the University of Delhi and studied her first MA degree in development communication from AJK MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia University in India. She came to University of Oregon to pursue her second MA degree in media studies at School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) at the University of Oregon. After graduation, she moved to Geneva, Switzerland to work with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and helped in designing digital strategies for the outreach of social protection unit. She was appointed to work for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNAIDS in India, and worked in the area of communication led innovations and advocacy for family planning, child marriage, adolescent health and menstrual health management.
- PhD Candidate in Communication & Media Studies, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Eugene.
- MA in Media Studies, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, Eugene.
- MA in Development Communication, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre (AJK MCRC), Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.
- BA (Honours) Journalism, University of Delhi, New Delhi.
- Wayne Morse Center Graduate Research Fellowship Award. University of Oregon. July 2023
- ICA Special Commendation, International Communication Association (ICA) Conference. Toronto. May 2023
- Lokey Scholarship, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon. June 2022
- Global Oregon International Research Fund, University of Oregon. June 2022
- The Centre for Asian and Pacific Studies Grant, University of Oregon. April 2022
- Special OPPS Travel and Research Award, University of Oregon. May 2020
- Columbia Scholarship, University of Oregon. October 2019- June 2023
- Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon. October 2019- June 2023
- Outstanding Master’s Student Teaching Award, University of Oregon. June 2017
- Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon. September 2015-June 2017
- African Studies Scholarship for Media in Ghana, University of Oregon. June-August 2016
Saxena, K., & Ofori-Parku, S. S. (2024). ‘Funny’ Politics: Stand-up Political Comedy, Public Engagement, Critical Thinking, and Opinion Sharing in India. Journal of Creative Communications, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586241252201
Saxena, K. (2024). Cracking up: Black feminist comedy in the twentieth & twenty-first century United States: by Katelyn Hale Wood, United States, University of Iowa Press, 2021, 204 pp., $28.91 (paperback), ISBN 9781609387723. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2024.2371127
Saxena, K. & Martinez, G. (2024) Collaborative Film Making for Socio-political Transformation in Colombia: A Decolonial Perspective. Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, Issue 62. https://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/Saxena-Martinez/index.html
Saxena, K. (2023). That’s a ‘Sign’!: How Placards Communicated Disapproval of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India. Communication Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2210631
Markowitz, D. M., Blackburn, K. G., Saxena, K., Marion, J., Olivarez, O., Hernandez, R., Woodworth, M. T., & Hancock, J. T. (2022). The Truth Project. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 41(4), 450–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211067821
Martinez, G., & Saxena, K. (2021). Mapping the promises and perils of distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic: Peru’s case. Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, Issue 60. https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc60.2021/MartinezSaxena-PeruEducation/index.html
- Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
- Media & Society
- Communication for Social Change in Developing Countries
- Gender, Media and Diversity
- International Communication
- Writing for Communicators
- Gateway to Media