Professor Rebecca de Souza (Ph.D. Purdue University )

Rebecca de Souza is a Professor of Communication at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Her research is concerned with how political and economic systems impact health, access to food, and social inequalities. The overarching goal of her research is to understand how the discipline of communication can be answerable to the practical problems of socio-political life. Her research over the last fifteen years has revolved around the themes of health, food, marginality, and culture. Her recent book Feeding the Other: Whiteness, Privilege, and Neoliberal Stigma in Food Pantries (MIT Press, 2019) shows how food pantries in the United States reinforce stigma among people who are hungry and negatively impact their health and social outcomes. Her work has been published in top-tier communication journals such as Communication Theory, Health Communication, and International Journal of Communication as well as in interdisciplinary journals such as the American Journal of Health Education, BMC Public Health, and Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development. Dr. de Souza is a publically-engaged scholar, who has brought her work to national and international attention through op-eds, podcasts, and other venues.