Sohinee Bera

she/her

Graduate Student, Department of Communication

About

Sohinee Bera is a PhD Candidate in the graduate field of Communication at Cornell University. Her work focuses on health, risk, and environmental communication, at the intersection of well-being and inequity. She is currently researching communicative erasures in health programs and how power is exercised through communicative processes.

At Cornell, Sohinee has served as a summer instructor for COMM 2850 (Communication, Environment, Science, and Health) and as a graduate teaching assistant for COMM 2850 and COMM 2450 (Communication and Technology).

Previously, Sohinee was an English Teaching Assistant through the U.S. Fulbright Program, where she fostered community and inclusion at a German secondary school with a significant number of students from refugee and migrant backgrounds. She also has a breadth of experience in conservation and ecological restoration, with past appointments on the Visitor Damage Mitigation Team at Joshua Tree National Park and with the American Conservation Corps.

Education

B.Sc. Agricultural Communication, Purdue University, 2020

Interests

Meaning-making, risk governance, global health

Awards & Honors

Visiting Scholar, Joshua Tree National Park, 2024
Fulbright Grantee, 2021-2022, Germany English Teaching Assistant
Cornell Fellowship, 2022
Graduate School Dean's Scholars

Contact Information

sb928 [at] cornell.edu

Selected Conferences & Publications

Bera, S., (2025, May). Inclusive Public Engagement with Migrant Farmworkers: Criteria and Challenges. Public Communication of Science and Technology Network. Aberdeen, Scotland.
Bera, S., Salazar De Leon, C. (2024, December). Voices from the Fields: Migrant Farmworker’s Perspectives on Emerging Plant Biotechnologies and Insights for Engaging Hard-to-Reach Populations. Presented at the Society for Risk Analysis. Austin, Texas.
Gruber, A., Bera, S., Salazar De Leon., C. (2024, September). Programmable Plants for a Sustainable Future. Presented at Slow Foods: Terra Madre. Turin, Italy.
Bera, S. (2024, April). You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But You Can't Make Him Drink’: Negotiations of Success and Sanitation in India’s Swachh Bharat Mission. Presented at the Public Communication of Science & Technology Network Symposium in Zacatecas, Mexico.
Bera, S., Vilchez, A. & Muenster, R. M., (2023, May) Environmental Issues Are Global Issues – But do environmental communication journals reflect this? A systematic review. Presented at the International Communication Association, Toronto, Canada.

Publications

Bera, S., Vilchez, A*., & Muenster, R. M*. (2025). The persistent global disparities in environmental and climate communication scholarship. Frontiers in Communication, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.147461

Sohinee in the news

Students in bright blue shirts pose in comm department hallway

News

April 23, 2025

COMM Updates - 4/23/2025

Awards Congratulations to Department of Communication undergraduate student award winners. Together, they received more than $17,000 in awards! Edward L. Bernays Primus Inter Pares Award: Tess Lehrman Kenneth J. Bissett Communication Award...

two pose on red carpet in front of yellow background

News

March 26, 2025

COMM Updates - 3/26/2025

Conferences & Symposia Associate Professor Brooke Duffy delivered a lecture entitled “The Creator Economy's Labor Revolution” at SXSW 2025 in Austin, Texas. Despite the astonishing growth of the creator economy, social media creators remain...