Empire Bytes

Deepa Kumar is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and Middle East Studies at Rutgers University. Her website can be found at: deepakumar.net

Her work is driven by an active engagement with the key issues that characterize our era–globalization and imperialism. Her first book, Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike, is about the power of collective struggle in effectively challenging the priorities of neoliberalism.

While neoliberal globalization characterizes the economic logic of our age, the “war on terror” has come to define its political logic. She therefore began her research into the politics of empire shortly after the tumultuous events of 9/11.

She is currently working on two book projects. The first is on Islamophobia and brings together, and extends, her many articles on this topic. The second is on Political Islam, U.S. foreign policy and the media.

She has been active in various social movements for peace and justice.

She is a much sought after public speaker and has spoken at dozens of university and community forums on a range of topics: Islamophobia, Political Islam, US foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, the Arab Spring, women and Islam etc. She has also been interviewed by numerous media outlets including BBC, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer etc.