Skip to main content

Sara Babu

Profile picture for Sara Babu

Contact Information

3001 Lincoln Hall, MC-456
702 South Wright Street
Urbana IL 61801
Graduate Student

Biography

Sara is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines how people communicate about health and identity, especially in the context of contested illness. She also studies the sociolinguistic features of individuals' storytelling about health (dismissal). 

Research Interests

Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication, Patient-Provider Communication, Qualitative (Field) Methods, Discourse and Identity

Education

M.A., Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

B.A., Communication, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Courses Taught

CMN 101: Public Speaking

CMN 260: Introduction to Health Communication

Recent Publications

Thompson, C. M., Babu, S., & Makos, S. (2022). “It does make you feel like you’re crazy”: Women’s experiences of health-related communicative disenfranchisement. Health Communication, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.07.013

Thompson, C. M., Pulido, M. D., Babu, S., Zenzola, N., & Chiu, C-Y. (2022). Communication needs and barriers within interactions between persons living with multiple sclerosis and their health care providers: A scoping review. Patient Education & Counseling, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2022.07.013

Thompson, C. M., Babu, S., Romo, L. K., Pulido, M. D., Liao, D., & Kriss, L. (2022). “I changed, I had to realize that I was wrong”: Identity gap management amidst evolving uncertainty. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 39(4), 844-863. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211048253