Profile picture for Sara Babu

Contact Information

3001 Lincoln Hall, MC-456
702 South Wright Street
Urbana IL 61801
PhD Candidate

Research Interests

Health Communication, Qualitative Methods, Identity, d/Discourse, Health Disparities

Research Description

I study communication as a site in which health knowledge—and the authority to define it—is actively negotiated within and beyond relational contexts. My current research explores how people labor for credibility and care in familial and therapeutic relationships. From a critical perspective, I consider how such labor is shaped by and is shaping raced, classed, and gendered discourses of deservingness that contribute to health inequity. My long-term goal is to help researchers and practitioners cultivate a health care landscape that is more just and responsive to difference.

Education

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

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

Courses Taught

Instructor of Record

  • CMN 101: Public Speaking
  • CMN 260: Introduction to Health Communication
  • CMN 336: Family Communication

Faculty Extender

  • CMN 507: The Future of Work in Health Communication
  • CMN 595: Communication and Health Disparities

Highlighted Publications

Babu, S., Koven, M., Thompson, C. M., & Makos, S. (2024). (Re)making scales: Communicative enfranchisement in women’s narrative discourses about health dismissal. Health Communication, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2386716

Thompson, C. M., Babu, S., Gerlikovski, E. R., McGuire, M., Makos, S., Ranallo, A., & Robieson, I. (2023). Living with long COVID: A longitudinal interview study of individuals’ communicative resilience over the “long haul.” Health Communication, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2023.2257941

Thompson, C. M., Babu, S., & Makos, S. (2023). A grounded theory of credibility work and illness: Explication and application to the case of women on trial in health care. Communication Research, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231184318