Contact Information
Biography
Shai is a South Florida native that loves to travel and engage new experiences. She has visited nearly 30 states and 20 countries, including, Italy, South Korea, and Kuwait. Her experiences navigating diverse cultures and people, both at home and abroad, inspire her interest in communication, socialization, and sensemaking. She is also, ironically, an anxious flyer (and hardheaded about personal limitations).
In her free time, Shai likes to play board games, eat at new restaurants and learn how to make her favorite dishes from them.
Research Interests
Entertainment media & social media; Prosocial media psychology; Political culture & consciousness; Gendered violence; Transformative learning
Research Description
Shai's research centers gendered violence, media psychology, and sensemaking, looking at how entertainment media and cultural narratives shape social cognition. She is interested in how media can invite audiences into different social realities, fostering empathy, belief change, and shifts in worldview that reduce harmful social norms. She takes a transformative mixed methods approach to study complex social problems.
Education
2022 M.A., Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
2019 B.A., English & Psychology, Florida State University
2019 B.S., International Affairs & Religion, Florida State University
Grants
- 2023 & 2026 Claudia Hale Conference Travel Award (Total: $2000)
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2025 President's Research Travel Award ($600)
Vice President of Academic Affairs, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2025 Ruth Anne Clark Dissertation Research Award ($1000)
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2025 Brant R. Burleson Dissertation Research Award ($1000)
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2023 & 2024 NCA Conference Presentation Award (Total: $300)
Student Caucus, National Communication Association - 2022-2026 Dale Brashers Memorial Fund Research Award (Total: $4000)
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2022-2025 Friends Research Travel Award (Total: $4,400)
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2022 Graduate College Research Travel Award ($250)
The Graduate College, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Awards and Honors
- 2026 Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2023-2025 Women of Color in Leadership Fellow
Women of Color Caucus, National Women’s Studies Association - 2022-2026 Department of Communication Distinguished Fellowship
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2022-2026 Dale Brashers Memorial Fellow
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2020-2022 Wayne Brockreide Graduate Fellow
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - 2021 Elizabeth Winter Young Fellow
Department of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Listed in Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students
Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [program discontinued 2025] - Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society & Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society (Graduated Summa Cum Laude)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2022) & Florida State University (Garnet & Gold Scholar, 2019)
Courses Taught
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
CMN 101: Public Speaking
CMN 250: Social Movement Communication
CMN 340: Visual Rhetoric
CMN 368: Sexual Communication
Florida State University
HUM 1920 - Freshman Interest Group
Publications
- Khanam, S. (2026). Between consent and coercion: A grounded theory of communication and meaning-making after ambiguous sexual violations. Communication Monographs [Advance online publication], https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2026.2637435
- Smith, M., Shugars. S., Khanam, S., Mbonu, A., Lella, O., Myers., C. (2025). The black pill: (Re)conceptualizing the Black right in the era of YouTube influencers. Social Media + Society, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251329078
- Khanam, S. (2018). How memes construct realities through terministic screens. Diginole: Florida State University Digital Repository. [Online at: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_libsubv1_scholarship_submission_1524871878_8c6e5841]
- Khanam, S. & Prado, S. (2017). “Change and continuity of the masculine ideal in the Byzantine and Slavic epic.” UCLA Undergraduate Journal of East/Central European Studies, vol 11. [Online at: http://international.ucla.edu/cwl/slavicjournal/1289]
Manuscripts in Progress
- Mustafaj, M. & Khanam, S. (Under review). Ideology, selective empathy, and differential interpretation: How hostile sexism shapes meaning-construction of gender violence narratives. Journal Blinded for Peer Review
- Khanam, S. (Revising manuscript). Beyond the binary: Identity construction and dialogic positioning in survivor storytelling.
- Khanam, S. (data analysis). Meaningful media experiences as sites of disruption: (Re)conceptualizing “consent” and “sexual violence”.
- Khanam, S. (data analysis). What fabrication reveals: Fraudulent participants and the cultural imaginaries of sexual violence.
- Khanam, S. & Mustafaj, M. (data analysis). What does empathy do? Audiences interpretations of entertainment media and social problems.
Latest Presentations
- Khanam, S. (August, 2026). Meaningful media experiences as sites of disruption: (Re)conceptualizing “consent” and “sexual violence,” Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 109th Annual Conference, Entertainment Studies Interest Group, New Orleans, LA.
- Mustafaj, M & Khanam, S. (June, 2026). How hostile sexism shapes interpretation of ambiguous narratives about gender violence, 76th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Mass Communication Division, Cape Town, South Africa.
- Khanam S. (April, 2026). Social media content as critical public pedagogy: Shifting college student perspectives on sexual violence and consent. 16th Annual Gesa E. Kirsch Symposium, Urbana, IL.
- Khanam, S. (November, 2025). Social calibration and a culture of silent sacrifice: A grounded theory of communication and meaning-making after ambiguous sexual harm. 111th Annual National Communication Association Conference, Critical/Cultural Studies Division, Denver, CO.
News
Additional Affiliations
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Gender and Women's Studies Department
Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Computational Laboratory for Online and Ubiquitous Data (CLOUD)
Community Organizations
Rape, Advocacy, Counseling, and Education Services (RACES) of Champaign County
Professional Organizations
The National Communication Association
The National Women's Studies Association
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
American Studies Association