Reno Reporter

An assistant professor with the University of Nevada, Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism continues to be an advocate for LGBTQIA+ issues.

In fact, Dr. Paromita Pain found her calling for activism in her homeland of India, where she authored newspaper reports and marched in Pride parades with the community to back their rights, according to a recent news release issued by the university.

“I want people to really understand that queerness as a topic is not divorced from issues of race, disability and colonialism,” Pain said in the release. “This book hopefully should encourage a more intersectional understanding of activism, especially queer activism.”

At the university, she is involved with ongoing LGBTQIA+ advocacy research while being an assistant professor of global media.

According to Pain: “The fight for LGBTQIA+ rights is not new. And globally, there have always been movements, mostly offline, of course, to ensure that the rights of these minority communities have remained part of public conversation. But today, because of the rise of social media, the internet and digital platforms, these digital technologies have made this whole concept of queer identity wider, more expansive.”

According to the university, her zeal for advocacy had led her to collect data centered on the power social media has had on the LGBTQIA+ movement.

According to Pain: “This change has been noted in academia, but few collections bring together so many voices from different parts of the world in one place. That is the unique contribution of this book.”