Dr. Satarupa Dasgupta also earned multiple awards at the 2025 National Communication Association convention.

December 18, 2025

By Elizabeth Mendicino ‘26

For their exceptional scholarly research and service in communication, Ramapo College of New Jersey students and their professor earned national accolades at the 2025 National Communication Association (NCA) convention.

“The award that made me happiest of all, we got the national best chapter award for Lambda Pi Eta—communication honor society of National Communication Association—-for student success,” said Associate Professor of Communication Arts Satarupa Dasgupta, who presented at the conference in Denver, Colorado, along with Ramapo alumni.

Ramapo competed with chapters from across the country, and ultimately earned the Chapter of the Year Award for best exemplifying community service and the goals of Lambda Pi Eta. The goals “aim to honor exceptional achievement in Communication Studies, ignite passion for the field, support professional growth, facilitate idea exchange, strengthen faculty-student bonds, and explore graduate opportunities,” according to the NCA.

Dr. Satarupa Dasgupta, middle, and Sara Hosbach ‘24, right, accepted the Chapter of the Year Award on behalf of Ramapo College.

Additionally, Dasgupta was awarded the Activism and Social Justice Community Engagement Award from the Activism and Social Justice Division and the Scholar-Activist Award from the Critical and Cultural Studies Division. She also won the “Monograph of the Year 2025 Award” from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Communication Studies Division for her published peer-reviewed journal article entitled Examination of Identity Negotiation, Sexual Health Behavior, and Healthcare-Seeking Behavior of Transgender Sex Workers in India.

“I work with immigrant multilingual women, with limited English proficiency,” Dasgupta said. “A lot of the support services that they were receiving have been defunded, this is a huge problem. I work with these people who are vulnerable, and sometimes they are voiceless… their invisibility, their voicelessness is not something that is monolithic, because it’s very intersectional. It needs to be talked about, and I’m super happy that it gets recognized through my work.”

Dasgupta works a great deal on research pertaining to marginalized groups, particularly LGBTQ+ populations, women, and neurodivergent individuals. She is additionally the immediate past chair of the Feminist and Gender Studies Division of the NCA, and the vice chair elect of the Disability Issues Caucus of the NCA.

Dr. Satarupa Dasgupta holds her 2025 Scholar-Activist Award from the National Communication Association.

Faculty mentorship is a cornerstone of a Ramapo education, evident in the scholarly presentations given by students she worked with over the years. In total, Dasgupta and the Ramapo alumni she mentored presented eight papers at the conference. Communication alumni whose papers were presented at the conference include Sara Hosbach ‘24, Melissa Glasson ‘24, and William Jackson ‘25.

Hosbach presented her paper entitled Conditions in Loving Thy Neighbor: Approach to Autism in Christianity and Potential Campaign, which was ranked as one of the best papers in the Lambda Pi Eta category.

Hosbach and Dasgupta presented Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion in Postsecondary Education: Critical Communication Pedagogy for Neurodiverse Students. The paper, authored by Dasgupta, Hosbach and Glasson, ranked high in the Disability Studies Division.

In addition, Jackson’s paper – Going Beyond the Binary in High School Sex Education Curricula: Integrating Transgender and Non-Binary Topics for an Inclusive Learning Environment and Experience – was also presented.

For more information on Dasgupta and Ramapo’s previous NCA accomplishments, check out Health Communication Professor Awarded by National Communication Association.