Sangita Shresthova

Sangita Shresthova is the Director of Research of the Civic Imagination Project@CivicPaths (CIP) based at the University of Southern California. CIP taps the civic imagination (our collective vision for what a better tomorrow might look like) to help diverse communities harness creativity for real world change. The Civic Imagination emerged as a key facet of Henry Jenkins’ Media, Activism and Participatory Politics (MAPP) project funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of its Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP) research network. In the multi-year collaborative research project, MAPP, we looked at youth and youth-focused groups using new media and storytelling as central aspects of their political and activist movements, indicating a new culture of political participation understood through the framework of participatory culture.

Through her involvement in both CIP and MAPP, Sangita’s own work focuses on the intersections among popular culture, performance, new media, politics, and globalization. She holds a Ph.D. from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures and MSc. degrees from MIT and LSE. She received her BA from Princeton University.