Dr Abhilasha Kumari has 25 years of association with mass communication teaching and research in two of the premier institutions, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia (AJK MCRC). She has numerous publications to her credit including two books written with her colleague Sabina Kidwai ‘Crossing the Sacred Line (Orient Longman)’ and ‘Women and Political Participation’. She has conducted many research studies for national and international agencies, the last being an Evaluation Study of DD Kashir for Prasar Bharati.

She has extensive independent and institutional research and evaluation experience of programs and projects namely; ‘Impact of Coal Mining on the Tribal Population of the Major Coal fields’ for World Bank and ‘Introduction of Coffee as Substitute for Traditional Crops in areas of tribal Assam’ for Government of Assam. Both projects involved evaluation of existing policies, need assessment, development of media strategy, pre-testing, and process research.

She has also conducted numerous evaluation and monitoring studies. Dr Kumari with Prof. Jaishri Jethwaney (IIMC) conducted a pre-test and post-test evaluation of posters for a campaign against child prostitution for UNICEF and made appropriate suggestions for the changes required. She also evaluated film scripts for a campaign against female foeticide for UNFPA and prepared a strategy paper on how to use communication to combat this evil and Educational Tool Kit developed by Commonwealth of Learning for journalists. She has contributed in the development of Communication Strategy for the NGO sector as well especially for AIDS prevention.

She has tried to experiment with different research methods and tools and communication strategies in her different research projects. Participatory research strategies and diverse communication tools were used in a major year long training-cum-research project (2001-02) involving more than 200 women elected representatives of local bodies at the grass root level in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

Recognising the importance of research in the outcome of most of our social endeavours she has been attempting to develop manuals and modules that can be easily used by practitioners. It is in this context she has recently developed a manual for ‘Monitoring Utilization of Educational Broadcasts and Studying Factors Affecting Utilization of these Broadcasts’ for the Commonwealth of Learning Educational Media Centre for Asia. She has also contributed to the development of a manual produced by UNDP (as part of their project on exploring the communication and advocacy approach for the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for grassroots development), “A handbook for Community Radio” by writing the section on “Survey Method”.

As Associate Professor at IIMC, she headed the institute’s Publication Department and edited Communicator the Institute’s Journal. This period saw a change in format and content of the journal and enabled IIMC to position Communicator as one of the important academic journals in media studies in the region.

She has a vast experience in teaching and training beside post graduate courses conducted at IIMC and AJK MCRC in which she has made a continuous contribution teaching both Communication Theory and Research. She has also conducted many international workshops (in collaboration with Commonwealth Secretariat [CMDF] and with the Commonwealth of Learning, and UNESCO).