Pav Reddy

Graduate Lecturer

Ageing, Ageism, Discourse, Necropolitics, Semiotics, Disability, Marxism, Logistics

Pav Reddy is a third-year PhD student in the Department of Communication at George Mason University, working under Dr. Jacquelyn Poapst. Their research examines ageing and ageism in Western discourse at the intersection of necropolitics, disability, and semiotics. Drawing on Harney and Moten's theorization of logistics, their work aims to develop a critical communication framework for understanding how ageism is rhetorically and materially organized under contemporary capitalism, tracing how older and racialized bodies are cast as blockages, burdens, or sites of extraction within logistical systems of value. Their research extends this framework across biomedical discourse, popular television, and health communication more broadly, examining how cognitive decline, chronic illness, and disability are produced as narrative, market, and scientific problems.

Their work has been presented at the DC Health Communication and Eastern Communication Association conferences, including a Top Paper award in Theory and Methodology for "Necropolitical Ageing: A Systematic Review and Critical Discourse Analysis of Cognitive Decline Research". Pav holds a Master of Science in Health and the Public Interest from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science from George Mason University.

In addition to their research, Pav has served as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Communication since 2024 and as a Graduate Lecturer. They have also worked with the George Mason University policy debate team for six years and have taught public speaking in both competitive and general formats to students of all ages.