Graduate Students
Kento Kawaida
Contact Information
Email
Office: CIS 3015
Biography
My name is Kento Kawaida. I hold a Master鈥檚 degree in Communication Studies from Japan
and am currently pursuing a PhD in Communication at USF.
My academic interests center on narrative as a way of 鈥渒nowing鈥�, particularly in the
context of health communication. I explore how patients interpret and give meaning
to their illness experiences through narrative. My current research focuses on the
communicative processes through which meaning is created, particularly in cases of
medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), which are not fully accounted for within traditional
biomedical paradigms.
My work lies at the intersection of biomedicine and the humanities. By bringing a
humanities perspective into biomedical discourse, I aim to bridge the gap between
objective biomedical knowledge and the subjective realities of lived experience. Through
this interdisciplinary approach, I hope to contribute to more patient-centered understandings
of health and illness.
Research Areas
Health communication, Meaning of illness, Illness narrative, Qualitative methodology, Narrative inquiry, Phenomenological inquiry
Advisor
Mariaelena Bartesaghi