Biography
Nitisha is a doctoral candidate in Marketing at the Wisconsin School of Business.
Her undergraduate degree in engineering (BTech in Electronics and Instrumentation from VIT University, India) was instrumental in bolstering her methodical approach to problem-solving and analysis. Post that, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad equipped her with the skills in and knowledge of the business field, sparking her interest in marketing with its richly endowed consumer phenomena. Her professional work experience in the Sales and Marketing domains at the Star Sports network of Star India – a media and entertainment conglomerate, excited her curiosity to probe sociocultural facets of consumer behavior, culminating in her plunge into research at the PhD program at UW-Madison.
At the heart of her research interests is the understanding that marketplaces are marked by consumption experiences that are both individual and collective – familial, communal, and societal. Her research analyzes that precarious dynamic of private and public interests in collective consumption contexts.
For leisure, she writes poetry and short stories, plays the ukulele and the handpan, and performs at poetry and story slams.
Research
Working Papers
Tomar, N. & Epp, A. (2021). Community through Competition – Exploring the trajectories of deep play and gamification
Robinson, A. & Epp, A. & Tomar, N. (2020). The Seesaw of Loss and Hope: How Vaccine-Hesitant Parents Make Sense of and Experience their Choices to Engage in Oppositional Social Practices
Presentations
Research Seminar (2023) Challenges to Social Solidarity: How Vaccine-Hesitant Parents’ use Emotion Work to Navigate an Economy of Morals
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (2022) Ethnographic Futures in the Pandemic World
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (2022) Community through Competition – Exploring the Trajectories of Deep Play and Communal Experiences Post Disruption
AMA Winter Educators’ Conference (2022) Challenges to Social Solidarity: How Vaccine-Hesitant Parents’ use Emotion Work to Navigate an Economy of Morals
Association for Consumer Research Conference (ACR) (2021) Community through Competition – Exploring the trajectories of deep play and gamification
Association for Consumer Research Conference (2021) The Babel of Collective Consumption: Tensions and Heterogeneity in Communities and Subcultures
Association for Consumer Research Conference (2021) The Seesaw of Loss and Hope: How Vaccine-Hesitant Parents Justify and Experience their Choices within Economies of Worth
Workshop in Consumer Culture Theory at the University of Aveiro, Portugal (2021) Community through Competition – Exploring the trajectories of deep play and gamification
Association For Consumer Research (ACR) (2020) The Interplay of Religious Discrimination/Segregation With Consumption and Production Activities
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (CCTC) (2020) The Impact of Stigmatization and Segregation on Markets and Capital
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (CCTC) (2020) The Seesaw of Loss and Hope: How Vaccine-Hesitant Parents Make Sense of and Experience their Choices to Engage in Oppositional Social Practices
Association for Consumer Research Conference (ACR) (2019) The Bright Side of Darkness – The Effect of Ambient Lighting on Purchase Decision
Consumer Culture Theory Conference (CCTC) (2019) Marketplace performance of stigmatized consumers and producers