Alka Kurian

Teaching

I teach a range of courses that focus on film, media, gender studies, and the human rights discourse. My background is in South Asian diasporic film and literature where I examine the politics of representation of the issues of race, ethnicity, gender, identity, sexuality, politics, religion, neo-colonialism, and globalization.

The focus of my teaching and is in unraveling a specific form of post-colonial gendered cinema where the cinematic narrative is viewed as an act of political engagement with the world and a site of feminist struggle. I am interested in South Asian oppositional cinematic narratives (non-mainstream, documentary, or experimental) with the view to understanding the everyday struggles of women and identify the development of their political consciousness. My interest in alternative cinematic practices of South Asia is closely allied to my fascination with the representational politics of Bollywood, a major cultural site in India that produces, perpetuates, circulates and problematizes dominant ideology both at home and within the South Asian diaspora. Central to my teaching is transnational feminist film and media practices located in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North America where I stress the significance of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the cinemas of border, displacement, and migration. And finally, my teaching also takes on board a historical understanding of national and international feminist theories, a critical exploration of the interlocking system of global hierarchies of power and oppression, and an examination of resistance strategies put in place by contemporary feminist movements envisioning a just and equitable world.

Recent Courses Taught

BIS 224 Introduction to Feminist Studies
BIS 293 Women in Transnational Film and Media
BIS 339 The Politics of Bollywood
BIS 466 Human Rights and Resistance

Research/Scholarship

My research interests center on the postcolonial cinemas of opposition, border, and of displacement, Anglophone literatures and film, postcolonial theory, European comparative literatures, diaspora studies, and creative writing. I am currently writing a monograph on representations of gender, justice and resistance in South Asian cinema. I have recently completed the manuscript of a novel.

I am one of the founding co-editors of the peer-reviewed journal South Asian Film and Media.

Selected Publications

Forthcoming:
Gender, Justice and Dissent: South Asian Cinema, (July 2010), New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis group).

Editorial (2009) Studies in South Asian Film and Media, Vol. 1
‘Feminism and the Developing World’ in Gamble, S. (Ed.), The Icon Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism, Icon Books, 2002.
   
February 2009: ‘Gender and Subalterneity”, University of Washington, Seattle.

October 2008: ‘Politics of Cultural Boundaries: Assimilation, Integration, and Resistance in Indian cinema, at the AMSS 37th Annual conference, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University.

August, 2008: ‘Nation, Gender and Counter-narratives in Indian documentary cinema’: Transnational Cinema in Globalising Societies Conference, UNNC-Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.

February 2008: ‘Realism and Documentary Indian Cinema’, South Asia Centre, University of Pennsylvania.

June 2007: ‘Alternative Indian Cinema: Critical Panel Discussion’ on Shyam Benegal’s Women-centered films, Seattle, led by myself and Shyam Benegal.

May 2007: Panel member in Seattle reads Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake Series.

March 2007: ‘Cinema of Dissent: A feminist Perspective’, Women’s Studies, University of South Dakota.

April 2004: ‘Monsoon Wedding: Women and Diasporic South Asian Cinema’, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, School of Arts, Design, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland.

January 2002: ‘Women and South Asian Cinema’ Janki Devi Women’s College, University of Delhi.

January 2002: ‘Multiculturalism’, Women’s Studies and Development Centre, Organized Refresher Course on ‘Women’s Rights’, University of Delhi.