FACULTY
Ramna Walia is a scholar of popular film and digital media cultures in India. She earned a doctoral degree in Media Studies from the Department of Radio-Television-Film, The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.Phil. in Cinema Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. Her research interests include digital and video cultures, local media practices, technology, counter-histories, film recycling and remakes. Walia has published in peer-reviewed journals like Bioscope, Synoptique, and Studies in South Asian Film and Media and has published chapters in Industrial Networks and Cinemas of India (Routledge 2021) and Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India (Routledge 2023). She has also written on film and popular culture for Edit Room (Widescreen Journal), Cinestaan, and Critical Collective and is currently working on a co-edited book project on Celebrity Culture, media, and Politics.
She has presented my work at multiple prestigious international conferences such as the Media Futures Conference at The London School of Economics in London (2023), the Society For Cinema and Media (SCMS) in Toronto, Chicago, and Atlanta, the International Communications Association (ICA) in Gold Coast, Australia, and American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) in Amsterdam. She has also served on boards of academic journals such as Velvet Light Trap (VLT) and Sagar. At FLAME, Dr. Walia teaches courses on Film Appreciation, New Media and Television Studies, and World Cinema and Society.
Peer-reviewed articles:
- “Cinemas of the Hinterlands? - Politics of Cine-travel and the new Cartographies of Regionality in Malegaon to Dubai” in South Asian Popular Culture (SAPC) (Forthcoming in June 2024)
- “Remix” in Bioscope: Special Issue: Keywords of Indian film history. Co-authored with Kuhu Tanvir. Dec 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276211026438
- “‘Lonely night watchman’s art’: Circuits of Exclusion, C-grade film and hybrid aesthetics of Miss Lovely.” in Studies in South Asian Film and Media. Volume 9 Number 1, pp.35-59. 2018.
- “Recycle Industry: The Visual Economy of Remake in Contemporary Bombay Film Culture.” in Synoptique: Special Issue on Beyond Indian Cinema’s Centenary, ed. Catherine Bernier, Vol 3. No.1. 2014.
- “Techno-nostalgia: Colorization of K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam.” in Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, pp 137-154, Sage Publications. July 2013.
Book Chapters:
- “A Great Republic of Hurt Sentiments”: Counter Histories, Nationalism, and the Controversy of the Historical” in Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India: Cinematic Representations and Nationalist Agendas in Bollywood. Eds. Swapna Gopinath and Rutuja Deshmukh. Routledge, February 2023.
- “Intertwined Networks of Travel: The Cultural Geography of Malegaon film” inIndustrial Networks of India. Eds. Monika Mehta and Madhuja Mukherjee. Taylor and Francis, January 2021.
Book Reviews:
- “Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora by Noah A. Tsika (review), Velvet Light Trap, Number 83, Spring 2019, pp 82-84
- “Cycles, Sequels, Spin-Offs, Remakes, and Reboots: Multiplicities in Film and Television.” Velvet Light Trap, Number 79, Spring 2017. Pp 136-138
- “Cut-pieces: Celluloid Obscenity and Popular Cinema in Bangladesh”, Studies in South Asian Film and Media. Vol 6. Issue 1, April 2016, pp 76-78
- “Balancing Research and Cine Lore: The Dialogue of Pyaasa”. The Book Review. Vol XXXVI, 2012.
Popular Press and Think Tanks:
- “Diljit Dosanjh: The Urban Pendu in a Global Village,” Critical Collective, April 2024.
- “Film Criticism in the New Digital Landscape,” Critical Collective, December 2023.
- “A ‘State’ of Anxiety: Nehru’s Spectral Presence in 1960s War Films,” Critical Collective, March 2023
- “From Mother India to Femme Fatale: The Evolution of Rural Woman in Indian Cinema,” Critical Collective, September 2021.
- Interview with Utpal Borpujari and Subimal Bhattacharjee, Cinestaan. 2019.
- “Mildred Pierce: The (Re)Making of an “Event,”” Edit Room, The Widescreen Journal, October 11, 2011
CONFERENCES, INVITED LECTURES, AND WORKSHOPS: (Select)
- “Khandesh’s “YouTube Studios”: Online distribution and new digital mobilities of “local” media productions in India” at International Symposium of Streaming in the Global South, Vilnius January 18-20, 2024.
- Chair, “Post-pandemic Cultural Negotiations: Cinema and Other Creative Spaces”. International Conference on Media and Communication (ICMAC) 2023. September 28-30, 2023.
- “From the shadows to the spotlight: Micro-celebrity culture and inter-regional cine-mobilities of Malegaon productions” at Annual Conference on South Asia, UW-Madison, October 18-21, 2022.
- “Flexible Pedagogy for Strategic Learning in Classroom” in workshop series on Quality Improvement Programme on Curriculum Development and Design, Christ University, May 2021.
- “India’s duplication factories: Remake, Informality, and the Politics of industrial legitimacy,” International Communications Association (ICA). May 2020. Gold Coast, Australia.
- “Studying Local Media in a Global Arena”. Invited Lecture at Schreiner University. April 2020. Texas, USA.
- “Reimagining artistry: Informality, amateur films, and video film cultures of India,” The Annual Conference on South Asia: Artistry. October 2019. University of Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
- “Imaginary Travels: Dubai and the “Sensory Infrastructures” of local Malegaon video Productions,” SCMS Annual Conference. March 2019. Seattle, USA.
- “Make-shift economy and the design of the video parlour in Malegaon video Industry,” S CMS Annual Conference. March 2018. Toronto, Canada.
- “Branding Mollywood: Mobile Economy of India’s video industry,” SCMS Annual Conference. March 2017. Chicago, USA.
- “Intertwined networks of Travel: The Cultural Geography of Malegaon’s video Spoof Industry,” ACLA Annual Conference, July 2017. Utrecht, Amsterdam.