In Media Res

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Film and Media Studies department at Colorado College. My research and teaching focus on questions in the fields of global cinema, visual anthropology, and moving image archival studies. My current object of inquiry is B-roll footage, which I introduce as a new method to study films across genres, styles, regions, and historical periods.

In contemporary times, when polarization between the Self and the Other is most fueled by media, my research takes a deep dive into the visuals we take for granted. My first book project, based on my dissertation, spotlights the seemingly innocuous contextual shots, or B-roll shots, that abstract a location or culture––think Manhattan skyline for New York or wandering cows in a crowded street for New Delhi. I present the B-roll shot as an interruption to the narrative and as a space of delay, buffer, lull, meandering, and anticipation. Offering a fresh look at films through the B-roll, I show how alternative readings of imperial legacies and resistances lurk in the margins of narrative film.

In classrooms, I encourage students to creatively apply the critical concepts they learn. Furthermore, I adopt a multicultural approach to syllabus design by including films and scholarship from around the world, training students to think about the representation of class, caste, gender, nationality, race, and sexuality in the films they watch. In addition to writing assignments, short filmmaking projects, such as video essays, encourage students to play with moving images, sound, and text as they analyze films through film.

My filmmaking projects, largely in the tradition of first-person documentaries and video diaries, actively dissect the unified understanding of the Self and the Other. Diasporic experiences, memories, and the friction between now|then are explored through the visual and aural possibilities of the filmic medium.

I have a Ph.D. in Visual and Performing Arts from the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology at the University of Texas at Dallas and an M.A. in English Studies from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Madras.