Arya Rani/ആര്യ റാണി

publications

“Stewing Rebellion in The Great Indian Kitchen,” A Handbook of Indian Indie Films, edited by Jayjit Sarkar and Anik Sarkar, Routledge, 2025.

This chapter analyzes the use of cinematic elements to expose patriarchal ways of controlling women’s bodies through institutions of marriage and religion in an Indian indie film, The Great Indian Kitchen.

“Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: Who Are They? How Are They Created? Let’s Find Out!” Aren’t you Bojack Horseman? Critical Essays on the Netflix Series, edited by Harriet Earle, McFarland Publishers, 2024, 170-84.

This chapter examines the representations of masculinity, psychological crisis, and stardom through animation.

“Book Review: The New Female Antihero: The Disruptive Women of Twenty-first-century US Television, by Sarah Hagelin and Gillian Silverman, University of Chicago Press, 2022.” New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, 2022, p. 592–95.

PRESENTATIONS

  • 2024. “Cinematic Postcards: Examining Aesthetics and Politics of B-roll in Cinema,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Boston, MA, March 2024. Presenter.
  • 2023. “Made in Bollywood: Demystifying the Great Indian Wedding,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Denver, CO, Apr 2023. Chair and Presenter.
  • 2022. “Fleabag, Lulu, Villanelle: Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s femmes fatales and the Power of Comedy,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 2022 (virtual). Chair and Presenter. 
  • 2021. “Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: Who Are They? How Are They Created? Let’s Find Out!” Behind the Screen and Off the Stage Conference, London Metropolitan University, Nov 2021 (virtual). Presenter.
  • 2021. “Sexual Assault and the Eye of the Camera: An Investigation into the Gaze in #MeToo Films,” Symposium Researching on the Influence of Feminist Film Theory, University of Toulouse—Jean Jaurès, Nov 2021 (virtual). Presenter.

Invited talks and events

  • 2024. Invited jury member, Cosmic Film Festival, Meteor Theater, University of Texas at Dallas, Apr 2024.
  • 2024. Invited lecture on Celebrity Studies, Undergraduate survey class in Film Studies, Prof. Mazyar Mahan, Apr 2024.
  • 2023. Invited panelist, “Screening the Art of Drag,” Shot/Reverse Shot, Oct 2023.
  • 2023. Invited lecture, “Thinking Film Through film,” Meteor Theatre, University of Texas at Dallas, Oct 2023.
  • 2023. Invited lecture on Transnational Feminism, Graduate Seminar, “Global Women Directors,” Dr. Shilyh Warren, Mar 2023.