Assistant Professor, English Department
(Ph.D., Comparative Literature with specialization in Film and Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota, 2001)
tel.: (607) 777-2318
fax.: (607) 777-2408
e-mail: mmehta @binghamton.edu
Areas of Interest
Globalization, Diaspora and Cultural Production
Postcolonial Literature and Film
Cinemas in South Asia
Gender, Sexuality and Representation
State and the Entertainment Industry
Current Projects
Book Project: Selections: Cutting Classifying and Certifying in Bombay Cinema examines censorship of sex in Bombay cinema.
Book Project: Disjunct Economies: Libidinal and Material Investments in Bombay Cinema, which explores how processes which go under the name of ‘globalization' have reconfigured relations among Bombay cinema, the Indian state, and Indian diasporic communities.
Books and Recent Articles
"Trans/national Cinephilia in Kikar Ha-Halomot/Desperado Square." South Asian Popular Culture, forthcoming.
Monika Mehta & Nilanjana Bhattacharyja, " Bombay to Bollywood: Tracking Cinematic and Musical Tours" in Planet Bollywood: The Transnational Travels of Hindi Song and Dance Sequences. edited by Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming.
"Globalizing Bombay Cinema, Reproducing the Indian State and Family." Cultural Dynamics, forthcoming.
Review of A Time for Tea, by Piya Chatterjee. Xcp: Cross-cultural Poetics 11 (2002).
Review of Reinventing Film Studies, ed. by Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams. Film Philosophy. Online. Available WWW: http://www.film-philosophy.com/
"Satyajit Ray." Encyclopedia of Asia. Ed. David Levinson. 6 vols. New York: Scribners, 2002.
"What is Behind Film Censorship?: The Khalnayak Debates." Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies 5.3 (2001).
Recent Lectures and Conferences
Co-Chair & Presenter. "The Birth of the Trans/national ‘Family Love Story'." Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, March 31-April 3, 2005.
Presenter. "Bombay Cinema and the Transnational Indian Family." 20th Annual South Asia Conference, University of California, Berkeley, February 11-12, 2005.
Lecture. ""An Anomalous Case: The Censorship of the Self-Sacrificial Woman." Center for Women's and Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin, December 2, 2004.
Lecture. "Introduction to Indian cinema." Course on Introduction to World Cinema, University of Texas at Austin, May 5, 2004.
Lecture. "History of Indian Cinema from Mother India to Lagaan." Course on Introduction to South Asian Civilizations, University of Texas at Austin, April 22, 2004.
Recent Courses Taught
Globalization and Literary Culture
From Bombay to Bollywood: The Transformation of Hindi Cinema
Moving Pictures: Transnationalism, Diaspora and Film
Postcoloniality and Cinema
Introduction to Indian Cinema
Awards
Faculty Travel Grant, University of Texas at Austin (2005)
University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2002-2004
