South Asian Media and Cultural Studies

SAMCS 2025 Conference, Jan-Feb 2025, TBA

11th Annual South Asian Media and Cultural Studies Conference, TBA January- February, 2025

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“Beyond Curries: A Decade of Documenting South Asian Media and Cultural  Studies” provides a booklet overview of  the annual South Asian conferences we have organized at Florida State University since 2015.

 

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South Asian Events, Announcements, and Calls for Papers

https://comm.cci.fsu.edu/calls-for-papers…cultural-studies/ ‎

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South Asian Media and Cultural Studies at FSU: Overview

Contact:

Stephen D. McDowell, John H. Phipps Professor of Communication, College of Communication and Information, and Assistant Provost, International Initiatives, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. 32306

Phone: 850-645-2306

Email: steve.mcdowell@cci.fsu.edu

Introduction:

The focus on South Asian Media Studies aims to promote research and training activities related to a burgeoning media industry in South Asia. Home to more than a billion people, South Asia enjoys unique cultural, religious, political, linguistic, and ethnic diversity that attracts the rest of the world. South Asian media reflects this diversity through its cultural products, which are becoming increasingly popular in other parts of the world. At the same time, South Asian media has remained an under-researched area in academic inquiry. The rapid growth of media industry in countries of this region demands establishment of a research and training emphasis that caters to the needs of a growing number of media education institutions and professional organizations in South Asia.

Purposes:

  • Promote academic and applied research on South Asian media
  • Explore the relationships between media and culture in South Asia
  • Explore relationship between media and social change in society
  • Develop a regional perspective on media studies
  • Focus on development and regional integration
  • Study comparative media performance
  • Build research linkages with professional and institutional partners in the region
  • Provide training to professionals and academics interested in South Asian regional media studies

Activities:

Research focuses on the following themes: media and conflict; journalism practice and performance, ICTs and development; popular culture; gender, minorities, and class in media; communication and social change; comparative communication and regulation policies, and; globalization and South Asian media. We will also build linkages at FSU and elsewhere to work on other important media research linked to media in the region, encourage exchange of graduate students and faculty, and seek opportunities to fund this research.

Instructional efforts include identifying and highlighting courses related to South Asian media studies at Florida State University, including faculty with interests in these areas, and highlighting programs across campus that may be of interest to students interested in South Asian studies. Training priorities are to develop workshops and seminars for professional journalists, as well as career development avenues for other communication professionals.

Service includes organizing lecture series, hosting visiting scholars, and connecting with student groups on campus, academic departments, as well as the FSU Center for Global Engagement, to publicize events, visiting speakers, and opportunities for linkages.