Akriti Rastogi Doctoral Candidate, Cinema Studies (http://www.usief.org.in/scholar-profile/scholarprofiledetails.aspx?fellowid=11890)

Email [email protected] Phone +91 9718198345, +13478854018

Education

2016 – Present School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Ph.D. in Cinema Studies Thesis title: Bollywoodization 2.0: Design Thinking in the Age of Cinema Effects Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Veena Hariharan

2013 – 2016 School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, M.Phil. in Cinema Studies Grade A- Dissertation title: The DIY Filmmaker in the Digital Age: The Indian Context Supervisor: Dr. Veena Hariharan

2011 – 2013 A.J.K.M.C.R.C., Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi MA in Mass Communication First Division (75%)

2008 – 2011 Miranda House, University of Delhi, New Delhi B. Sc. (Hons.) in Zoology First Division (68.5%)

Research Work

Research field - Cinema and Media studies

2015 The Crowd and the DIY filmmaker: A study of the DIY funding circuits of the Dilettante Published in the journal Subversions hosted by School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, URL: http://subversions.tiss.edu/home/akriti/

2014 The Melodramatic Imagination of a Disaster Paper written as a part of ‘Melodrama and Popular Culture’ coursework Mentor: Prof Ira Bhaskar 2014 Transnational flows through Short Film Festivals Paper written as a part of ‘Cinema and Transnationalism’ coursework Mentor: Dr. Veena Hariharan

2012 Lingo Logic: The influence of American situational comedy programs on the spoken English language of Urban Indian Youth Paper written as a part of ‘Media and Cultural Studies’ coursework Mentor: Anandana Kapur

Workshops and Summer School

2018 Digital Humanities in Workshop New Delhi, India Organized by: Arts and Humanities Research Council The workshop focused on digital humanities tools and a comprehensive discussion on mapping information through Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

2015 Researching the Contemporary Certificate Course Organized by: CSDS, New Delhi The coursework enabled a nuanced understanding of the “contemporary” as a critical terrain of enquiry in socio political and cultural terrain

Accomplishments

2019 Fulbright Nehru Doctoral Fellowship 2019 – awarded by the United States India Educational Foundation, New Delhi and United States Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) for doctoral research on the contemporary Hindi film industry

2018 ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship 2018 – awarded by the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, New Delhi for my current doctoral work on the contemporary Hindi Film Industry in a post Web 2.0 milieu

2015 National Eligibility Test, December 2015 Qualified for Assistant Professor

2010 Student representative for round table discussion organized in honor of the cohort of international administrators from the US universities under the aegis of United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) at Miranda House, University of Delhi

Conferences

May 2019 Designing Soft Power Networks: Bollywoodization in the Age of Social Media Media Mutations 11 - Media, Diplomacy and Soft Power: Exploring the Relations Between Emerging Markets and Western Countries

Bologna, Italy Organized by: Università di Bologna, University of Antwerp and Università della Svizzera italiana Presented a paper on the FICCI Frames event and the soft power networks it creates for the media industry of Hindi Films

Mar 2019 The Grapevine List: Hindi Film Industry Professionals Post #MeToo #MeToo Moment in Our Film Industries

Hyderabad, India Organized by: Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies, Hyderabad Presented a paper on the #MeToo Moment in Hindi Film Industry and its influence on “Below the line” professionals

Jan 2019 #LegitLists #Lists Hyderabad, India

Organized by: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore and New Delhi Co-presented a panel on unpacking the list cultures in the contemporary media spheres

Sep 2018 Screening the Viral Fever Digital Cultures: Knowledge / Culture / Technology

Lüneburg, Germany Organized by: Centre for Digital Cultures (CDC), Leuphana University Lüneburg, and the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), Western Sydney University Co-presented a panel on the manufactured viral phenomena in mainstream media spaces in India

June 2018 Insta-grammatically (In)Correct: A study of transmedia celebrities of contemporary Hindi film industry Celebrity Studies Conference 2018

Rome, Italy Organized by: Sapienza University, Rome and Celebrity Studies Network Presented my paper on analysis of transnational and transmedia circuits of the new age Hindi cinema actors who bank upon social media and apps to connect with their fan-base across all digital platforms Feb 2018 #Cyberflesh Internet Researchers Conference 2018

Kandbari, India Organized by: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore Co-Presented a panel on techno corporeal interactions of internet users in India

Feb 2017 The DIY filmmaker in the Digital Age Video Vortex XI edition

Kochi, India Organized by: Srishti Institute, Bangalore Presented a paper on the internet based crowdsourcing channels and do- it-yourself filmmaking circuits in urban India

July 2016 The Crowd and the DIY filmmaker: A study of the DIY film-funding circuits in India Kick-Starting Media Symposium 2016

Bath, UK Organized by: Media Futures Research Centre at Bath Spa University Presented a paper on internet based crowdfunding channels supporting dilettante filmmakers in India

Mar 2016 Cinema 2.0 in India Internet Researcher’s Conference 2016

New Delhi, India Organized by: Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore Co-presented a panel on the shifts in the Hindi film industry post the Web 2.0 moment

Dec 2014 The Crowd and the DIY filmmaker – A Study of the DIY funding circuits of the dilettante Frames of Reference 2014

Mumbai, India Organized by: Tata Institute of Social Sciences Presented a paper on the internet-based crowdfunding and crowdsourcing channels supporting do-it-yourself filmmakers in Indian context

Work Experience

Aug’15 to Sep’17 News Services Division, All India Radio Position: Transmission Executive Area of Work: Management of News Bulletin Production: handling editing of voice-casts and assisting console operations, Editing and compiling newsreel programs

May’12 to Jun’12 What’s Up Bharat Position: Summer Associate for the Content, polling and Outreach team Area of Work: Research on social issues affecting India and development of issue briefs and polls based on the research

Oct’08 to Dec’08 Theviewspaper.net Position: Stringer Area of Work: Wrote articles under the columns of “arts”, “society” and “women empowerment” URLs: http://bit.ly/2JocyjB, http://bit.ly/2kNH0Wv

College Assignments

Radio: • Made musical productions namely: “Sangeetanjali: a history of popular Hindi cinema music” and “Surmayi Safar: the journey of songs on trains” • Conducted interview: Jail Diary – an interview of a student whose research was based on the depiction of jails in popular Hindi cinema films

Video Production: • Directed and shot an experimental documentary Aviral (duration: 6.41 minutes, trans. Incessantly flowing or moving) – a video documentary about the clerical professionals of the public institutions

Television production: • Worked for college television productions including direction for a cookery show Cookie’s Kitchen • Worked on researching and scripting of an independent assignment on Pre-1947 Indian Weddings called Bhartiya Baraat (trans. Indian Wedding Celebration)

Film production: • Shot and edited a 2-minute Public Service Advertisement on the subject of stop female feticide and infanticide titled Sparsh • Scripted a short fiction film Malayseeya (duration 5:09 minutes) as a part of 48-hour film project 2012 • Sound recordist and sound design for Re-take (duration 21:36 minutes), a short film based upon Satyajit Ray’s short story Patol Babu, Film-star – made as a part of final product at AJKMCRC

References

• Prof. Ira Bhaskar ([email protected])

• Dr. Veena Hariharan ([email protected])

• Anandana Kapur ([email protected])