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Pavitra Sundar

Pavitra Sundar

Pavitra Sundar
Pavitra Sundar

Associate Professor of Literature

Root Hall 311
315-859-4218

Pavitra Sundar’s scholarly interests span cinema studies, sound studies, postcolonial literary and cultural studies, and gender-sexuality studies. Her scholarship appears in Meridians; Jump Cut; Communication, Culture, and Critique; and the Sounding Out! blog, as well as other journals and anthologies. Deeply committed to collaborative research and teaching, Pavitra has co-organized an interdisciplinary sound studies seminar at Hamilton with Celeste Day Moore (History); co-organized a film festival and symposium on Indian cinema at the George Eastman Museum with Anaar Desai-Stephens (Eastman School of Music); and co-edited a special issue of South Asian Popular Culture on “Masculinities” with Praseeda Gopinath (Binghamton University).

She is founding member of the Accent Research Collaborative, which recently hosted a virtual conference “Thinking with an Accent: Through Voice, Across Media” and is co-editing a collection of essays on the topic. Also on the horizon is a monograph that brings a feminist ear to Bombay cinema, Listening to Bollywood.

Recent Courses Taught

Echoes and Encores: Repetition in Literature
Bollywood Film
Indians, Aliens, Others
Transnational Feminist Frames
English and its Discontents

 

Research Interests

Film studies; sound studies; postcolonial studies; gender-sexuality studies, particularly feminist theory, queer studies, and women-of-color and transnational feminisms; South Asian literary and cultural history.

Distinctions

  • CNY Humanities Corridor Awards: South Asian Media and Performance Cultures, 2018–2020
         Grants to organize Filmi Worlds, a festival and symposium on Indian cinema at the George Eastman Museum, and other working group events.
  • Wellin Museum Grant for Innovative Teaching, Fall 2018, Fall 2019
  • Social Innovation and Transformational Leadership Grant, Levitt Public Affairs Center, Fall 2018
  • National Humanities Center Summer Residency, June 2018
  • The Humanities Center Interdisciplinary Collaborations Award, Spring 2017
          Award to convene interdisciplinary faculty-staff seminar on sound studies with Celeste Day Moore

 

Select Publications

  • Masculinities. Co-edited with Praseeda Gopinath. Special Issue of South Asian Popular Culture.
  • “Introduction: Masculinities” Co-authored with Praseeda Gopinath. South Asian Popular Culture 18.1 (Spring 2020): 1-10.
  • “Making-of Videos: Of Placeless Studios and Pioneering Music Directors,” Networks of Cinema, Eds. Monika Mehta and Madhuja Mukherjee. Routledge. Forthcoming 2020.
  •  “Usha Uthup and her Husky, Heavy Voice,” Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship. Eds. Laura Brueck, Jacob Smith, and Neil Verma. University of Michigan Press, 2020. 115-151.
  • “Romance, Piety, and Fun: The Transformation of the Qawwali and Islamicate Culture in Hindi Cinema.” The Evolution of Song and Dance in Hindi Cinema. Special issue of South Asian Popular Culture 15.2-3 (December 2017): 139-153.

 

More... Less...
  • Masculinities. Co-edited with Praseeda Gopinath. Special Issue of South Asian Popular Culture.
  • “Introduction: Masculinities” Co-authored with Praseeda Gopinath. South Asian Popular Culture 18.1 (Spring 2020): 1-10.
  • “Making-of Videos: Of Placeless Studios and Pioneering Music Directors,” Networks of Cinema, Eds. Monika Mehta and Madhuja Mukherjee. Routledge. Forthcoming 2020.
  •  “Usha Uthup and her Husky, Heavy Voice,” Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship. Eds. Laura Brueck, Jacob Smith, and Neil Verma. University of Michigan Press, 2020. 115-151.
  • “Romance, Piety, and Fun: The Transformation of the Qawwali and Islamicate Culture in Hindi Cinema.” The Evolution of Song and Dance in Hindi Cinema. Special issue of South Asian Popular Culture 15.2-3 (December 2017): 139-153.
  • “The Queer Sound of the Dandiya Queen, Falguni Pathak.” Gendered Soundscapes of India. Special Forum of Sounding Out! Eds. Praseeda Gopinath and Monika Mehta. October 23, 2017. Online.
  • “Gender, Bawdiness, and Bodily Voices: The "Ethnic" Woman and Bombay Cinema's Audiovisual Contract.” Locating the Voice in Film: Critical Approaches and Global Practices. Eds. Tom Whittaker and Sarah Wright. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Appointed to the Faculty: 2016

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Michigan
M.A., University of Michigan
B.A., Ithaca College

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