Dr Ranita Chatterjee

I am Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies. My research is interdisciplinary and intersects film history, theory and practice. My research interests include film history; twentieth century screen cultures; the cinemas of India; colonial film in the British Empire; creative industries and transnational film circulation. I am currently completing a book length manuscript entitled ‘Calcutta Chronicles: Film, City and the Transnational Journeys of early Indian Cinema.’ This book engages in a media-archaeological inquiry into early cinema history in India, from its arrival in the 1890s to the studio era in the 1930s, mapping the emergence of cinema in Calcutta, and the regional, national and transnational networks of film across colonial South Asia and in the Indian Ocean World.

I also have extensive experience in the creative industries and media production through my first career as a director, producer and screenwriter in television and as a film curator. These myriad experiences inform my research and teaching.

I teach on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in film history, theory and Industry including:

- Contemporary Film and Television Industries

- Television: Times, Trends and Technologies

- Interrogating Screens

- Shots in the Dark

- Transnational Cinemas

- World Cinema/World Literature (MA)

- Distribution and Markets (MAIFB)

I am open to supervising PhD projects in film history and theory (both written and practice PhDs) on any aspect of:

- Historical and contemporary Indian cinemas, including Bollywood and regional cinemas of India

- South Asian cinemas and popular culture

- World Cinema and transnational film cultures of production and/or circulation

- Creative industries

- Film history and media archives

Research supervision:

I am currently supervising one PhD dissertation on the South Asian Progressive Writers Association (1933-1978) exploring writers in India and Pakistan and their work across literature, film and radio. Forthcoming PhD student projects include one on Shakespeare adaptations in Hindi cinema (historical and contemporary) and another on women in Bombay cinema.

I welcome PhD research projects on a range of areas in film and media history and theory (both written and practice PhDs) including:

- Contemporary and historical Indian cinema, including Bollywood and the regional cinemas of India

- South Asian cinemas and popular culture

- World Cinema and transnational film cultures of production and/or circulation

- Creative industries

- Film history and media archives