CREATIVE AND CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF BOLLYWOOD
Opportunities and Challenges for Australian-Indian Collaborations
A Symposia and Film Festival
8-9th MAY 2015
ORGANISING COMMITTE.
VIKRANT KISHORE
CONVENER
Dr Kishore is a filmmaker, academician, journalist and a photographer. Dr Kishore is a Lecturer in Media & Communication at the University of Newcastle. Dr Kishore started his career as a journalist with ZEE News and he still continues his journalistic work as a blogger. Dr Kishore has 25 documentaries and corporate films to his credit; he has worked in more than 10 documentaries as a “one man crew” and loves directing, editing and camerawork. He has been a jury member of various film festivals. Dr Kishore’s areas of research are Indian Cinema, Indian folk and popular culture, reality television programmes and the issues of caste politics in India. Dr Kishore’s co-edited book titled “Bollywood and Its Other(s): Towards New Configurations” has been published by Palgrave MacMillan. His authored book “From Real to Reel: Folk Dances of India in Bollywood Cinema” published by UNESCO-APNIEVE has been released recently. See www.vikrantkishore.com
SUSAN KERRIGAN
CONVENER
Dr Susan Kerrigan is a Screen Production Scholar who specialises in creative screen practice through practice-led research. Susan is a current recipient of an ARC Linkage Grant entitled 'Creativity and Cultural Production: An Applied Ethnographic Study of New Entrepreneurial Systems in the Creative Industries'. She is a member of the Communication and Media Research (CAMR) group and is a member of the Hunter Centre for Creative Industries and Technology (HCIT). During 2012/2013 Susan was President of the Australian Screen Production, Education and Research Association (ASPERA) and in 2014 Susan convened the annual ASPERA Conference 'Screen Explosion'. Susan has examined PhDs and Masters (by reserach) for Screen Production, Screen writing and Television practices.
AMIT SARWAL
CONVENER
Amit Sarwal is an Honorary Associate Professor of RMIT University and also the Founding Convenor of Australia-India Interdisciplinary Research Network. He was an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2013-15) at Deakin University and Endeavour Asia Research Fellow (2006-07) at Monash University. He has also taught as Assistant Professor in the Department of English at University of Delhi (2007-12). His research papers have appeared in prominent journals such as Dance Chronicle, Dance Research, Antipodes, South Asian Popular Culture, South Asian Diaspora and Culture, Society and Masculinities. He has co-convened two film festivals and conferences in Perth and Newcastle and has also appeared as an expert on ABC radio National, SBS Hindi Radio, Sky News, and Australia Network. He has many books to his credit, prominent being: Wanderings in India: Australian Perceptions (2012), Bollywood and Its Other(s): Towards New Configurations (2015), and Labels and Locations: Gender, Family, Class and Caste (2015). (E-mail: sarwal.amit@gmail.com)
ABBAS ZAHEER
COORDINATOR
A Sydney based media professional. Abbas graduated from University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) with a Masters of Arts in Journalism. He also holds a Graduate Diploma in Media Arts and Production. His breadth of experience spans from television news with Indian news channels to roles in Sydney based sports channel Sky Racing. He is also interested in producing documentaries. His current research interests include new media activism, video convergence and Internet video, Future of digital media in Australia. Abbas has taught media production and digital communication courses at School of Design, Communication and IT, University of Newcastle.