معرفی
Usha Iyer is an Associate Professor in the Film and Media Studies program at Stanford University, with affiliate appointments in the Center for South Asia, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research interrogates intersections of cinema, performance, gender, caste, and Caribbean-Indian cultural dialogues.
- Education: PhD in Film and Media Studies (University of Pittsburgh), MA in Literary and Cultural Studies (CIEFL, Hyderabad), MA in Communication Studies (University of Pune), BA in Literature (St. Xavier’s College, Bombay)
At the core of her work lies a material history of Hindi film dance, examining how women’s labor shaped Dancing Women: Choreographing Corporeal Histories of Hindi Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2020). Current projects explore Black-Brown media intimacies in the Caribbean and Indian New Waves co-edited with Manishita Dass.
Recent scholarship demonstrates choreomusicological approaches to Bollywood song sequences and decolonial pedagogy frameworks. Awards include the British Association of South Asian Studies Book Prize and Global Issue Course Innovation Grant. Fellowship support from Howard Foundation, Stanford Humanities Center, and Annenberg Program (2022-2024).
- Key Research Areas:
- Gendered labor in Indian cinema
- Queer geopolitics in film
- Transnational media flows
- Decolonial curriculum design
- Corporeal film theory
- Caribbean-Indian cultural solidarities
She teaches globally focused courses including Queer Cinemas around the World, Decolonizing Theory, and Global Melodrama, while serving as Associate Editor of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.
