This Thursday Culture, Power and Social Change features Purnima Mankekar (UCLA Asian American Studies and Women's Studies) giving a talk entitled "Unsettling India: Media, Mobility, and Impersonation."

Thursday March 13, 2008

4:00 - 6:00 P.M.

Haines 352

Refreshments will be served.

TALK ABSTRACT:

In this paper, which is extracted from a larger project on the role of transnational mass media in the production of South Asian public cultures, I explore how the practice of impersonation might provide us with a lens to understand some of the dynamics of identity and cultural production occurring in contemporary India. Juxtaposing the protocols of impersonation performed by employees of call centers in Gurgaon, India, with the impersonation strategies of Bunty and Babli, the eponymous protagonists of a recent Bollywood blockbuster, I trace ideas of upward mobility, success, and growth are being reformulated in a context of neoliberalism and transnational media.

Please note that CPSC is open to UCLA faculty, students, and invited guests.  It is not open to the public.

Upcoming speakers:

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/08W/anthro297-4/Winterspeakerschedule.htm