Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies and Creative Industries and served as the Interim Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Enterprise in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University (2021-22). He has also served as the University's AHRC-funded Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership Site Director, led the Creative Industries Research Cluster, and founded the Centre for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts (CEDIA) acting as its first Director.
Rajinder joined Birmingham City University in 2016 and was previously Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester, where he held senior roles as Director of Centre for Screen Studies and Head of Dept of Drama (2007-2010).
In April 2023 Professor Dudrah was honoured by the South Asian Literary Association (USA), with the award of Distinguished Achievement in Scholarship to the Field of South Asian Studies.
He was appointed to serve at the criteria setting stage on Sub-panel 25: Area Studies of the Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF2021), and as Outputs and Impact Assessor for Sub-panel 25, and Sub-panel 33: Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies.
In October 2016 Rajinder was elected as Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, University of Oxford (2016 - 2018).
His undergraduate degree was in Cultural Studies at the University of Portsmouth (with specialisms in film and media studies, literature and cultural theory), followed by a PhD at the Dept. of Cultural Studies and Sociology, University of Birmingham. Before a Lectureship in Screen Studies at Manchester Rajinder was Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Portsmouth. He also gained a PGCHE from the University of Portsmouth.
Rajinder's academic interests are in the areas of film, media, cultural studies, and creative industries including: Bollywood cinema, Black British representation, popular music, diasporic and transnational media, television studies, and in cultural theory and qualitative research methods as applied to popular culture and creative industries research.
Rajinder has taught across the range of core undergraduate and postgraduate courses concerned with screen theory and aesthetics, screen methods, and screen texts and audiences.He particularly draws on interdisciplinary approaches from Film and Media Studies, Cultural Studies, and Sociology to think about the development of screen theory and how best to analyse the relationship between screen industries, texts and audiences.
His doctorate work was a combined extended qualitative interview and textual analysis of the popular cultural texts of British Bhangra music, Bollywood films, and the non-terrestrial Zee TV channel as they are used by British Asian audiences in processes of social identity formation.
Rajinder is also one of the founders and co-editors of the internationally peer reviewed journal South Asian Popular Culture with Routledge publishers.
Rajinder is Professor of Cultural Studies and Creative Industries, based in the School of Media in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media. This is a cross faculty research professorship where he is leading the University's growing group of creative industries researchers, coordinating the University's efforts to consolidate its reputation in this area, and working with the Institute for Creative Innovation to establish our expertise in the field. He is also working to help develop researchers across the Faculty of ADM and has served as one of the University's Midlands3Cities AHRC Doctoral College Site Directors (2016-2019).
- Film, Media and Cultural Studies
- Creative Industries
- Bollywood Cinema
- Black British Representations
- TV Studies
- Diaspora and Globalisation
- Popular Culture and Cultural Theory
- PgCert Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Portsmouth
- PhD Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham
- BA (Hons) Cultural Studies, University of Portsmouth
Executive Committee of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (http://baftss.org/)
AHRC Peer Review College Member: Academic and International panels
AHRC Strategic Reviewers Group Member
Rajinder is recipient of the prestigious Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2022-2025), working on his new book project 'E-Bollywood: Popular Hindi Cinema in the Age of New Media'.
Rajinder is Principal Investigator on the AHRC and Innovate UK funded project India-UK Creative Industries at 75: Challenges and Opportunities (Feb - Oct 2022). He is working with the PGDAV College, University of Delhi, India, and 30 artists from India and the UK across the creative economies of screen industries, live performance and fashion.
Rajinder is Co-Investigator with Kala Phool, Birmingham, on an Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant for their MI21 – Mother India 2021/22 project. The award was for a Research and Development phase of the project and started in 2021.
Rajinder was Co-Investigator of the AHRC funded Diaspora Screen Media Network. He worked in partnership with colleagues at the University of Northampton, with film and media makers, media programmers, and students across Birmingham and Northampton. The project ran until Spring 2022.
As Co-Investigator Rajinder was also part of a major £4 million AHRC-funded consortia project entitled Creative Multilingualism. This was a four year research programme as part of the AHRCs Open World Research Initiative (OWRI) which began in July 2016 and was led by the University of Oxford (PI). The project's other university consortia partners included Cambridge, Pittsburgh, Reading and SOAS, in addition to numerous cultural partners. Rajinder led the research strand on Languages in the Creative Economy and developed the Slanguages research project.
Creative Multilingualism continues to be run as a research network from the University of Oxford as part of TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities). Rajinder is Co-Director of the network with Professor Katrin Kohl, Jesus College, University of Oxford.
Rajinder has supervised to successful completion as primary and co-supervisor 21 PhDs across film, media and cultural studies and is happy to supervise students in the areas related to his research interests.
PhD topics have included:
- De-coding Dalit Representation in Popular Hindi Cinema 1930s-2010s
- A Study of the Transnational Journeys of British Asian Music and Musicians in the 21st Century
- The Representation of Caucasian Women in Bollywood Cinema
- Visual Representations and Cultural (Re)constructions of Black British Masculinities in 21st Century Birmingham
- Digital Inequalities: A Critical Study of the uses of Big Data and Data Visualisation in Addressing Young People’s Opportunities for Contributing to Cultural and Social Life
- The Lived Experiences of First-Generation African Cultural Entrepreneurs in Birmingham (UK)
- Ideology and Contemporary Science-Fiction Cinema
- The Sexual, National and Racial Other in Hollywood Horror
- The Aesthetics of the Emotions in the Popular Cinemas of India and Italy
- Male Anger in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
- New Paradigms for Researching Theatre Audiences at the Contact Theatre, Manchester
- Contemporary Bangladeshi Cinema: Challenges in a Digital Media Age
- Independent Indian Cinema
- Islamic Feminism and Media Arts Practice
- MPhil supervision on Queer South Asian Visual Cultures across the Brown Atlantic
2023
- Dudrah, R. (2024) 'Live and Let Live: The Black 007 in No Time to Die', Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 60 (2), 1-17. Online version of article published on 9 November 2023. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449855.2023.2267796
- Dutta, S. & Ray, A. & Dudrah, R. eds. (2023) 'Digital Humanities and Identities' special issue of the journal South Asian Popular Culture, 21 (3), October 2023. Hyperlink: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsap20/21/3
- Dudrah, R. (2023). Musical Numbers in Bollywood Cinema’s Homeland and Diaspora. In: Windisch, A.K., Tieber, C., Powrie, P. (eds) When Music Takes Over in Film (pp.117-139). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
2022
- Patel, K. & Dudrah, R. eds. (2022) 'Craft Economies and Inequalities' special issue of the European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25 (6).
- Dudrah, R., Chauhan, V., & Szivak, J., eds. (2022) Report of the India-UK Creative Industries at 75 Project. Nick Drew Design Birmingham: Birmingham City University, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Innovate UK https://www.bcu.ac.uk/media/research/research-groups/creative-industries/research-projects/india-uk-creative-industries-at-75/project-reports
- Dudrah, R. & Punch Records (2022) Slanguages: Rethinking Modern Languages from the Ground Up. Nick Drew Design Birmingham: Punch Records. https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/slanguages-rethinking-modern-languages-from-the-ground-up
- Kaur, R., Banger, R., & Elizabeth-Lolo, A., with Dudrah, R. as producer (2022) Jugni: The Female Firefly. A play. Nick Drew Design Birmingham: Creative Multilingualism and Slanguages. https://torch.ox.ac.uk/article/jugni-the-female-firefly
2021
2020
2019
2016
2015
- Dudrah, R. (2015). Unthinking SRK and Global Bollywood. In Dudrah, R. (Ed.), Mader, E. (Ed.), & Fuchs, B. (Ed.) Shah Rukh Khan and Global Bollywood (pp. 3-24). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- Dudrah, R. (2015). Reading 'The Stuart Hall Project'. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 12(3), 383-401.
- Dudrah, R., Mader, E., & Fuchs, B. (2015). Introduction: Stardom and Globalized Polysemy. In SRK and Global Bollywood. (pp. xi-xxxviii). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
- Dudrah, R. (2015). Representing Heterosexual Romance, Whiteness and Place in the film 'Notting Hill'. Media Education Journal, (57), 3-9.
2014
- Dudrah, R., Thangaraj, S., & Burdsey, D. eds. (2014). Sport and South Asian Diasporas: Playing Through Time and Space. London: Routledge.
- Dudrah, R. (2014). ‘The Retro Noughties: 1970s Hindi Films in 2000s Bollywood Cinema’. In Dudrah, R., & Joshi, P. eds. The 1970s and its Legacies in India's Cinemas. (pp. 101-119). England, UK: Routledge.
2013
- Dudrah, R., Huq, R., Abbas, T. (2013). Citizen Khan or citizen can't? Dossier on BBCTV SitCom Citizen Khan. South Asian Popular Culture, 11(1), 75-102.
2012
- Dudrah, R. (2012). Bollywood Travels: Culture, Diaspora and Border Crossings in Popular Hindi Cinema. (Contemporary South Asia Series). London: Routledge.
- Dudrah, R., Gopal, S., Rai, A., & Basu, A. eds. (2012). InterMedia in South Asia: The Fourth Screen. London: Routledge.
2011
- Dudrah, R. (2011). British Bhangra Music as Soundscapes of the Midlands. Midland History, 36(2), 278-291.
- Dudrah, R. (2011). Beyond World Cinema? The Dialectics of Black British Diasporic Cinema. In Dudrah, R. (Ed.), Nagib, L. (Ed.), & Perriam, C. (Ed Theorising World Cinema. (pp. 113-128). London: IB Tauris.
- Dudrah, R., Nagib, L., & Perriam, C. (2011). Introduction: Theorising World Cinema. In Theorising World Cinema. (pp. xvii-xxxii). London: IB Tauris.
- Dudrah, R., & Dickey, S. (Ed.) (2011). South Asian Cinemas: Widening the Lens. (Contemporary South Asia). London: Routledge.
- Dudrah, R., & Dick, M. (2011). Ethnic Community Histories in the Midlands. Midland History, 36(2), 143-148.
2010
- Dudrah, R. (2010). Haptic Urban Ethnoscapes: Representation, Diasporic Media & Urban Cultural Landscapes. Journal of Media Practice, 11(1), 31-46.
- Dudrah, R. (2010). The Media and British Asian Fashion. In Breward, C. (Ed.), Crang, P. (Ed.), & Crill, R. (Ed.) British Asian Style: Fashion and Textiles Past and Present. (pp. 136-145). Hong Kong: Victoria and Albert Museum Publishing.
- Dudrah, R., & Desai, J. (Ed.) (2008). The Bollywood Reader. Berkshire & New York: Open University Press.
2008
- Dudrah, R. (2008). Queer as Desis: Secret Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Bollywood Films in Diasporic Urban Ethnoscapes. In Gopal, S. (Ed.), & Moorti, S. (Ed.) Global Bollywood. Travels of Hindi Song and Dance. (pp. 288-307). Minneapolis, USA: University of Minnesota Press.
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Dudrah, R. (2008). Bollywood Stills Exhibition. Co-curated with Punch Records and Kranti Media in partnership with SHISHA (the international agency for contemporary South Asian arts crafts and visual culture) and with Kamat Foto Flash studios in Mumbai, India.
- Dudrah, R., (2008). Borders and Border Crossings in Main Hoon Na and Veer Zaara. In Bharat, M. (Ed.), & Kumar, N. (Ed.) Filming the Line of Control: The Indo-Pak Relationship through the Cinematic Lens. (pp. 40-55). New Delhi and London: Routledge.
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Dudrah, R. (2008). Bollywood Stills Exhibition. Co-curated with Punch Records and Kranti Media in partnership with SHISHA (the international agency for contemporary South Asian arts crafts and visual culture) and with Kamat Foto Flash studios in Mumbai, India.
2007
- Dudrah, R. (2007). Soho Road to the Punjab Bhangra Exhibition with Punch Records, Birmingham.
- Dudrah, R. (2007). Celebrating Indian Cinema Exhibition, co-curated with the National Media Museum, Bradford.
- Dudrah, R. (2007). Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond. Birmingham: Birmingham City Council.
2006
- Dudrah, R. (2006). Bollywood: Sociology Goes to the Movies. London and New Delhi: Sage Publications.
- Dudrah, R. (2006). Singing for India: Songs and Music in the Bollywood Film. In Films Musical Moments. Edinburgh: Flicks Books.
2005
- Dudrah, R. (2005). Zee TV: Diasporic Non-terrestrial Television in Europe.South Asian Popular Culture, 3, 33-47.
- Dudrah, R., Desai, J., & Rai, A. (2005). Bollywood Audiences. South Asian Popular Culture, 3(2), 79-82.
2004
- Dudrah, R. (2004). Diasporicity in the City of Portsmouth (UK): Local and global connections of Black Britishness. Sociological Research Online, 9(2).
2002
- Dudrah, R. (2002). British Bhangra Music and the Battle of Brit Pop - South Asian Cultural Identity and Cultural Politics in Urban Britain. Migration: A European Journal of International Migration and Ethnic Relations,39/40/41.
- Dudrah, R. K. (2002). Vilayati Bollywood: Popular Hindi cinema-going and diasporic South Asian identity in Birmingham (UK). Javnost, 9(1), 19-36.
- Dudrah, R. K. (2002). Zee TV-Europe and the construction of a pan-European South Asian identity. Contemporary South Asia, 11(2), 163-181.
- Dudrah, R. (2002). Cultural Production in the British Bhangra Music Industry: Music-Making, Locality, and Gender. International Journal of Punjab Studies, 9.
- Dudrah, R. (2002). Birmingham (UK): Constructing City Spaces through Black Popular Cultures and the Black Public Sphere. CITY: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 6, 335-350.
- Dudrah, R. (2002). Drum 'n' dhol: British bhangra music and diasporic South Asian identity formation. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 5(3).
Rajinder is working with colleagues at BCU and across the cultural and creative industry sectors in Birmingham and beyond to help realise the University's plans for its STEAMHouse project.
Rajinder was invited as co-curator for a national exhibition on Bollywood Cinema which was funded by the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) at the National Media Museum, Bradford, during the IIFA Awards, May - June 2007 across Yorkshire.
He has been a script reader and adviser for Maverick Television (Birmingham) on their Crossovers project which mentored 6 British feature film scriptwriters with their work. Rajinder has also researched and written with Dr Malcolm Dick (University of Birmingham) entries on the social history of Handsworth's (Birmingham) post-war development for Birmingham City Council's on-line Digital Handsworth project, project website: www.digitalhandsworth.org.uk
