Cross-Appointments
Biography
Rakesh Sengupta’s research and teaching focuses on South Asian cinemas, film history, media archaeology, critical theory and global media cultures. His current book project, An Archaeology of Screenwriting: Archives, Practices and Epistemes of Indian Cinema, 1930-1960, plots the history of screenwriting in South Asia outside Western epistemological frameworks of cinema. His work interrogates universalist ideas of film archives, aesthetics and audiences to imagine an alternative history of the medium and offers a decolonial model of film historiography from the Global South. His research is based on historical materials in four languages across formal and informal archives in several countries, as well as interview-based fieldwork in Mumbai.
Rakesh’s article in BioScope was awarded the Best Journal Article by Screenwriting Research Network and received High Commendation for Screen’s Annette Kuhn Debut Essay Prize. His research has also been published in Theory, Culture & Society and Literature/Film Quarterly, among other journals and edited volumes. His public writing on South Asian cinema and culture has appeared in The Wire, Dawn and Indian Cultural Forum.
Rakesh has previously taught at the University of Amsterdam and holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
Towards a Decolonial Media Archaeology: The Absent Archive of Screenwriting History and the Obsolete Munshi. Theory, Culture & Society, 38(1), 3-26, 2021
Stardom. Special Issue on Keywords from South Asian Cinema. Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, 2021 (Co-authored with Rachel Dwyer)
Scripting for the Masses: Notes on the Political Economy of Bollywood. In C. Batty, S. Taylor. (Eds.), Handbook of Script Development. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021
Negotiating Empathy and Excess: Pyaasa as a Melodrama of Authorship. Literature/ Film Quarterly, 47(3), 2019
Writing from the Margins of Media: Screenwriting Practice and Discourse During the First Indian Talkies. Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, 9(2), 117-136, 2018
Other Writing
The Dogwhistle of ‘Hinduphobia’. Dawn, 2021
Bollywood Is a Major Target for Right Wing Groups Looking for Signs of 'Hinduphobia'. The Wire, 2021
Saadat Hasan died at 42. Manto lives on: The enduring relevance of a screened author. Indian Cultural Forum, 2018