Indiana University

Indiana University School of Journalism

Radhika ParameswaranRadhika Parameswaran

Professor
EP206A
812-855-8569
10 a.m to 11 a.m. Tuesdays/Thursdays
r%pfa_r>awmue$s_>6A

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Biography

Radhika Parameswaran's research has been published in a variety of academic journals including Journal of Children & Media, Communication, Culture, & Critique, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication Theory, Qualitative Inquiry, Communication Review, and Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies.
Her major publications include two monographs in the AEJMC journal Journalism & Communication Monographs, one a co-authored monograph "Melanin on the Margins: Advertising and the Cultural Politics of Fair/Light/White beauty in India" published in 2009 and another sole-authored monograph "Global Media Events in India: Contests Over Beauty, Gender, and Nation" published in 2001.
She is currently working on a large-scale project editing one of eight volumes of Blackwell's forthcoming International Companions to Media Studies. She will edit the volume on Audience Studies, consisting of 24 chapters authored by leading and emerging scholars from Australia, Denmark, U.K, Singapore, India, China, and the United States who teach and do research in media studies, journalism, and communication studies.
In addition to the edited book, she is also involved in two major research projects: an analysis of magazine cover portrayals of globalizing India and another on media discourses of resistance against light-skinned beauty norms, racism, and colorism in India.

Research profile

My research interests include feminist cultural studies, gender and media globalization, South Asia, and postcolonial studies. I am interested in feminist and international cultural studies inquiry that bridges the disciplines of media studies, women's studies, and South Asian studies. A consistent theme that runs through my research is the complexity of gender as a multidimensional social category whose meaning evolves only in relation to other social formations of race, class, caste, race, and ethnicity.
My work emphasizes the ways in which historical and economic processes-colonialism, nationalism, and globalization-shape the social construction of gender and modernity. In addition, my analysis of global and local media culture through the lens of postcolonial theories contributes to the growing field of postcolonial media studies, a recent intellectual direction in international communication.
My research on gender and media culture spans the spectrum of media audiences, media texts, and media producers. Although my immersion in cultural studies began with an interest in media audiences, I have expanded my work to include the study of texts and producers. How do non-Western audiences incorporate global media culture into their everyday lives? In what ways do media representations operate as part of larger symbolic cultural systems? How do media producers act as cultural brokers of global modernity and local tradition? I have employed a range of qualitative methods including participant observation, focus groups, in-depth interviews, textual analysis, and discourse analysis to address these broad questions.

Teaching Areas

Globalization and international communication; Gender, race, and media; Cultural studies; Qualitative research methods; Advertising and consumer culture research; Media and society

Research publications (selected, only 2001-present)

Research awards and honors (select)

Invited talks at:
  • Trinity University, San Antonio
  • University of Iowa, Iowa City
  • University of Georgia, Athens
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
  • University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
  • DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.
  • University of Texas, Austin
  • Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Sophia Somani Polytechnic College, Mumbai
  • Osmania University, Hyderabad
Other honors:
  • Visiting Professor, Summer 2010 Maymester program, University of Colorado, Boulder.
  • Visiting Research Scholar, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2009.
  • Top Faculty Paper Award. (2009). Ethnicity and Race in Communication Division. International Communication Association.
  • Served as Faculty Research Expert, National Communication Association. Annual Doctoral Honors Seminar, University of Colorado, Boulder, Summer 2007.
  • Mary Yodelis Smith Award. (2004). Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada.
  • Nominated for Outstanding Junior Faculty Scholar Award. (2004). International Communication Association.
  • First Place Faculty Paper Award. (2003). Critical and Cultural Studies Division. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas City, Mo.
  • Nominated for Outstanding Junior Faculty Scholar Award. (2003). Feminist Scholarship Division, International Communication Association.
  • First Place Faculty Paper Award. (2002). Critical and Cultural Studies Division. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Miami, Fla.
  • First Place Faculty Paper Award. (2001). Commission on the Status of Women. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, D.C.
  • First Place Faculty Paper Award. (2001). Critical and Cultural Studies Division. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, D.C.
  • First Place Student Paper Award. (1996). Qualitative Studies Division. Annual Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, CA. (co-authored paper).
  • Kappa Tau Alpha Research Paper Award. (1996). National Honor Society in Journalism and Mass Communication, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
  • John Murray Outstanding Doctoral Student Award for Research. (1995). School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa.
  • Ada Johnson/Otilia Maria Fernandez Women's Studies Award. (1995). Outstanding Performance in Women's Studies Courses, Women's Studies Program, University of Iowa.

Editorial board member, Academic journals (past and present)

  • Asian Journal of Communication
  • Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture
  • Journal of Communication Inquiry
  • Communication Methods and Measures
  • Critical Studies in Media Communication

Education

  • Ph.D. (Mass Communication), University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
  • M.S. Media Studies, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas.
  • M.C.J. (Master’s degree in Communication & Journalism). Osmania University, India.

Professional positions

Associate editor, Dryden Press, Fort Worth, Texas, 1993; editorial intern, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth, Texas, 1992; assistant editor, Orient Longman Ltd., Hyderabad, India, 1988-90; public relations assistant, Tata Group of Companies, Bombay, India, 1988; reporter and columnist, Citizen's Evening, Hyderabad, India, 1987-88; freelance feature writer, Hyderabad, India, 1985-1990.