Contesting Hindu Representations in Media and Popular Culture From Cinema and Comedy to Social Media and Sacred Art

Nidhi Shendurnikar has a doctoral degree in Political Science from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat. She has a decade of teaching and research experience in media and communication studies, having supervised over sixty postgraduate theses/dissertations. She has been a fellow of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India, for her doctoral work on ‘Conflict Mediation between India and Pakistan and Media’s Role’ from 2011-2015. She has worked on research projects with institutions like the National Commission for Women (NCW), Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Center for the Study of Developing Societies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anaadi Foundation, and others. As an academic, she has taught modules on Communication Research, Social Science Research Design and Methods, Qualitative Data Analysis and Interpretation, Research Writing, New Media, Gender Studies, Political Communication, and Indian Knowledge Systems to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Ramesh Rao , who earned his PhD from Michigan State University, has taught in the US since 1987, across four states – Michigan, Missouri, Virginia, and Georgia. Over the course of forty years, he has taught more than two dozen communication courses, ranging from public speaking to interpersonal communication, and from media literacy to communication theory. He is, at present, a professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, Media and Film, at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. He is the author/co-author of more than half a dozen books, ranging from intercultural communication and Indian communication theory to Indian politics and society. He has authored more than one hundred opinion pieces that have been published across Indian, American, and British newspapers and magazines. In his spare time, he enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction, watching tennis and golf, and listening to Carnatic music.