Neepa Majumdar
Assistant Professor of English
412-624-5578
nmajumda@pitt.edu
CL 450
Neepa Majumdar earned her PhD in Comparative Literature (with a specialization
in Film Studies) at Indiana University-Bloomington in 2001. She has taught
courses in Indian Cinema, Contemporary Black Film, Introduction to Film,
and Cinema and Ethnography. As a graduate student, she volunteered as
an elementary school teacher on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico.
She studied in Berlin as an exchange student, received a research grant
for work in the Library of Congress, and was a Junior Research Fellow
in the American Institute of Indian Studies, at the National Film Archive
of India. Her PhD dissertation, "Female Stardom and Cinema in India,
1930s to 1950s," was co-winner of the SCS "Outstanding Dissertation
Award" for 2002. It analyzes the cultural prohibitions and desires
surrounding the construction of female stardom in early Indian cinema.
The project provides a different vantage point for examining the concept
and phenomenon of the film "star" by considering its translocation
from Hollywood to a colonial setting. Professor Majumdar’s book,
Wanted Cultured Ladies Only! Female Stardom and Cinema in India,
1930s to 1950s is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press.
Publications
“Beyond the Song Sequence: Theorizing Sound in Indian Cinema,” The ContinuumCompanion to Sound in Film and Visual Media, ed. Graeme Harper (London: Continuum Press, forthcoming)
“Sant Tukaram (1936),” The Cinema of India: 24 Frames Series, ed. Lalitha Gopalan (Wallflower Press, forthcoming)
“Film Fragments, Documentary History, and Colonial Indian Cinema,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 16.1 (Spring 2007): 63-79.
Review, The River (Aleksei Balabanov, 2002). Kinokultura (January 2005)
“Pather Panchali: From Neo-Realism to Melodrama” Film Analysis: A Norton Reader Eds. R. L. Rutsky and Jeffrey Gieger. Norton, forthcoming, December 2004.
“Doubling, Stardom, and Melodrama in Indian Cinema: The ‘Impossible’ Role of Nargis.” Post Script (Special Issue, The Double in Movies) 22.3 (Summer 2003): 89-103.
“The Embodied Voice: Stardom and Song Sequences in Popular Hindi Cinema.”Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music. Eds. Arthur Knight and Pamela Wojcik. Durham: Duke University Press, 2001. 161-181.
Teaching
Undergraduate Courses
Film Analysis
Contemporary Film
Film and Politics
World Film History
Documentary Film
Bollywood and Indian cinema
Advanced Seminar in Film Studies
The Star System
The War Film
Graduate Courses
Film and Ethnography
Film History/Theory
War and Cinema
Film Sound: History, Theory, Aesthetics
Other Duties & Service
Member, Graduate Admissions Committee
Chair, Pedagogy and Difference Committee
Member, Senate Education Policies Committees
Member, Fellowship Committee, Program in Cultural Studies
Member, Film Studies Program Committee
Racial / Sexual Harrassment Officer
Organizer, “Entertainment and Anxiety: A Festival of Indian Cinema,” March 23-April 17, 2003
Co-Organizer, Traveling Film South Asia: A Festival of Documentaries from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan, November 9-21, 2004
Member, Nominating Committee, Society for Cinema and Media Studies, 2004-2005