Academic Talks
2019 — Keynote Lecture at conference, ‘(Re)Gazing: gender and Indian cinema in the age of new media. Kaunas University of Technology: ‘Fighting fit: stunt queens, female warriors and “lady wrestlers”’
2019 — Keynote Lecture at conference, ‘Media Mutations 11’, University of Bologna: ‘New myths for an old nation: Bollywood, soft power and Indian nationalism’
2018 — Keynote Lecture at conference ‘Entertainment, politics and culture: Perspectives on a historical relationship’, History Lab, Institute of Historical Research, London, ‘The elephant in the room: addressing the political in Hindi cinema (Bollywood)’
2018 — Keynote Lecture at conference, ‘Representation in Bollywood cinema’, Birmingham City University: ‘Tiger zinda hai: Middle-age and the Bollywood male star’
2017 — Paper at conference, ‘Coming to terms with the sacred in popular culture’, Brown University: ‘Bhagwan se baat kare ka communication system ye gola ka … total lul ho chuka hai (This planet’s communication system for talking to God is totally useless): Coming to Terms with the Sacred in Indian Cinema’
2017 — Lecture at Harvard University: ‘Bhagwan se baat kare ka communication system ye gola ka … total lul ho chuka hai (This planet’s communication system for talking to God is totally useless): Coming to Terms with the Sacred in Indian Cinema’
2017 — Paper at conference, ‘ Cinema, soft power and geo-political change’, University of Leeds: ‘New myths for an old nation: Bollywood, soft power and Hindu nationalism’
2017 — Keynote Lecture at conference, ‘Exoticism in Contemporary Transnational Cinema: Music and Spectacle’: ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves: Imagining Goans in Hindi cinema’, Royal Holloway, University of London
2017 — Annual Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, Department of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee
2017 — Paper at conference, ‘Images of Asia in Portuguese cinema’, University of Lisbon: ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves: Imagining Goans in Hindi cinema’
2017 — Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, Department of Humanities, IIT Delhi
2017 — Lecture, ‘Indian Cinema and its changing roles in a globalized world’, St. Xavier’s College, Economics-Literature Festival, Mumbai
2017 — Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, Department of Humanities, IIT Guwahati
2016 — Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, Department of Social Sciences, PUC, Belo Horizonte
2016 — Paper at Mostra Internacional de Cinema de Sao Paulo: ‘Bollywood’s new avatar: Hindi cinema and India’s soft power.’
2016 — Paper At Screen Studies Conference, 2016, University of Glasgow: ‘Bollywood’s new avatar: Hindi cinema and India’s soft power.’
2016 — Lecture ‘Mumbai middlebrow: ways of thinking about the middle ground in Hindi cinema’, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
2015 — Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, University of New South Wales. Sydney
2015 — Lecture ‘Mumbai middlebrow: ways of thinking about the middle ground in Hindi cinema’, University of Waikato, Hamilton
2015 — Lecture, ‘Calling God on the wrong number: Hindu-Muslim relations in PK (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)’, University of Victoria, Wellington
2015 — Paper at 21st Biennial New Zealand Asian Studies Society Conference: ‘Imagining the inner life of the Asian elephant in India’
2015 — Invitations also to the University of Warwick, Harvard University)
2015 — Paper at conference, India as an emerging country, University of Louvain: ‘Bollywood’s new avatar: cinema and soft power’ —
2015 — Paper at conference, Monsoon Feelings, Max Planck Institute, Berlin: ‘Rimjhim ke taraane leke aayi barsaat: Songs of love and longing in the Bombay rains’
2015 — Paper, with Helen Ashton, at conference Hinglish: social and cultural dimensions of Hindi-Engish bilingualism in contemporary India, SOAS: ‘Get on the train, Baby!: Hinglish and accented English in Chennai Express’
2015 — Lecture, ‘Mumbai middlebrow: ways of thinking about the middle ground in Hindi cinema’, Centre of World Cinema, University of Leeds
2015 — Keynote speaker, ‘Bollywood’s India’, South Asian Film Seminar, Williams College
2015 — Lecture, ‘Mumbai middlebrow: ways of thinking about the middle ground in Hindi cinema’, University of St Andrew’s
2014 — Lecture, ‘Vighnaharta Shree Siddhivinayak: Ganesh, Remover of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings, in Mumbai’, CP Ramaswami Aiyar Institute of Indological Studies, Chennai
2014 — Lecture, ‘Bollywood’s India’, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai
2014 — Lecture, ‘Bollywood’s India: how does Hindi cinema imagine modern India?’ School of International Development, University of East Anglia
2014 — Keynote speaker at conference, South Asian Youth Cultures and Fashion, London College of Fashion: ‘From Dilip Kumar’s hair to Salman Khan’s shirt: The iconic features of the male stars of Hindi cinema’
2014 — Paper, with Helen Ashton, at conference, Hinglish workshop, SARAI, Delhi, ‘ “I do fatafat constipation with goras in tip-top gora English”: Hinglish and English accents and speech in Jab Tak Hai Jaan (Dir. Yash Chopra, 2012)’
2014 — Speaker, ‘Bollywood’s India’, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar
2014 — Speaker, ‘An introduction to Bollywood’, Ireland India Institute, Dublin
2014 — Lecture, ‘Remover of obstacles: Ganesh and the persistence of the mythological genre in Hindi cinema’, Centre for International History, Columbia University
2014 — Lecture, ‘Remover of obstacles: the persistence of the mythological genre in Hindi cinema’, South Asian Religions Distinguished Lectureship, McGill University, Montreal
2014 — Presentation on the biopic, Department of Film Studies, King’s College, London
2014 — Invitation to speak at conference at University of Copenhagen on Cinema and Censorship. (Clash with Montreal.)
2014 — Speaker at conference at SARAI marking 100 years of Indian cinema (cancelled, due to bereavement)
2013 — Lecture, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi: The biggest star of all: the elephant in Hindi cinema’
2013 — Member of Panel of Delegates of the Indian Government on the Culture of the Elephant at Elephant 50:50 (conference cancelled)
2013 — Keynote speaker at conference, ‘A star is born: cinematic reflections on stardom and the ‘stardom film’ at King’s College, University of London
2013 — Keynote speaker at conference, ‘Communicating soft power: contrasting perspectives from India and China’. The India Media Centre and the China Media Centre of the Communication and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster
2013 — 2013 India-Canada Association Lecture, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto: ‘International khiladis (players): Bollywood and the Indian diaspora’
2013 — Lecture series, ‘Bollywood’s India’, University of St Gallen
2013 — Speaker at META Literature Festival, St Joseph’s College, Bangalore: ‘Literary adaptation to cinema’
2013 — Seminar, National Centre for the Biological Sciences, Bangalore: ‘The biggest star of all: the elephant in Hindi cinema’
2013 — Paper at conference, ‘The Indian cinema century’, JNU, New Delhi: ‘I love you when you’re angry: Amitabh Bachchan, emotion and the star in the Hindi film.’
2012 — Paper at conference, ‘The Indian phantasm: imagining multiple Indias in India and beyond’, University of Oslo: ‘Bollywood’s India’
2012 — Lectures on Indian cinema for the India Initiative at Brown University, Rhode Island: ‘Islamicate or Islamophobic?: Muslims in Hindi cinema’ and ‘Filming the gods: Hindu religious genres and mythmaking in Hindi cinema’
2012 — Seminar, Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge: ‘The biggest star of all: the elephant in Hindi cinema’
2012 — Seminar, Indian Institute, King’s College London: ‘The biggest star of all: the elephant in Hindi cinema’
2012 — Lecture on Raj Kapoor, King’s Key Scholars Series, British Film Institute and King’s College London
2011 — Paper at symposium, ‘Making India Visible: Visual Culture and Modern Art in Contemporary India’, Stanford University: ‘The biggest star of all: the elephant in Hindi cinema’
2011 — Lecture, ‘The biopic and the new Hindi cinema’, UCLA
2011 — Seminar, ‘The biopic and the new Hindi cinema’, Australian National University
2011 — Seminar in series ‘The media in Asia’, ‘The biopic and the new Hindi cinema’, University of Sydney. In association with the South Asia Network
2011 — Keynote at conference, ‘What’s New? The Changing Face of Indian Cinema: Contemporary and Historical Contexts’, The India Media Centre, University of Westminster, in association with the London Indian Film Festival: ‘Back with Dabangg’
2011 — Paper at symposium, ‘Bollywood and Indian cinema,’ University of Copenhagen, ‘The case of the missing Mahatma: Gandhi and the Hindi cinema’
2011 — Paper at conference, ‘The Diasporic Family in Cinema’, Co-hosted by the Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, the Centres for Film and Media Studies and for Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS, in association with the Screen Studies Group, University of London, and the Ciné Lumière: ‘Innocents abroad: the diaspora in the shaping of the imagined Indian family’
2011 — The Distinguished Ford Lecture, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at the University of Oxford, ‘Amitabh Bachchan: emotion and the Hindi film star’, with response by Amitabh Bachchan
2010 — Annual lecture of the British Association of South Asian Studies, ‘The case of the missing Mahatma: Gandhi and the Hindi cinema’, Royal Asiatic Society, London
2010 — Lecture, ‘The singer, not the song’, Alliance française, New Delhi
2010 — Panel convenor at conference, Shah Rukh Khan and Global Bollywood, University of Vienna
2010 — Discussant at conference, ‘Religion in the making of a region: Perspectives from Gujarat’, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
2010 — Lecture, University of Münster, ‘Hindi cinema: Bollywood and beyond’
2010 — Paper at symposium, ‘Indian Cinema Studies: Bollywood and Beyond’ co-organised with University of Westminster: ‘The case of the missing Mahatma: Gandhi and Hindi cinema.’
2010 — Lecture, South Asia seminar, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, ‘Happy ever after: Hindi films and the happy ending’
2010 — ‘Why study Indian cinema?’ Lecture at Brunel University
2009 — Speaker at conference on Gandhi, PUKAR and Jnanapravaha, Mumbai, ‘Gandhi and Indian cinema’
2009 — Lecture, Colloquium, Demystifying India, University of Rhode Island, ‘Bollywood’s India’
2009 — Lecture, Brown University, ‘Happy ever after: Hindi films and the happy ending’
2009 — Lecture, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, ‘Bollywood’s India’
2009 — Lecture, University of Southampton, ‘Bollywood in East Africa’
2009 — Paper in conference at the Open University: ‘Making Britain: South Asian visions of home and abroad 1870-1950: ‘Re-presenting South Asians’’: ‘Hungarian men, stunt queens and elephant boys: representing ‘Indians’ in Empire films’
2009 — Paper in conference at University of Westminster/South Asian Cinema Foundation: ‘Literature and Indian cinema’: ‘Bombay Gothic: sixty years of Mahal’
2009 — Paper in conference at Tsaritsyno Estate Museum, Moscow: ‘The Topography of Happiness: New Rituals and Economies of Enjoyment after Utopia’: ‘Happy ever after: Hindi films and the happy ending’
2009 — Seminar at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla: ‘Happy ever after: Hindi films and the happy ending’
2009 — Paper in conference at SOAS/University of Westminster, ‘Indian cinema circuits: diasporas, peripheries and beyond’: ‘Bollywood in East Africa’
2009 — Lecture, University of Vienna, ‘Bombay Gothic: sixty years of Mahal’
2009 — Panel discussant at FICCI/Frames, Panel: ‘The legacy of Satyajit Ray’
2009 — Paper at Jnanapravaha, Mumbai in series ‘Iconic Images’: ‘Bombay Gothic: sixty years of Mahal’
2009 — Keynote address at ‘Diverse Harmonies: Literary and Cultural Confluences’, Biennial Conference of Comparative Literature of India Association [CLAI], University of Hyderabad
2008 — Paper in conference at the British Academy, ‘Bollywood in East Africa: preliminary findings’
2008 — Paper in conference at the Festival of Indian Cinema, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and the Indian Embassy, Abu Dhabi, ‘Bombay Gothic: sixty years of Mahal’
2008 — Paper in conference ‘Leisure in Africa: colonial and post-colonial transformations’, British Institute in Eastern Africa: ‘Bollywood and East Africa’
2008 — Paper in conference ‘Indian cinema’, University of Westminster: ‘Bollywood’s imaginaries: religion, diaspora and modern India’
2008 — Lecture ‘Sant Tukaram: the devotional life of an Indian medieval saint’, Guardini Stiftung/Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2008 — Lecture ‘Sant Tukaram: the devotional life of an Indian medieval saint’, The Ancient India and Iran Trust, Cambridge
2008 — Lecture to inaugurate series at the Indian Embassy, Abu Dhabi, ‘Bollywood’s India’
2007 — Lecture in series ‘Towards independence: from Zafar to Gandhi’, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich: ‘Bollywood’s India’
2007 — Lecture at Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester: ‘Bombay cinema and the new middle classes’
2007 — Lecture at Boston University: ‘Yeh shaadi nahi ho sakti/This wedding cannot happen!: marriage and romance in Hindi cinema’
2007 — Lecture at Harvard University: ‘Bollywood’s India’
2007 — Lecture at Wellesley College: ‘Bollywood for beginners’
2007 — Lecture in Commonwealth History Seminar, University of Oxford: ‘Bollywood’s India: history’
2007 — Paper in series ‘India 60 celebrations’, The Nehru Centre, Indian High Commission: ‘Themes from the Mahabharata in Hindi films’
2007 — Paper in conference, ‘Exploring the ‘Middle Classes in South Asia, University of Sussex: ‘Zara hatke! : the new middle classes and the segmentation of Indian cinema’
2007 — Participant in Summer School, paper and discussion: ‘Inde: la surprenante modernité’, University of Montreal: ‘Les nouvelles classes moyennes, la jeunesse, la romance et le sexe dans l’Inde moderne’
2007 — Lecture in series, ‘New India’, Temple University: ‘Religion and India cinema’
2007 — Lecture in series, South Asia FOCUS Year Lecture Series 2006-07: ‘Living Hindu Myths: Epic Indian Heroes in Modern Times’, Bucknell University: ‘Screen goddesses: Shakti, Sati, Naginas and other female deities in Indian cinema’
2007 — Lecture in series on urban history, The New School University, New York: ‘Bombay cinema and the new middle classes’
2007 — Paper in Mahabharata conference, Dept of Religious Studies, SOAS: ‘Themes from the Mahabharata in Hindi films’
2006 — Lecture to post-graduate diploma in Classical and Decorative Arts of India, British Museum: ‘Indian cinema’
2006 — Lecture in series, ‘Goddess’, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney: ‘Screen Goddesses: the Devi in Indian cinema’
2006 — Lecture, South Asia Seminar Group, University of Technology, Sydney: ‘Filming the gods’
2006 — Participant in ‘Séminaire sur la traduction des textes de sciences humaines’, Centre américain de Sciences Po, Paris
2006 — Lecture, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Aberystwyth: ‘Religion and Indian cinema’
2006 — Participant in conference ‘The social and material life of Indian cinema’, the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University: ‘Falling stars and rising producers: charisma and control in the Hindi film world’
2006 — Participant in Screen Studies Symposium on ‘Storytelling in world cinema’: ‘Religious narratives in Indian cinema’
2005-6 — Four lectures/booklaunches of ‘100 Bollywood films’ in India for the British Council (Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai)
2005 — Lecture, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s Visiting Scholars Programme: ‘Globalising Bollywood’
2005 — Lecture to post-graduate diploma in Classical and Decorative Arts of India, British Museum: ‘Indian cinema’
2005 — Speaker, ‘Brand Bollywood’, FICCI-Frames 2005, Mumbai
2005 — Panel discussion, PUKAR Winter Institute: ‘Language and cinema in Mumbai’
2004 — Lecture, The Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi: ‘Hindi cinema and the Indian diaspora’
2004 — Participant in conference ‘(Un)tying the knot: tradition and change in Asian marriage’, The Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore: ‘Yeh shaadi nahin ho sakti!(This wedding cannot happen!)’
2004 — Keynote speaker at 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia: ‘Religion and the ‘social’ Hindi film’
2004 — Seminar, Art Gallery of New South Wales: ‘Romance and marriage in the Hindi film’
2004 — Krishna Somers Foundation Lecture, Murdoch University, Perth: ‘Bollywood cinema’
2004 — Speaker at Open Doek (Belgium International Film Festival), organized by the Vlaamse Dienst voor Filmcultuur: ‘Classic Bollywood’
2004 — Seminar, Dept of Sociology, Wellesley College: ‘Filming the gods’
2004 — Seminar, Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: ‘The Hindi film and the diaspora’
2004 — Seminar, Dept of Sanskrit, Harvard University: ‘Filming the gods: secularism and Indian cinema’
2004 — Seminar in Religious Studies Research Seminar, University of Lancaster: ‘Filming the gods’
2004 — Discussant, Graduate Student Symposium, University of Chicago
2004 — Seminar, Southern Asia Institute, Columbia University: ‘Religion and Indian cinema’
2004 — Seminar, Dept of Material Culture, University College, London: ‘Kismet: religion and melodrama in the ‘secular’ Hindi film’
2004 — Seminar in series South Asia Research Seminars ‘Globalisation, Ethnicity and Culture’, University of Sussex: ‘Filming the gods’
2003 — Seminar in series ‘Genres in world Cinema’, University of Leeds: ‘Genre in Indian cinema’
2003 — Seminar at PUKAR, Mumbai: ‘Filming the gods’
2003 — Seminar, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago: ‘Filming the gods’
2003 — Participant in conference, ‘Exporting, Translating and Recreating Performance’, SOAS/UCL: ‘Religion in Indian cinema’: ‘Filming the gods’
2003 — Keynote speaker at 28th Spalding Symposium on Indian Religions, University of Oxford: ‘Religion in Hindi cinema’
2003 — Seminar at School of English and Drama at Queen Mary College, University of London: ‘Hindu nationalism and Hindi cinema’
2002 — Lecture to post-graduate diploma in Asian Art-history, British Museum: ‘Indian cinema’
2002 — Seminar in Department of English, University of Warwick: ‘Views of the Taj Mahal’
2002 — Participant in South Asia Film Festival, University of Virginia: ‘Devdas’
2002 — Paper presented in workshop series: Gender and Rapid Economic Growth in Contemporary East, Southeast, and South Asia, University of Iowa: ‘Yeh dil maange more! (This heart wants more!): Hindi cinema and consumerism in the 1990s’
2002 — Seminar, Departments of History and Film Studies, University of Syracuse: ‘The new historical in Hindi cinema’
2002 — Seminar, Department of Film Studies, Montclair University: ‘Kiss and tell: declaring love in the Hindi movie’
2002 — Seminar, Department of Culture and Communication, New York University: ‘Hindu nationalism and Hindi cinema’
2002 — Seminar, Department of History, Harvard University: ‘Hindu nationalism and Hindi cinema’
2002 — Participant in conference ‘Peripheral Centres, Central Peripheries: Anglophone India and its Diaspora(s)’, Saarland University: ‘Shifting genres in Hindi cinema’; panelist in summary: ‘Transcultural Perspectives on Centres and Peripheries’
2002 — Participant in ‘Conference on World cinema’, the University of Leeds: ‘New nationalism in Hindi cinema’
2002 — Participant in colloquium ‘Travel and anthropology’, University of Nottingham: ‘Views of the Taj Mahal’
2002 — Seminar, AHRB Centre for Literature, SOAS/UCL: ‘Kiss and tell: declaring love in the Hindi movie’
2001 — Participant in ‘Religion, Media and the Public Sphere’, the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and the Research Centre Religion and Society (Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam): ‘The saffron screen?: the Hindi film industry and Hindutva’
2001 — Seminar at the Institute for Ismaili Studies, London: ‘Hindu nationalism and the Hindi film industry’
2001 — Participant in workshop ‘Love in South Asian Traditions’, University of Cambridge: ‘‘Angrezii men kahte hain ke ‘Aay lav yuu’…: The kiss in the Hindi film’
2001 — Participant in conference ‘Star Appeal: Beyond the Hollywood Firmament’, University of Warwick: ‘Star of India: Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi cinema’
2001 — Lecture in the media series at the Research Centre for Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam: ‘The star in Hindi cinema: Amitabh Bachchan’
2000 — Seminar at the Indisk Filmfestival, Stavanger, Norway: ‘New romantics and old romantics’
2000 — Lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London: ‘Romance–action–romance’
2000 — Participant on panel ‘Negotiatied identities in globalized Hinduism’ at 18th Quinquennial Congress, The International Association for the History of Religions, Durban: ‘Leading British Hindus: the Swaminarayan movement from Gujarat to global’
2000 — Participant on panel ‘Phantasms of the Postcolonial’ at Screen International Conference, University of Glasgow: ‘Romance and erotics in the films of Yash Chopra’
2000 — Participant in ‘South Asian Lifestories’, SOAS: ‘Yash Chopra: a life in films’
2000 — Participant at conference ‘The words to say it: genres, representations and experiences of sexuality in South Asia’ at the University of Cambridge: ‘The wet sari in Hindi cinema’
2000 — Participant at conference ‘Hot zones: Eroticism, Sexuality, & Visual Media in India’, Institute for Women’s Studies, Rutgers University: ‘The erotics of the wet sari in the Hindi film’
2000 — Participant in ‘Mediating the other: Jews, Christians, Muslims and the media’ convened by the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies held at Taba, Egypt: ‘Imagining the other: non-Hindus in Indian popular cinema’
2000 — Participant in conference ‘Production in the popular Hindi film’, University of California at Berkeley: ‘The crew that never (re)tires: Yash Raj Films and Hindi film production’
2000 — Seminar, Centre for South Asia, Columbia University: ‘The erotics of the wet sari in the Hindi film’
2000 — Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University: ‘The erotics of the wet sari in the Hindi film’
2000 — Seminar, Outreach series, Manchester Metropolitan University: ‘The romantic Hindi cinema of Yash Chopra’
2000 — Seminar, Centre for South Asia, University of Hull: ‘The erotics of the wet sari in the Hindi film’
1999 — Lecture, South Asian Library Group: ‘Pure at heart: the pleasures of the courtesan film’
1999 — Lecture, British Film Institute: ‘Mother India’
1999 — Seminar, SOAS: ‘Film Theory and Asian and African cinema’
1999 — Lecture, Habitat Centre, New Delhi: ‘The cinema of Yash Chopra’
1998 — Seminar, University of Jadavpur, Calcutta: ‘Indian romantic cinema’
1998 — Participant in conference ‘Shangar and Shringar’, University of Bombay: ‘Indian romantic cinema’
1998 — Lecture, British Film Institute: ‘Indian romantic cinema’
1998 — Participant in ‘Bollywood (un)limited: global responses to Indian cinema’, University of Iowa: ‘Lamhe and Indian summer: the romantic cinema of Yash Chopra and the diaspora’
1998 — Seminar, Dept. of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, the University of Chicago: ‘Indian film magazines’
1997 — Seminar, Anthropology Dept, SOAS: ‘Romantic Indian cinema’
1997 — Participant in ‘Translatings’, University of New South Wales, Sydney: ‘The Hindi romantic cinema of Yash Chopra’
1994 — Lecture, British Museum: ‘The Swaminarayan sect’
1994 — Participant in conference ‘(Un)writing Empire’, University of Leiden:‘ Starry nights: the novels of Shobha Dé’
1993 — Participant in BASAS Conference, University of Cambridge
1991 — Participant in conference ‘Fifth international conference on devotional literature in new Indo-Aryan languages’, EFEO, Paris