Prof. Shoma Munshi (American University of Kuwait)
Curriculum Vitae
Shoma Munshi is Division Head -- Social Sciences, and Professor of Anthropology at the American University of Kuwait (AUK). She is the editor of Images of the 'Modern Woman' in Asia: Global Media, Local Meanings (Curzon, 2001), and co-editor of Media, War and Terrorism: Responses from the Middle East and Asia (Routledge, London, 2004). Her book Prime Time Soap Operas on Indian Television (Routledge, New Delhi/London/New York 2010) analyzes how popular prime time soaps work as flagship programs and brands for television channels. Prior to joining AUK, Shoma Munshi worked at the University of Delhi, University of Amsterdam and the University of Pennsylvania, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New Delhi, India.
Shoma Munshi was invited as a Visiting Scholar at Zayed University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2011/2012. In former years she was a Visiting Scholar at Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (MSH), Paris, France and Dartmouth College, Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, Department of Anthropology, and the Middle East Studies Program, New Hampshire, USA. Among her activities she worked as consultant with Media Organizations, United Nations, and Indian Industry.
Her research interest focus on Media and Visual Anthropology, with special emphasis on television, popular culture in India, consumption, material culture, lifestyle aesthetics, and the middle class, emerging youth cultures in South Asia, Urban Anthropology and transnationality and migration, especially in relation to the South Asian diaspora.
At MPI-MMG Prof. Munshi was working closely with the Department of Religious Diversity with Prof. van der Veer on the ‘Urban Aspirations in Mega-cities’ project.