Prajna Paramita Parasher, Ph.D.

Photo of Prajna Paramita Parasher
Professor, Chair, Arts, Design and Communication and Program Director, Film and Digital Technology and Graphic Design
412-365-1182
ADC - 102

Hometown: Simla, India
Joined Chatham: 1994

ACADEMIC AREAS OF INTEREST

Postcolonial and Critical Theory, Film History, Theory and Production, New Media and Gaming

PERSONAL AREAS OF INTEREST

Travel, music, reading, watching films, cooking and gardening.

Personal Website: Visit Website 

BIOGRAPHY

prajna paramita parasher is a filmmaker/scholar and multimedia artist practicing at the shifting intersection of classical thought and new technologies. Born in the foothills of the Himalayas, she began her education as a filmmaker in Paris and went on to earn a Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Currently she is Professor of Art, Film and Cultural Studies, Chair of the Arts, Design and Communication department and Program Director of the Film and Digital Technology program and Graphic Design program at Chatham University. Her personal focus on postcolonial studies comes to realization in several forms -- films, 2-D art, installations and scholarly writing. Her creative work is experimental and has been shown across the country in venues from small towns to the Smithsonian Institution, Carnegie Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Nehru Center, London, The Tagore Center, Berlin and the San Francisco Cinematheque. Already part of the canon at major American Universities, her films are used in ethnic, diaspora, cultural and women’s studies. She has received recognition via multiple fellowships, awards and grants.

EDUCATION
  • MA/Ph.D., Film Studies, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), 1994
  • BA, Political Science (Hons.) Philosophy (Minor) Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, (New Delhi, India), 1974

 

AWARDS 
  • Small Arts Award, The Heinz Foundation (2022)
  • Charles and Ida Pontious Distinguished Professorship, Chatham University (2019 onward)
  • Summer Artist Residency, SarNir Foundation, New Delhi, India (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Technology Fellowship, Chatham University (2014)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham University (2014)
  • Jane Burger Award for Advising, Chatham University (2013)
  • Commencement Speaker, Chatham University (2012)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham University (2011)
  • Grant Award, University of Pittsburgh (2007)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham College (2006)
  • Semi-Finalist, Creative Capital (2004)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham College (2003)
  • Bhul Professor, Chatham College (2002)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham College (2001)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1999)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1998)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1997)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham College (1996)
  • President’s Award, Global Focus, Year of Africa, Chatham College (1996)
  • Central Research Grant, Chatham College (1995)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1994)
  • Nominated for the Rockfellow Fellowship (1993)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1992)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1991)
  • Fellowship Award, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1990)
  • Fellowship Award, National Endowment for the Arts/American Film Institute, Great Lakes Region (1990)
  • Fellowship Award, National Endowment for the Arts/American Film Institute, Great Lakes Region (1988)
  • Festival Award, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh (1990)
  • New Television Award, The Center for New Television, Chicago (1989)
  • Grant Award, The Institute of Modern Communications, Northwestern University, Evanston (1988)
  • Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Contribution to Independent Filmmaking, 10th Big Muddy Film Festival (1988)
ORGANIZATIONS
  • Rhizome
  • Society for Cinema Studies
  • University Film and Video Association
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • Mapping the Imaginary: The Neverland of Disney Indians, Drawing on Difference: Critical Essays on Diversity in Disney. Johnson Cheu editor, McFarland Press, 2012
  • Article: Article: Specters and Images: When the Levees Broke – A Requiem in Four Acts, The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalysis, Special Issue: Witnessing, Hiding, Bystanding-Contributions from Film to Their Social Consequences, Wiley-Blackwell, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2011
  • Article: Transference and Translation: Robin Williams – A Passport of Difference, in in The Films of Robin Williams Johnson Cheu editor, McFarland Press, 2019
  • Book: Retrospective Hallucination: Echo in Bollywood Modernities, (2002) UBSPD New Delhi and London
  • Book: Field Notes From the Interior, (2004) Sterner, Sen, Parasher, Sarnir Foundation
  • Book: Time, Space, Light, Consciousness, (2004) Sterner, Sen, Parasher, Sarnir Foundation
  • Gallery Show: Urdu Calligraphic Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (2008)
  • Gallery Show: A Beholding, The Tagore Center Gallery, Berlin (2008)
  • Gallery Show: A Beholding, MoxieDaDa, Pittsburgh (2008)
  • Gallery Show: A Beholding, The Nehru Center Gallery, London (2007)
  • Gallery Show: FlickerFusion -- What the Dark Leaves Behind (2006)
  • Article: A Long Walk Out of Partition Partition: The Long Shadow. Urvashi Bhutalia editor, Zubaan/Penguin, 2015
  • Article: Analog Language, Digital Voice: Art in Diaspora, in Voices /Images. Penguin and Random House, 2015
  • Screenings and Acquisitions of Film and Videos: 25th Buzan International Film Festival, 2020; 16th International Film Festival, Pune, India 2017; !4th International Film Festival Pune, India, 2016; University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; WenTV/Documentary Film Channel/Best Documentary Films, 2013; Emory University, 2011; National Center for Performing Arts, Mumbai India, 2010; 40th International Film Festival, Goa India, 2009; American Imago, Florida, 2009 Association for Asian American Studies , Los Angeles, 2004; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 2004; Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. 2002;University of Chicago, 2002, Columbia University, 2002, American University 2002, Iowa State University, Iowa City, 2002; Stanford University, 2001, Rice University, Houston, 2001; Northwestern University, 2000; Ohio University Columbus, 2000, San Francisco Cinatheque, San Francisco, 1999;University of Auckland, New Zealand, 1999; University of Madison, Madison, 1999; University of Wisconsin Dearborn, 1999; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1999; Oberlin College , Ohio, 1998; University of California, Riverside, 1998; University of California , Santa Cruz, 1998; Cornell University, Ithaca, 1997; University of California, Berkeley, 1997; University of California, Los Angeles, 1997; University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1997; California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, 1996; Albright College, Reading, 1997; Towson State University, 1997;Rutgers University, New Jersey, 1997; Bryn Mawr College, 1997; Arizona State University, Phoenix, 1997; Festival Internationale de Cinema, Portugal, 1995
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
  • "The Broken Circle: Looking Back at Partition Through Line Drawings," Partition: The Long Shadow, India Habitat Center, New Delhi (2007)
  • "The Rainy Season: Iconography of Love in Popular Hindi Films," India Below the Surface -- Gender, History and Popular Culture, Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh (2007)
  • "Looking for the Beloved Within," India : Culture and Religion, Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh (2007)