Sohini Chakraborty

I am a first year PhD student at the Media School with broad research interests in audience studies, entertainment media, cross-cultural media engagement, and media technologies. More specifically, for my doctoral work, I intend to study inter-Asia transnational media flows with a focus on the distribution, consumption and audience reception of East Asian entertainment media in South Asia. Additionally, I would like to explore how access to new media technologies, interface design and digital literacy affect reach and engagement at the intersection of age and gender.

I have an MPhil in Social Sciences from the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. My thesis examined the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent with a focus on how the retreating colonial government divided and redistributed assets between India and Pakistan, including the personal belongings of refugees. Before coming to IU, I worked as a senior subeditor for the Opinion, Art and Book review pages of an Indian daily newspaper, The Telegraph. I have also worked on various research projects including a collaborative project that brought together the Max Weber Stiftung, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, and Jadunath Bhavan Museum & Resource Centre. The objective of the project titled “Objects, Media Practices, Aesthetics and Politics: Material Histories and Cultural Imaginaries” was the collection, preservation and archiving of early 20th century commercial artwork and advertising practices in India. Earlier in my career, I helped launch a now-defunct media start-up where I was responsible for managing authors and content writers.

I am also a freelance book reviewer.

Selected newspaper publications:  

• “Calcutta is taking slow but steady steps towards fulfilling the growing demand for Korean cuisine” in The Telegraph (December 6, 2021)
• “The woman who cannot be named” in The Telegraph (June 4, 2021)
• “Written in blood and stone” in The Telegraph (April 30, 2021)
• “Stories with needle and skin” in The Telegraph (March 12, 2021)
• “Pop to fashion – an otaku on riding the Korean Wave” in The Telegraph (March 18, 2020)

Selected book reviews:  

• “Blood on Ice” in The Telegraph (May 19, 2023) — Stolen: A Novel by Ann-Helen Laestadius
• “Yearning for the familiar” in The Telegraph (February 24, 2023) — The Easy Life by Marguerite Duras
• “Sense of closure” in The Telegraph (December 12, 2022) — Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries by Alan Rickman
• “Hunters of a grisly truth” in The Telegraph (November 4, 2022) — The Secret Life of Writers by Guillaume Musso
• “Hidden truth” in The Telegraph (June 17, 2022) — The Palace Papers: Inside The House Of Windsor — The Truth And The Turmoil by Tina Brown