Sheena Malhotra is Professor and Chair of Gender & Women’s Studies and Academic Lead of the MA in Humanities Program at California State University, Northridge.
She received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico (1999) in Communication Studies with an emphasis on gender, media, and intercultural communication. Her academic research and articles focus on the intersections of gender, media, technology and global culture, with a postcolonial analysis of media in India and the diaspora. Her research interests range from Hindi films and call centers in India to racialized implications of silences and bridgework.
Dr. Malhotra has experience in the Indian film and television industries. Prior to earning her Ph.D. degree, she worked as an Executive Producer and Commissioning Editor of Programs for BiTV (Business India Television), one of the alternative, private television networks in India. She has also worked in the Indian film industry as an Assistant Director to Shekhar Kapur (director of Bandit Queen and Elizabeth). Dr. Malhotra began teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Women's Studies department at CSUN in Fall, 2000. She teaches courses on women and popular culture as well as general GWS classes. Dr. Malhotra often teaches complete or partial online courses for the department. Dr. Malhotra directed the Women's Resource and Research Center in the 2003-04 academic year and served as the advisor to the Women's Studies Student Association (WSSA) and Violent Acts Grounded (VAG) from 2000-2006. She served as the coordinator for the Queer Studies Program from 2008-2012.
In 2004, she produced and co-directed the video project, CSUN Struggles for Peace & Justice about activism at CSUN. She worked as an Associate Producer on 2006 documentary, The Shape of Water. Directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani and narrated by Susan Sarandon, The Shape of Water offers a close look at the far reaching and vibrant alternatives crafted by women in response to environmental degradation, archaic traditions, lack of economicindependence and war.
Dr. Malhotra has co-edited an anthology on feminism and silence with Dr. Carrillo Rowe, Silence and Power: Feminist Reflections at the Edges of Sound (2013) (Palgrave MacMillan). She is currently working on a book with Aimee Carrillo Rowe and Kimberlee Perez entitled Answer The Call: Virtual Migrations in Indian Call Centers (forthcoming, University of Minnesota Press).