Vijay Devadas
BA(Hons) PhD(Murd)
Head of Department

Office - Richardson 6C11
Tel 64 3 479 4374
Email vijay.devadas@otago.ac.nz

Research Interests

Cultural Studies & Critical Theory, Media & Communication Studies, Continental Philosophy (Foucault, Derrida & Deleuze) & Postcolonial Theory

Dr Devadas received his PhD in Communication & Cultural Studies from Murdoch University. His research is interdisciplinary and is located at the interface of media, culture & society. Working across various media platforms and attuned to their dispersals, he has published on cinema, print & broadcast media, & new media. Some recent work has been on media, war on terror & sovereignty, new media & democracy, Tamil cinema & assemblage theory. He is on the editorial collective of the international journal borderlands and founding member of the Postcolonial Studies Research Network at Otago.

He currently supervises 7 MA & PhD research candidates working on the politics of branding, cinema & class, populist politics & media culture, Indian cinema, public broadcasting & neoliberalism, biculturalism & research policy, media & climate change.

Papers taught 2011

MFCO 212 Media and Intercultural Communication

MFCO 401 Advanced Communication Theory

MFCO 403 Theory & Method in Film & Media Studies

Publications

Book

Chris Prentice, Vijay Devadas & Henry Johnson (eds), 2010, Cultural Transformations:
Perspectives on Translocation in a Global Age, Rodopi, Amsterdam & New York.


Journals

Vijay Devadas & Chris Prentice (eds), 2011, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25.6 (Special Issue Theme: Postcolonial Popular Cultures), Routledge, U.K.

Chris Prentice & Vijay Devadas (eds), 2008, Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology & Cultural Studies, 5.1 (Special Issue Theme: Everyday Postcolonial Politics)

Vijay Devadas & Chris Prentice (eds), 2007, borderlands, 6.2 (Special Issue Theme: Postcolonial Politics)

Journal Articles

Vijay Devadas, 2011, 'Rethinking Screen Encounters: Cinema and Tamil Migrant Workers in Singapore', Screening the Past: Journal of Screen History, Theory & Criticism, 32. http://www.screeningthepast.com/2011/11/rethinking-screen-encounters-cinema-and-tamil-migrant-workers-in-singapore/

Chris Prentice & Vijay Devadas, 2008, ‘Postcolonial Studies and the Cultural Politics of Everyday Life’. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology & Cultural Studies, 5.1: 1-19.

Vijay Devadas, 2008, ‘15 October 2007, Aotearoa: Race, Terror and Sovereignty’. Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology & Cultural Studies, 5.1: 124-151.

Vijay Devadas, 2006, ‘Rethinking Transnational Cinema: The Case of Tamil Cinema.’ Senses of Cinema, 41.

Vijay Devadas & Brett Nicholls, 2002, ‘Postcolonial Interventions: Gayatri Spivak, Three Wise Men and the Native Informant.’ Critical Horizons, 3.1: 73-102.

Vijay Devadas & Brett Nicholls, 2000, ‘A Contaminated Critique: a response to Araeen’s new beginning.’ Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture, 52: 86-88.

Vijay Devadas, 1996, ‘(Pre) Serving Home: ‘Little India’ and the Indian-Singaporean.’ Critical Arts: A Journal for Cultural Studies, 10.2: 67-90.

Book Chapters

Vijay Devadas, (forthcoming, 2011), 'When the Postcolonial is Insufficient: Reconfiguring the Literatures of Southeast Asia', in Rewor(I)dings: Contestations & Reconfigurations in the Literatures & Cultures of the Asia Pacific Region. Lily Rose-Tope et al (eds). Ateneo de Manila University Press, Philippines.

Vijay Devadas & Selvaraj Velayutham, 2011, ‘Cinema in Motion: Tracking Tamil Cinema’s Assemblage’, in The Travels of Indian Cinema: From Bombay to LA, Anjali Gera Roy & Chua Beng Huat (eds). Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Vijay Devadas & Selvaraj Velayutham, 2010, ‘Tamil Cinema’, in Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Volume 2: Texts, Rituals, Arts, Concepts, Knut A. Jacobsen, et al (eds). Brill, Leiden.

Vijay Devadas, 2010, ‘Affirming Diasporas as National Antinomies’, in Cultural Transformations: Perspectives on Translocation in a Global Age, Prentice, C, et al. (eds). Rodopi, Amsterdam & New York: 31-50.

Chris Prentice, Vijay Devadas, & Henry Johnson, 2010, ‘Introduction: Cultural Transformations’, in Cultural Transformations: Perspectives on Translocation in a Global Age, Prentice, C, et al. (eds). Rodopi, Amsterdam & New York: xi-xxxv (25 pgs)

Vijay Devadas, 2009, ‘Makkal Sakti: The Hindraf Effect, Race and Postcolonial Democracy in Malaysia’, in Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore. Goh, D. et al (eds). Routledge, London: 86-104.

Vijay Devadas & Selvaraj Velayutham, 2008, ‘Encounters with ‘India’: (Ethno)-Nationalism in Tamil Cinema’, in Tamil Cinema: The Cultural Politics of India's Other Film Industry. Velayutham, S. (ed.) Routledge, London: 154-171.

Vijay Devadas, 2007, ‘Cartographies of Dis-location: K. S. Maniam and the Indian Diaspora,’ in Writing Asia: The Literatures in Englishes. Thumboo, E. (ed). Ethos Books, Singapore: 325-340.

Vijay Devadas, 2006, ‘The Kangani and Maistry System,’ in The Encyclopedia of the Indians Overseas. Brij Lal, et al (eds). Editions Didier Millet and Landmark Books, Singapore; Oxford University Press, New Delhi; University of Hawaii Press, USA: 53-57 (4000 words).

Vijay Devadas, 2005, ‘Invention as Intervention: Negotiating the Margins of Pluralism,’ in Frontiers of Diversity: Explorations in Contemporary Pluralism. Avery Plaw (ed). Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York: 156-170.

Vijay Devadas, 2005, ‘Commonwealth,’ in A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English. Prem Poddar and David Johnson (eds). Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh: 107-108.

Invited Talks & Plenaries

Media & Conflict Reporting, Department of Journalism & Communication, University of Madras, 14 Jan 2011

Rethinking Tamil Cinema as Contagion: Selected Flows, Blockages & Connections, Media and Society Seminar Series, Special Theme: Deleuze, Cinema & Filming Philosophy, Department of Journalism & Communication, University of Madras, 6 Dec 2010

The 'Anti-Terror' Raids in New Zealand:' The Right to Make Live and Let Die', Department of Sociology Seminar Series, National University of Singapore, 21 Oct 2010

The Unfinished Business of Postcolonialism in Malaysia: Hindraf, New Media & a Future Cosmopolitanism, School of Arts & Social Sciences (SASS) Seminar Series, Monash University (Malaysia) 12 Oct 2010

Cinema and South Asian Migrant Workers in Singapore, Indian Cinemas/Oceanic Assemblages Colloquium, Indian Ocean and South Asia Research Network, University of Technology, Sydney & Macquarie University, 19-21 Nov 2010.

Another India is Possible? The Political Documentaries of Anand Patwardhan and the Indian Present, Media and the Colonial Present Seminar Series, School of English, Film, Theatre, & Media Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 6 May 2010.

Cinema in Motion: Tracking Tamil Cinema's Assemblage, From Bombay to LA: The Travels of South Asian Cinema, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, 9-10 Feb 2009.

Makkal Sakthi: The Hindraf Effect, Intercultural Relationships and Malaysian Political Life, Inhabiting Diversity and the Asia Pacific Workshop, Centre for Research on Social Inclusion, Macquarie University, 21-22 April 2008.

When the Postcolonial is Insufficient: Reconfiguring the Literatures of Southeast Asia, 12th Biennial Symposium on the Literatures and Cultures of the Asia Pacific Region, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 22-24 Nov 2007.

Awards & Honors

· Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, August-Dec 2010

· University of Otago Research Grant, 2006 (with Dr Chris Prentice), 2005

· Humanities Research Grant, University of Otago, 2004

· Research Affiliate, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Nov 2004-Feb 2005.

· Humanities Research Grant, University Of Otago, 2002

Book Reviews

Vijay Devadas, 2007, ‘Rethinking Sovereignty in Australia.’ borderlands, 6.3.

Vijay Devadas, 2006, ‘Postcolonial Contradictions, Ambiguities and Interventions.’ borderlands, 5.3.

Vijay Devadas, 2003, ‘Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial Studies.’ New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 5.2: 180-184.

Vijay Devadas, 2000, ‘Acquiescence, Indifference, Co-option: Singapore’s Shame’. http://www.thinkcentre.org/booksite/review_vj_mar2000.htm

Vijay Devadas, 1999, ‘Between Borders.’ Canadian Literature, 163: 186-7.

Editorial Introductions

Vijay Devadas & Chris Prentice, 2011, 'Introduction: Postcolonial Popular Cultures', Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 25.6 (Routledge, U.K.)

Jon Stratton & Vijay Devadas, 2010, Identities in the Contact Zone, borderlands, 9.1.

Jane Mummery & Vijay Devadas, 2008, Certainty in the Coming Community, borderlands, 7.3.

Vijay Devadas & Jane Mummery, 2008, Protean Borders and Unsettled Interstices, borderlands, 7.1.

Vijay Devadas & Chris Prentice, 2007, Postcolonial Politics, borderlands, 6.2.

Vijay Devadas & Jane Mummery, 2007, Community Without Community, borderlands, 6.1.