Arpit Gaind

Arpit Gaind

Ph.D. in Culture and Performance

About

Arpit Gaind is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) at the University of California (UCLA) in the Culture and Performance Program at the Department of World, Arts and Cultures/Dance. Arpit's doctoral project is located at the intersection of digital humanities, community media practices, technology, and visual representation of Indigenous communities of India. The project looks at the range of discourse that shapes the distribution, reception, and, most importantly, community media production. The research acts as a resource on the intersection of local cultures with the regional histories of media production, unpacking the interaction of technology and new media practices within Indigenous communities.

Recognized as an Emerging Scholar in 2018 and 2022, Gaind’s MA and M.Phil training in Development Studies and Development Practice sensitized him to issues of discrimination, marginalization, and well-being to critically understand the linkages of subjectivity and everyday forms of power impositions and subversions.

Previously, Gaind has also collaborated on a Ford Foundation-supported project at the Centre for Development Practice, Delhi, making culturally sensitive films in Eastern India. Arpit has been involved in scholarly and community-art-based praxis for the past decade, whereby he has worked with urban and rural-Indigenous communities and media collectives. The films have focussed on questions of alternative development practices and possibilities of creative expression, examining questions of media, authorship, and knowledge production. These projects are also informed by Gaind’s extensive experience designing pedagogic content and teaching, as well as assistantships on book projects, and organizing academic conferences and panel discussions.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • "Can the Adivasi Create? The ‘Subject’ of Adivasi-Media Production," in A Media Anthropology Of India, edited by Preeti Raghunath and Haripriya Narasimhan. Delhi: Routledge (forthcoming Winter 2025).
  • “Politics of Representation: Locating Marginalization of Tribals through Film (making).” In Understanding Socio-Economic Marginalization and Tribal Issues, edited by Mohinder Slariya, 2022, 163-179. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. ISBN – 13: 978-9394569133
  • "Becoming through Film (Making): Politics of Contingency and Re-Presentation," Journal of Practical Philosophy, vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug 2020): 106 – 118.

Fellowships & Awards

  • Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship, UCLA International Institute – 2023-24, 24-25
  • School of Arts and Architecture Scholarship Award, 2024-25
  • Elaine Krown Klein Scholarship, 2024-25
  • Clifton Webb Scholarship of the Arts – 2023-24, 2022-23
  • Graduate Mentorship Research Fellowship (GSRM), Summer 2023
  • Polly Nooter Roberts Grad Research Fellowship – 2022-23
  • Summer Mentorship Research Fellowship (SMRF) – Summer, 2022
Graduate Students