Faculty

Her research focuses on international communication, global media studies, transnational television industry, reality TV, global television formats and South Asian media, culture and politics. 

She is currently writing Performative Encounters, a book focusing on the multiple realities and performative nature of living in an era of global capitalism. The book expands Lauhona’s research on media globalization, specifically the transnational penetration of television industry, global circulation of reality TV formats and the cultural adaptation of reality TV formats in India. Contrary to existing theories of how reality TV transforms us into neoliberal subjects (with its emphasis on competition, ambition, individualism and self-management skills) Lauhona’s research highlights the contradictions and competing claims that inform our encounters with reality TV’s embedded ideologies of self-making, and illustrates the performative gestures and competencies we acquire to navigate our experiences with global capitalism and cultural globalization.

Lauhona is also interested in developing qualitative research models for (transnational) media studies. She has conducted production ethnography, including in-depth, non-participant observation of how local producers in Mumbai, India, reproduce and culturally adapt reality TV formats for domestic audiences, and has extensive experience in empirically driven qualitative research methodologies.

She has published essays in edited volumes on global media and international political economy. She has previously taught at American University and CUNY. She has also worked in the television industry in the U.S. and India, and with non-profit groups campaigning against gender based violence. She tweets at @LauhonaG. 

Ph.D. in International Relations with specialization in International Communication 

2021. "Learning how to cook without lifting a knife: Food television, foodies, and food literacy" co-authored with Reinhard, C.D. in Eating Fandom: Intersections between Fans and Food Cultures, Eds. Reinhard, C.D., Largent, J.E. and Chin, B. London and New York: Routledge. 

2018. "Global Television Formats and its Impact on Television Cultures: The Remaking of Music Entertainment Television in India" in Television and New Media, 20(1), pp20-35, available at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1527476418759215

2012. “Global Television Formats and the Political Economy of Cultural Adaptation: Who Wants to be a Millionaire in India” in Global Television Formats: Understanding Television Across Borders, Eds. Tasha Oren and Sharon Shahaf. New York: Routledge. (Awarded 2013 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Best Edited Collection Award)

2011. “Who Wants to be an Indian? Re-Imagining Reality with Global TV formats” in In Media Res, Global Television Formats Theme Week, November 17, 2011, available at http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/imr/2011/11/17/who-wants-be-indian-re-imagining-reality-global-tv-formats

2010. “Reality TV, Private Television Networks and Social Change in India” in International Cultural Policies and Power, International Political Economy Series. Ed. J. P. Singh. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.