Rahul Mukherjee, Lecture on 'Proximate Exposures: Media and Radiance'
Channel: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Date: 2021-04-16

Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
invites you to a Critical Humanities event

Proximate Exposures: Media and Radiance
Lecture by Rahul Mukherjee

Discussant: Veena Hariharan

Chair: Ravi Sundaram 

Friday, 5 March 2021, 5 pm India Time
The discussion will be held on Zoom
Link: http://bit.ly/2ZMHoJ0
Meeting ID: 972 5408 4679
Passcode: csdsdelhi

This lecture examines how human bodies cope with the proximity of radiant infrastructures such as nuclear reactors and cell antennas, in other words—their unwanted intimacies with radioactive nuclides and wireless signals. The “radiance” of radiant infrastructures is a double-edged sword, because these infrastructures are at once harbingers of development and emitters of potentially harmful radiations. Mediation accentuates both aspects of radiance. In particular, this lecture will explore two questions: how do various media portray the proximity of people living close to reactors and antennas, and how do these media depict bodily exposure to emissions by such radiant infrastructures? 

Rahul Mukherjee is Associate Professor of Television and New Media in the Cinema Studies program at University of Pennsylvania. His first book Radiant Infrastructures: Media, Environment, and Cultures of Uncertainty (Duke University Press 2020) explores the ecological dimensions of media and energy infrastructures like cell towers and nuclear reactors. Rahul presently serves on the editorial collective of the Journal of Visual Culture and the editorial advisory board of Media+Environment.

Veena Hariharan is Associate Professor, Cinema Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Ravi Sundaram is Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.