Julie Lobalzo Wright and Ritika Kaushik will be supervising a new project under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme with the British Film Institute
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship – Interrogating British South Asian Culture in Non-Fiction Films and Television, 1960s-1980s with the British Film Institute and the University of Warwick
Start date: 1st October 2026
Application Deadline: Tuesday 5 May 2026, noon/12.00pm (GMT)
Interviews will take place on Tuesday 19 or Thursday 21 May [online]
The University of Warwick and the British Film Institute are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship, starting in October 2026, under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.
This studentship will interrogate the representation of British South Asian culture in non-fiction films and television from the 1960s to the1980s, when critical debates about South Asian immigration became a focal point in British culture. Jointly supervised by Lisa Kerrigan and Patrick Russell, BFI, and Dr. Julie Lobalzo Wright and Dr. Ritika Kaushik, University of Warwick, the student will be expected to spend time at both University of Warwick and British Film Institute, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK.
• The studentship can be studied either full or part-time.
• We encourage applications from a diverse range of people, from different backgrounds and career stages.
• Students should have a Masters Degree in a relevant subject or can demonstrate relevant equivalent experience.
• The studentship is open to both home and international applicants.
Project Overview
This project studies the representation of British South Asian culture in non-fiction films and television programming from the 1960s to the 1980s. As South Asian immigrants moved to the UK in big numbers during these decades, emerging as a key focus in British cultural history, they also began to reshape British culture by renewing debates around race, gender, class, and ethnicity. Focusing on understudied documentaries and current affairs programming in the collections available at the BFI National Archive for this period, this project will throw light on how these factual programs focused on, reflected, and depicted the British South Asian experience through real-life events and individuals.
This project has been conceived as a collaboration between the BFI and University of Warwick, connecting historical and theoretical studies with practical research undertaken at the BFI National Archive. The aim of the project is to study collections focused on British South Asian peoples and/or made for a British South Asian audience, including the Central Office of Information (COI), LWT (London Weekend Television) and Channel 4 collections for short films and news programmes. These collections hold documentaries and factual and magazine programmes, such as Eastern Eye (LWT, 1982-1985), or a variety of programs focused on single historical events like the Grunwick strike (1976-1978) that changed the conversations around workers’ rights and collective struggles while also impacting the popular perception of British South Asian life in these critical decades.
The project fills a significant gap in British film and television studies by turning attention to documentaries and current affairs programmes that remain historically understudied. These programmes offer unique and unparalleled insight into the marginalised community of British South Asians who were immigrating to Britain, building communities, and adjusting to a new way of life in this period. The project underscores the importance of these overlooked archival sources as rich sites to illuminate the ways South Asian culture was received in Britain as well as how British South Asian individuals navigated new challenges like learning about British institutions, along with collective challenges like facing racial discrimination and fighting for worker’s rights.
Based on these historical and archival contexts, the dual objectives of the study are to better understand what these media can tell us about British South Asian heritage in terms of race, class, gender, and ethnicity, and how these programmes are categorized and catalogued in the archive itself. The project will not only show how such archival materials can deepen our understanding of British South Asian culture but also contribute to knowledge about the histories of British film and television studies.
Further details on eligibility and how to apply are available at this link: AHRC CDP StudentshipLink opens in a new window