Degrees

MS, 1994, Indiana St Univ Terre Haute; MFA, 1994, CUNY Brooklyn Coll; MA, 1990, Univ Delhi; BA, 1988, Univ Delhi

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Bio

At Hofstra I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in documentary, advocacy videos, single and multi-camera production, digital post-production and television studies.

In Fall 2008 I was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to spend six months in India as a Visiting Lecturer.' While at the University of Hyderabad where I taught an M.A. course in Documentary Production. I also completed research on a documentary on 'going home again' in the age of globalization. The documentary follows the life of 'reverse migrants' ' Indian hi-tech workers whose jobs were moved to India from the US ' and explores how globalization transforms our sense of 'place' and 'home.'' The documentary is in the edit stage with a tentative release date of Summer 2010.

I have completed several films working with civil society and grass-roots advocacy organizations.' In 2008 I completed an educational video for NAMI New Jersey advocating humane treatment of those with mental illnesses by law enforcement. Titled The Community I Serve this film won the 'Best of Festival' and the 'Award of Excellence' at the Festival of Media Arts, Broadcast Education Association 2009.' It was also awarded 'Honorable Mention' at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival.' Another work titled Documenting Our Presence, also produced for NAMI NJ, explores the issue of the stigma of mental illness among minority or immigrant groups in the United States. A previous documentary, Raising Our Voices (ROV, 2002) addresses hate-crime victims and has been screened at the Smithsonian, the Dallas Asian American Film Festival and over 200 academic institutions and community-based organizations. On September 10, 2003, ROV along with other digital media pertaining to September 11 was added to the Library of Congress permanent collection.' My independent documentary Serial for Breakfast was in distribution with UC Berkeley Center for Media and Independent Learning for several years and is used in courses on global media and Asian media studies.

My work has been distributed and screened in the grass-roots community contexts and has been used widely in US and Canadian Universities. My films have been shown at the Hoboken and Dallas Film Festivals.' I have also published in the Journal of Film and Video, Journal of Transnational Broadcasting, Feedback, and the Almanac of the International Council of NATAS.

I currently serve on the US National Screening Committee for Fulbright Student Scholars (Film/Video).' While in India as a Fulbright Scholar, I was invited to serve on the National Screening Committee for Hubert Humphrey Scholarships (India).

My research and practice at the University is focused on engaging media production students in community advocacy issues. Towards this enterprise, I am working on setting up "Media Action Project, Hofstra," a University-based community media production entity.

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Aashish Kumar, Associate Professor, has a B.A. and an M. A. in Sociology from the University of Delhi, an M.S. in Radio/TV/Film from Indiana State University, and an M.F.A. in Television Production from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College.

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Teaching Interests

Production pedagogy, television aesthetics, community media, advocacy, documentary

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Research Interests

Participatory media; interactive documentary; immersive storytelling technologies

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Recent Courses Taught

Course	Title	Level
JRNL 180D	VIRTUAL REALITY STORYTELLING	Undergraduate
RTVF 001	FOUNDATNS OF RTVF & NEW MEDIA	Undergraduate
RTVF 026	SINGLE-CAMERA TV PRODUCTION	Undergraduate
RTVF 065O	VRTL RLTY STRYTLLING	Undergraduate
RTVF 145	TV PROD: MEDIA ACTION PROJECTS	Undergraduate
RTVF 170	INTERNSHIP PROGRAM	Undergraduate