Harjant Gill is an assistant professor of anthropology at Towson University, Maryland. He received his PhD from American University. His research examines the intersections of masculinity, modernity and migration in India. Gill is also an award-winning filmmaker and has made several films that have screened at film festivals, academic conferences and on television networks worldwide including BBC, Doordarshan (Indian National TV) and PBS.
His films include Milind Soman Made Me Gay, which explores the notion of home and belonging among gay South Asians in diaspora, and Roots of Love, which looks at the changing significance of hair and turbans among Sikhs in India. His latest film, Mardistan (Macholand) is an exploration of Indian manhood focusing on issues of sexual violence, son preference and homophobia.
Earlier this year, Harjant was awarded the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship and the Fejos Postdoctoral Fellowship by Wenner Gren Foundation. The two awards will allow him to take a year off from teaching to develop his forthcoming documentary film Sent Away Boys, which looks at the effects of globalization and transnational migration on India’s provincial economy. Set against the backdrop of a crumbling agricultural economy, the film asks what happens to masculinity and patriarchal gender relations in villages across Punjab where most young unmarried men have either left the country or have aspired to leave.
Gill is a Youth Action Net fellow (2003) and Point Foundation alum (2006-11). He has also served on the board of directors of Society for Visual Anthropology (SVA) and co-directed the SVA Film Festival (2012-14). His website is www.TilotamaProductions.com
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
- 26th of “64 Best Cultural Anthropology Dissertation of 2012,” Anthropology Works, 2013
- Best Student Film Award, Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, 2012
- Next Generation LGBT Leadership Award, Metro Weekly, Washington DC, 2010
- Academic Achievement Award, American University GLBTA Resource Center, 2008
- Outstanding Scholarship in Humanities, San Francisco State University, 2004
- Youth Action Net Ambassador Award, International Youth Foundation, 2003
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
- Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty, 2015 – 2016
- Fejos Post Doctoral Fellowship in Ethnographic Film, The Wenner-Gren Foundation, 2015
- National Film Commission Grant, Public Service Broadcasting Trust, New Delhi, 2013
- Point Foundation National LGBT Scholarship, 2006 – 2011
- National Film Commission Grant, Public Service Broadcasting Trust, New Delhi, 2010
- JB MRC Junior Research Fellowship, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, 2009
- Andrew W. Mellon International Research Fund, American University, 2007
- Robyn Rafferty Mathias Research Fund, American University, 2006
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