Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Dr Faiz Ullah

Assistant Professor
Mumbai Campus,
Chairperson, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Culture, School of Media and Cultural Studies

Qualification

PhD (Tata Institute Of Social Science)

M.A. (Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

B.A. (Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi),

Contact

faiz.ullah[at]tiss[dot]ac[dot]in

Faiz Ullah is an assistant professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, where he teaches courses in media studies, community media and journalism. Political economy of media, work and labour, documentary film, participatory cultures, and translation form his core areas of research interest.

Political Economy of Media, Labour Politics, Community Media, Digital Media, Popular Culture, and Translation.

Books

- Many Voices, Many Worlds: Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, 2021/2024, Sage/Aakar Books (co-editor)

- Once There Was a City Named Dilli, English translation of Intizar Husain’s Dilli Tha Jiska Naam, 2017/2024, Yoda Press/Simon and Schuster (co-translator)

Book Chapters

- Cultural Rights and Minorities in India in Interrogating Marginalities Across Disciplinary Boundaries: Colonial and Post-Colonial India, 2025, Routledge (co-authored)

- Introduction: Other Worlds Are Breathing in Many Voices, Many Worlds Critical Perspectives on Community Media in India, 2021, Sage Publishing (co-authored)

- Whose Free Wi-Fi Is It Anyway? Politics of Online Access and Rise of Digital Populism in Urban India in DIGINAKA: Subaltern Politics and Digital Media in Post-Capitalist India, 2020, Orient Blackswan (co-authored)

- Independent Documentary as an Alternative Narrative of the City: The DiverCity Web Archive in Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: The New Independent Cinema Revolution, 2018, Routledge (co-authored)

Journal Articles and Book Reviews

- The Many Lives of Syeda X ("The Many Lives of Syeda X: The Story of an Unknown Indian" by Neha Dixit, Juggernaut Books, 2024), 2025, Gender and Development

- Inclusion and Representation in Hindi Cinema ("Reading the Muslim on Celluloid: Bollywood, Representation and Politics" by Roshni Sengupta, Primus Books, 2022), 2025, Economic and Political Weekly

- National Development and News Media: Constrained Frames of Labour Relations in India, 2023, Social Change, Sage Journals

- Tuning into the Past ("Radio for the Millions: Hindi-Urdu Broadcasting Across Borders" by Isabel Huacuja Alonso, Columbia University Press, 2022), 2022, The Book Review India

- Digital Media and the Changing Nature of Labour Action in Delhi NCR, 2020, Television and New Media, Sage Journals

- Say Something Do Something: Community Media and Social Change (in Hindi), 2019, Pratiman: Samay, Samaaj, Sanskriti

- Community by Communication ("Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India" by Akshay Mukul, Harper Collins, 2015), 2016, The Book Review India

- Of Despair and Hope ("Song of the Shirt: Cheap Clothes Across Continents and Centuries" by Jeremy Seabrook, Navayana, 2014), 2015, The Book Review India

- City Beautiful ("City Adrift: A Short Biography of Bombay" by Naresh Fernandes, Aleph Books, 2013), 2014, The Book Review India

- Prophet, Philosopher, But Also a Poet ("Taking Issue and Allah's Answer: Shikwa and Jawab-e-Shikwa" by Mustansir Dalvi, Penguin, 2012), 2012, The Book Review India

Recent Articles

- Sher Singh (1950-2025): A Quiet Labour Rights Revolutionary Who Touched Many Lives with Joy, Scroll.in, January 2025

- It’s No Accident that a BEST Bus Barrelled Through Pedestrians and Vehicles on a Busy Mumbai Street, Scroll.in, December 2024

- Book Review: Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Struggle of the Maruti Suzuki Workers by Anjali Deshpande and Nandita Haksar, The India Forum, August 2023

- Gender in the Movie Hall, The Indian Express, August 2023 (co-authored)

- Rise of India’s ‘Nasty Audience’, The Indian Express, July 2023

- A Decade After Maruti Suzuki Factory Violence: How the Media Undermined the Workers’ Protest, Scroll.in, July 2022

- Citizenship of Photography, Art India, Quarter 4, 2019

- Book Review: An Ordinary Man's Guide to Radicalism: Growing Up Muslim in India by Neyaz Farooquee, Biblio: A Review of Books, July-Sept, 2018

- Book Review: Towards People’s Cinema: Independent Documentary and its Audience in India by Kasturi Basu and Dwaipayan Banerjee, The Tribune, April 2018

Documentary

- Under the Open Sky (2016). 35 mins. Hindi, with English Subtitles

Exploring Digital Citizenship Among Youth in India: Expressions, Assertions, and Negotiations, supported by the American Jewish World Service (2023-24)

Qualitative Study of Young Media Critics as part of Lights, Camera, and Time for Action: Recasting Gender Equality Compliant Hindi Cinema, supported by the US Consulate, Mumbai (2022-23)

MA in Media and Cultural Studies (2012-XX)

- Introduction to Media Studies

- Journalism Practice I

- Community Radio

- Journalism Practice II

- MCS Research Project

- MCS Media Project

- Advanced Qualitative Methods: Visual Methodologies

Foundation Course (2019-23)

Contemporary Media Ecologies Module in Foundation Course II: India's Development Challenges

Post-graduate Diploma in Community Media (2012-17)

- Understanding Community Media

- Radio Programming and Production

- Writing for Print

- Community Radio