Professor Dr. Lakshmi Padmanabhan

Biography

Lakshmi Padmanabhan is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the School of Communication. Her research focuses on the histories of political cinema, nonfiction film, and minoritarian visual cultures. Her teaching, particularly in the Screen Cultures doctoral program, is influenced by discourses of anticolonial thought, Marxist aesthetics, and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Padmanabhan's current book project, 'Documentary Degree Zero,' delves into the theory of political realism in Indian documentary, exploring the medium's role in modern historiography and its relationship with the concept of counter-cinema. Her academic writing has been published in journals such as Cultural Critique, Camera Obscura, and Art History, with forthcoming works in edited volumes that explore global cinema and documentary practices. She has been recognized with fellowships including the faculty fellowship from the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern and the UNDO Colab Fellowship in Union Docs, Brooklyn. Padmanabhan has curated films and video art for various venues and has served as a jury member for the Chicago International Film Festival.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards