Dr. Mithila Arvind Biniwale

Bio

Dr. Mithila Biniwale believes in integrating critical inquiry with practice-based learning, encouraging students to engage with media as both a field of scholarly investigation and creative practice. She is committed to fostering research orientation, critical thinking, and reflective engagement while equipping students with the analytical and production skills required to navigate the contemporary media landscape. Through experiential pedagogies, including documentary filmmaking, field-based learning, podcast production, workshops, and industry interactions, she bridges the gap between theory and practice. By nurturing informed, socially conscious, and innovative media professionals, Dr. Biniwale contributes to MIT World Peace University's vision of progressive transformation through education, innovation, and culture.

Educational Qualifications :
PhD-Centre for Media Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, (New Delhi) – The thesis is titled ‘Documentary Film in India: Critical Articulation, Subjectivity and Site of Resistance’.

M. Phil (Planning and Development)- Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (Mumbai)

Areas of Expertise : Documentary Studies, Indian Cinema, Media and Communication Research

Teaching Experience : Dr. Mithila has over seven years of academic and research experience in the field of media and communication. She has been associated with leading academic and research institutions, including the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore and Savitribai Phule Pune University.

Industry / Research Experience : Dr. Mithila has over four years of diverse professional experience in the media industry, having worked in content writing, media production, and with a magazine, newspapers, and digital platforms and worked as a freelance artist for radio plays.

Publications and Research Work : Her scholarly work contributes to documentary studies through research on contemporary documentary forms, documentary digitality, feminist media discourse, and construction of citizen- subjects in documentary cinema. Her recent book chapter, Documentary Films and Feminist Discourses in India, appears in Gender, Identity and Intersectionality in Global Screen Media: An Exploration of Representations in Visual Media (Bloomsbury Publishing India, 2025). Her scholarly work has been published in Educational Administration: Theory and Practice, Economic and Political Weekly, and Mass Media, alongside journalistic writing in Loksatta, Anubhav magazine, The Wire Marathi, and Ideas for India. Her co-authored article, Can the Female Sarpanch Deliver? Evidence from Maharashtra, published in Economic and Political Weekly, has been cited in Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen's An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions.

Recently, she has presented her research at national and international conferences, including Formation of the Modern Citizen in Documentary Films: Labour, Docile Bodies and Industrial Self in Post-colonial India at the International Conference on Indian Cinema: Social Realities and Managerial Insights at IIM Ranchi; Documentary Digitalities: Archives of the Present in the Digital Age at the 1st Talking Film Online (TFO) International Seminar on Indian Cinema (2024); and Emerging Trends of Marathi Journalistic Practices in the Age of Digitalization at the 3rd Pramana International Conference (2025).

Awards and Recognitions :
ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship Indian Council of Social Science Research (2016)

Mentored the book ‘Reel to Real: Hindi Cinema and Indian Democracy(2005’ published by the National Book Trust. This project was part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, a national celebration initiated by the Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, under the PM-YUVA Mentorship Scheme 2.0, aimed at supporting emerging scholarship in Indian cinema and democracy.

Professional Affiliations : IIT Bombay Alumni Association

Subjects Taught : Documentary Cinema, , Media and Communication Research, Media and Communication Theories, Indian Cinema, Film Appreciation , History of World Cinema, Media- Culture-Society

Research Profiles and Links :

Google Scholar : https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9w7oFAIAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8788-6259

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/