Dr Malavika Rao

Dr Malavika Rao is a performance maker, designer and researcher from Hyderabad, India. She holds a Postgraduate diploma in dramatics with a specialisation in design and theatre techniques from the National School of Drama, New Delhi. She also has a master's degree in Mass Communication with TV/Video production as a specialisation from the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. She was awarded a fully-funded PhD on a split-site Doctoral program in collaboration with the University of Exeter, UK and National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India. Her research broadly analyses contemporary Dalit student movements and specifically looks at the 'Justice for Rohith Movement', which created ripples across India and abroad. Her PhD was approved with minor corrections in June 2021. Her experience in theatre includes employment in designing for the stage, dramaturgy, performance making, production management and teaching both UG and PG courses in India and UK. She has collaborated with eminent artists from theatre, visual arts, dance, magicians, circus artists, folk and traditional artists and activists. Her work broadly explores the aesthetics and genealogy of the marginalised communities' resistance culture through analysing the lived experience of oppression and resistance. Her work also draws parallels between transnational resistance cultures.