Zakir Hossain Raju

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Zakir Hossain Raju

Zakir Hossain Raju
File:Zakir Hossain Raju.jpgZakir Hossain Raju.jpg Zakir Hossain Raju.jpg
Native name	জাকির হোসেন রাজু
Born	1 September 1970 Dhaka, Bangladesh
🏳️ Nationality	Bangladeshi, Australian
🏫 Education	University of Dhaka (BA, MA) La Trobe University (PhD)
💼 Occupation	Asian Cinema Researcher, Filmmaker, Author, Professor
👔 Employer	Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB); Waseda University, Japan; Korean National University of Arts, South Korea; Monash University Australia; University of Malaya, Malaysia; La Trobe University, Australia; University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
Notable work	Publication Bangladesh Cinema and National Identity: In Search of the Modern? (Routledge, London: 2015) Filmography Face in the Millions (1991) Tale of a Woman (1993) Beyond the Borders (1995) Images under the Shadows (1996)
👩 Spouse(s)	Nusrat Islam (m. 1994)
👶 Children	2
🏅 Awards	Gold Medal, University of Dhaka (1999) Tazin Memorial Award, University of Dhaka (1990); Commendation of the Jury, International Anthropological Film Festival, 1996

Zakir Hossain Raju (Bengali: জাকির হোসেন রাজু) is a Bangladeshi-Australian media scholar, author, filmmaker and Professor. He is currently serving as the Head of the Media and Communication department at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). Raju, an eminent researcher of Asian media and a scholar of transnational film cultures, is simultaneously involved in teaching, research, writing, editing and publishing. Raju is the first Bangladeshi scholar to earn a doctorate in film studies.

Early life and education

Raju received his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) from Motijheel Ideal High School and his Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) from Dhaka College before pursuing his bachelors of arts (BA) and masters of arts (MA) in Mass Communication/Media Studies at the University of Dhaka. He earned his doctorate in Cinema Studies from La Trobe University in Australia.

Before joining IUB in 2000, he taught at La Trobe and Monash University in Melbourne as well as at the University of Dhaka. During 2008-10, Raju served as Postgraduate Coordinator and Senior Lecturer of Communication and Cultural Studies at Monash University, Malaysia. In 2014, he served as a Visiting Professor and Korea Foundation Fellow at Korean National University of Arts (KARTS) in Seoul.

Raju also held external academic appointments as Research Fellow at Transparency International Bangladesh (2005), Ford Foundation ASIA Fellow at University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur (2007), Curriculum advisor for Wawasan Open University Malaysia (2011-12), Sub-project Manager/Project Leader at UGC-led Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project of the World Bank (2012-2015) and Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Genocide Studies of University of Dhaka (2015-16).

Career

Raju is Professor and Head of the Dept. of Media and Communication and the Director of the Centre for Social Science Research (CSSR) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) where he also served as Dean of Social Science during 2013-15. Here he is also the founding Director of King Sejong Institute, the first ever Korean language institute in Bangladesh. In 2022, he also served as Japan Foundation Fellow and Visiting Research Scholar at Graduate School of International Culture and Communication at Waseda University, Tokyo.

Publications

A reputed scholar of Bangladeshi and South Asian screen industries as well as East Asian media and culture focusing on South Korea and Japan, Raju authored a number of monographs and more than fifty research papers. He is author of Bangladesh Cinema and National Identity: In Search of the Modern? (Routledge, London: 2015) and Liberation war in Mass Media (Jagrity, Dhaka: 2011). He has published research papers on Bangladesh media and inter-Asian culture in reputed journals including Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME), Screening the Past, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Cinemaya, and South Asian Journal. Raju also published his research in anthologies including The Emergence of Bangladesh (Palgrave, USA: 2022), Art and Sovereignty in Global Politics (Palgrave, USA: 2017), Islam and Popular Culture in Indonesia and Malaysia (Routledge, 2011), Communalism and Globalization in South Asia and its Diaspora (Routledge, 2010), Media Consumption and Everyday Life in Asia (Routledge, 2009), Madrasas in South Asia: Teaching Terror? (Routledge, 2007), Contemporary Asian Cinema (Berg, 2006) and Being and Becoming: The Cinemas of Asia (Macmillan, 2002).

Raju has also extensively researched and published on Bangladesh liberation war in media, based on which he developed a special course ‘Bangladesh 1971: Through the Lenses’ at IUB which is being taught now every semester to some 500 students. Before that, in 2011, he also founded the ‘Bangabandhu and Liberation War Corner’ at IUB library with around 2000 books. In 2022, he has also established King Sejong Institute and ‘Window on Korea’ research corner at IUB with grants from the government of South Korea. Based on his research on East Asia, he also introduced a semester-long courses on ‘Korean cinema and Society’ and ‘Japanese Cinema: Nation and Globalization’ at IUB, two such courses which are unique in South Asia are offered along with twenty or so courses offered in leading universities in North America and Europe.

Raju is currently an academic reviewer for many leading academic publishers including University of Washington Press, Asian Journal of Communication and Taylor and Francis/ Routledge, as well as on the editorial board of two leading journals—Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies (Sage, UK) and Journal of South Asian Film and Media (Intellect, UK). He is also Vice President of International Film Initiative of Bangladesh (IFIB) and has also served as President of Bangladesh Short Film Forum from 2016-18. Since 2019, Raju affiliated himself as member at Sydney South East Asia Centre (SSEAC) at University of Sydney.

Filmography

Raju has scripted, produced and directed several short films and documentary films. They were shown in international film festivals in USA, Germany, Australia, India, Malaysia, Romania and Japan. Some of his notable works are Face in the Millions (1991), Miles to Go (1992), Tale of a Woman (1993), Beyond the Borders (1995), Images under the Shadows (1996), Beijing Conference and Women in Bangladesh (1998). Face in the Millions (1991) was screened at Hawaii International Film Festival, USA 1991, Independent Short Film Festival Augsburg, Germany 1991, ’Focus on Asia’- International Film Festival Fukuoka, Japan 1992, Festival of South Asian Documentaries, Colombo 1992, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival 1995, Bangladesh Film Festival, London 2004, National Cinematheque, Malaysia 2010, 60 Years Commemorative Film Festival of Bangladesh Federation of Film Societies 2023. Miles to Go (1992) was screened at San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival 1995. Tale of a Woman (1993) was screened at Fringe Documentary Film and Video Festival, Scotland 1993, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival 1995, Bangladesh Film Festival, London 2004. Beyond the Borders (1995), a film about Japanese Bangladeshi families, was screened at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan 1995,  Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) 1995, Commonwealth Film Festival, Malaysia 1998, Catholic Education Office Melbourne’s ‘Asia in Focus’ Festival, State Film Theatre, Melbourne 1999, National Ethnology Museum, Osaka, Japan 2019, Waseda University Hosien Auditorium, Tokyo 2022 (Special session by Japan-Bangladesh Society). Raju received a ‘Commendation of the Jury’ award for this film at International Anthropological Film Festival, Romania in 1996. Images under the Shadows (1996) was screened at Hawaii International Film Festival Honolulu, USA 1997, Busan International Film Festival, South Korea 1997, Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore 1997, Commonwealth Film Festival, Malaysia 1998, Australian National University, Canberra 1999, Catholic Education Office Melbourne’s ‘Asia in Focus’ Festival, State Film Theatre, Melbourne 1999, Bangladesh Film Festival, London 2004, South Asian University, New Delhi 2019.

A scholar-teacher who delves into both theory and practice of Film and Media Studies, Raju has been invited as Jury president and member in international film festivals in Honolulu (USA), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Melbourne (Australia), Vesoul (France), Tallinn (Estonia), and Bucheon (South Korea).

Year	Title	Director	Screenwriter	Producer	Notes
1991	Face in the Millions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film portraying the 1990’s popular upheaval against military autocracy in Bangladesh.
1992	Miles to Go	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on the perception of ordinary people about political process amid the 1991 elections under the first non-party caretaker government.
1993	Tale of a Woman	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on how women are leading social transformation in rural Bangladesh.
1995	Beyond the Borders	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on intercultural Bangladeshi-Japanese families in Japan and Bangladesh.
1996	Images under the Shadows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on media and gender in Bangladesh.
1998	Beijing Conference and Women in Bangladesh	Yes	Yes	Yes	Documentary film on the impact of the 1995 Women's Conference in Beijing on women’s movement in Bangladesh.

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