Pallavi Rao has a Ph.D. in Media Studies from Indiana University Bloomington (2021). Her research interests are media and cultural studies, contemporary South Asian media, and anti-caste & feminist media studies. Her doctoral work examined caste-based media ownership in contemporary news and popular culture in India. She has also published her research in the Journal of Communication Inquiry, South Asian Film and Media, and Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies on caste and patriarchy, popular Hindi film, and India's digital media and entertainment culture. She has extensive experience in teaching undergraduate courses on diversity and representation in the media, film studies, digital media culture, and media writing. She has a professional Master’s degree in writing and communication from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and also worked as a lecturer in media writing and social theories at a J-school in India. Outside of the university, she is an avid consumer of all kinds of fiction and of food media.