Harjant Gill

Harjant Gill is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Towson University. His research examines the intersections of masculinity, modernity, transnational migration and popular culture in India. Gill is also an award-winning filmmaker and has made several ethnographic films that have screened at international film festivals and on television channels worldwide including BBC, Doordarshan (Indian National TV) and PBS. His films include: “Roots of Love,” which looks at the changing significance of hair and turban among Sikh men in India; “Mardistan (Macholand),” which explores Indian manhood focusing on issues of sexual violence, son preference and homophobia; and “Sent Away Boys,” which examines how provincial communities across northern India are transformed by the exodus of young men giving up farming to seek a better life abroad. Gill is also the recipient of the Point Foundation Scholarship, Fulbright-Nehru Research Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies Performing Arts Fellowship, the Citizens & Scholar Career Enhancement Fellowship and the Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship. He also co-directed the SVA Film & Media Festival (2012-2014) and co-edited the Multimodal Anthropologies section of journal American Anthropologist (2017-2020). Gill is currently developing an eight-part immersive virtual reality web-series on Indian masculinities titled “Tales from Macholand.” His website is HarjantGill.com.