Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information will host the 12th Annual South Asian Media and Cultural Studies (SAMCS) Conference Thursday, Jan. 29, and Friday, Jan. 30.
The SAMCS conference serves as a premier international forum for researchers, scholars and practitioners engaged in dialogue surrounding media and culture in South Asia. Presenters will join the conference from around the world to speak on topics including contemporary challenges in journalism, cultural preservation and resilience, demographic media engagement, and identity through media in South Asia.
This year’s theme “Resilience and Renewal: Tradition, Innovation, and Media Futures in South Asia” explores the role of media and communications in preserving identity, sharing knowledge and responding to change across local, Indigenous and urban communities.
The conference will feature two keynote speakers. Michael R. Ogden, dean emeritus of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Zayed University in Dubai, will deliver the talk “Indigenous Responses to South Asia’s Climate Crisis” at 5:30 p.m. ET Thursday, Jan. 29, in-person at The Globe Auditorium (110 S. Woodward Ave.). Those unable to attend the lecture in person can livestream it here.
Ogden is an accomplished teacher, filmmaker and storyteller. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji, Ogden earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Hawai‘i. He has held faculty and leadership roles at the University of Hawai‘i, Central Washington University and Zayed University in Dubai, where he served as Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences until his retirement last fall.
This lecture is in collaboration with the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy’s Ruth K. and Shepard Broad International Lecture Series and the Center for Global Engagement’s Engage Your World Speaker Series. A pre-lecture reception will take place at 5 p.m.
Taimur Shamil, president and executive director of the thinktank Policy East, will deliver the talk “The Narrative Power: Mapping South Asian Think Tanks and Their Influence on Policy Formulation” at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday, Jan. 30 in-person at The Globe Auditorium, (110 S. Woodward Ave.). Those unable to attend the lecture in person can livestream it here.
Shamil is a New York based national security and foreign policy expert from Pakistan. He holds a doctorate in International Relations with more than 15 years of service in government, academia and media.Shamil formerly hosted the prime-time program “Dialogue with Taimur Shamil” on Pakistan Television, PTV (World), where he focused on Pakistan’s foreign policy and global politics. His analyses have also appeared regularly on national and international TV Channels like Al-Jazeera, Al-Jazeera Arabic and several others.
The conference will also include a photo exhibit and book launch highlighting the work of Kids of Kathmandu, a nonprofit organization connected to Bhushan Dahal, a doctoral candidate from Nepal pursuingEducational Leadership and Policy at the FSU Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. The photos and book document a decade of the organization’s work building schools in Nepal in partnership with local community groups. Dahal will be at the conference in person to discuss and answer questions.
The main conference panels will take place from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET Friday, Jan. 30. All conference sessions will be livestreamed on the SAMCS YouTube channel. The opening and closing keynotes will be livestreamed from the College of Communication and Information’s YouTube channel.
Registration for the conference is free and open to the public. To register, visit comm.cci.fsu.edu/ faculty-research/south-asian-media-studies/south-asian-media-and-cultural-studies-conference/ and scroll to the bottom. View the 2026 SAMCS Conference program.
To learn more about the College of Communication and Information at FSU, visit cci.fsu.edu. For more information about Kids of Kathmandu, visit kidsofkathmandu.org.