The Department of Film Studies was established in 1993 in Jadavpur University. It was the first university department of its kind in India. It sought to establish from the outset an academic practice of Film Studies that could relate to our specific experience of the cinema of the world. A PhD programme was initiated along with the MA and BA (Extra-Departmental) courses. The primary aim of the curriculum is to produce a critical mind that enables the student to engage film and media actively in life and act against passive reception. The courses are meant to produce critics and scholars, teachers and journalists, planners and advisers. It is historically inclusive and theoretically intensive in nature. Soon upon its inception, the Department became a meeting ground for the film scholars across the country. Its seminars and annual conferences and its publication, the JMI, have become the foremost forum of academic exercise in the discipline in India.

Though cinema occupies a large space in the curriculum, there are also courses in Media Studies and Communication Studies on offer. Since Film Studies and Media Studies share a great deal of common ground with disciplines like Cultural Studies and draw upon contemporary social sciences, the Department offers courses on issues that cut across the concerns of humanities and social sciences. The Indian context is studied with special emphasis in most of the papers, often in connection with other non-western cases such as East Asia, the Latin American countries and Iran.

We hope to widen the community of scholars forming around the Department through the online publication of our journal. We invite comments and contributions from all readers.