Announcing the winner of the Capstone Editing Research Scholarship for Honours Students!
We are extremely proud to announce Mr Tanvir Saqlain as the 2020 recipient of the Capstone Editing Research Scholarship for Honours Students.
Mr Saqlain is undertaking an Honours program through the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University. He is pursuing a project on gender inequality in the Bengali (Bangladeshi) film industry.
Women actors are cast in a narrow range of roles
This study is crucial to discovering why women actors are cast in a narrower range of roles in the Bengali film industry, how they negotiate and what occurs after they do. It will reveal that gender inequality is related not only to labour and pay but also to directors’ and producers’ perspectives, audience demands, class and identity, working strategies and the socio-mental wellbeing of women actors. This project was conducted using a qualitative research method of six semi-structured interviews. The core findings reflect how women actors handle fandom, finance management and social class, and they demonstrate the intersecting relationships between women actors and directors and producers.
Aiming for social justice
Mr Saqlain’s project is highly innovative in terms of scholarship and effective regarding the social justice he aims to enact. He has a unique perspective, having worked previously as a director in Bangladesh. This project benefits from his professional knowledge of the challenges women face as actors and producers in this highly classist, exclusive and sexist industry. He has used this industry experience to produce a report of his participants’ experiences and to translate the findings into an accessible form.
As a high-achieving student, Mr Saqlain is also seeking to begin a PhD to conduct further research on this topic. We hope the Capstone Editing Research Scholarship for Honours Students will support not only his current Honours work but also his future research.