Elliot Montpellier

I am currently a Research Fellow (postdoc) at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. I recently completed my PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in Anthropology and South Asia Studies.

I am an anthropologist with a multidisciplinary training in media studies, religious studies, and area studies. I conduct ethnographic and media historical research with a focus on Pakistan’s mediascape to study digitalization and data cultures, Islam and piety, and mass media interactional frameworks.

My current book project examines the impact of digitalization on the Pakistani television drama industry, the dominant media industry based in Karachi. This work examines technological and cultural change that have arisen in connection with emergent social media, digital distribution, and audience measurement practices. It examines these processes against a backdrop of religious considerations that inflect local media production.

A full list of my research is available here.