Rate My Professor Sukhmani Khorana

Sukhmani Khorana is a Scientia Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture at the University of New South Wales, based in the School of the Arts and Media. She earned her PhD and Bachelor of Media Honours (First Class) from the University of Adelaide. Khorana's research specializations center on how migrant communities leverage media and storytelling to cultivate belonging and agency, alongside examinations of race and multiculturalism discourses amid information disorder. She has authored key books including Mediated Emotions of Migration: Reclaiming Affect for Agency (2022), The Tastes and Politics of Inter-Cultural Food in Australia (2018), and Crossover Cinema: Cross-Cultural Film from Production to Reception (2013). She co-authored the forthcoming Migrants, Television and Australian Stories: A New History (2025) and edited Emotions in Late Modernity (2019). Her prolific output encompasses book chapters such as 'The New Second Generation and Solidarity: Australian Art and Activism Advocating for Indigenous, Refugee and Migrant Allyship' (2026) and journal articles like 'Disinformation and Calculated Care Beyond the Global North: Comparing Refugee Discourses in Australia and India' (2024, Frontiers in Sociology), 'Can Producers and Consumers of Color Decolonize Foodie Culture?' (2024, Gender Work and Organization), and 'Resisting Hindutva in the Digital Indian Diaspora: Notes from Australia' (2023, Ethnic and Racial Studies). Khorana contributes editorials to Food Culture and Society.

Since 2007, Khorana has taught at regional and metropolitan Australian universities, including supervision at offshore campuses in Malaysia and Hong Kong, with her experience in western and southwestern Sydney shaping her research. She serves as Co-Director of the Media Futures Hub and elected staff representative on UNSW's Academic Board. Khorana has secured ARC Linkage Grants exceeding $370,000, including LP220100456 for place-based employment of young migrant women and LP150100202 on migration and television diversity. She has collaborated with 14 external organizations, advised the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia on media literacy, and delivered talks at national and international conferences. Awards include University of Wollongong ‘Impact-maker’ (2018), Faculty Arete Research Champion (2018), and ‘Research Engagement’ Award at Western Sydney University (2021). Her scholarship influences media policy, community capacity-building, and academic cultures of care, enhancing migrant agency and multicultural understanding.