Sukhmani Khorana

Sukhmani Khorana
University of New South Wales, Australia

Sukhmani Khorana is a Scientia Associate Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, based in the School of the Arts and Media. She is a Co-Director of the Media Futures Hub, and an elected staff representative on the university's Academic Board. A leading scholar in media and cultural studies, Sukhmani’s research focuses on how migrant communities use media and storytelling to foster belonging and agency. She is the author of Mediated Emotions of Migration: Reclaiming Affect for Agency (2023), The Tastes and Politics of Inter-Cultural Food in Australia (2018), and co-author of Migrants, Television and Australian Stories: A New History (2025). Her current work explores discourses of race and multiculturalism in the era of information disorder. Sukhmani has been awarded two ARC Linkage Grants, including a current project as lead Chief Investigator on young migrant women in western Sydney. She has also advised the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) on a media literacy program. She is a speaker at national and international conferences in media, cultural studies, and sociology, and has also been invited for seminars and panels at leading research centres and cultural institutions. To date, she has partnered with 14 external organisations in the media and migration sectors and has been nominated for several awards recognising research impact and engagement. Since 2007, Sukhmani has taught at regional and metropolitan universities in Australia, and supervised teaching at offshore campuses in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Her teaching in western and south western Sydney in particular has informed her research approach and topics. Her work is underpinned by a commitment to research translation for disadvantaged communities, capacity-building for early career researchers, and fostering cultures of care within academia. Sukhmani received her Ph.D. at the University of Adelaide as well as her bachelor of media honors, First Class-University of Adelaide. Awards: • University of Wollongong ‘Impact-maker’ (2018) • Faculty Arete Research Champion, University of Wollongong (2018) • ‘Research Engagement’ Award winner, ICS local achievement awards at Western Sydney University (2021)