Biography

Munira is a lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries. Her research interests are at the intersection of cultural studies, media, and politics. Her work speaks to the specifics of Pakistan and other South Asian media cultures and engages transnational issues of race and gender in the global diaspora and Western democracies. Her book Women and TV Culture in Pakistan: Gender, Islam and National Identity was published by Bloomsbury in 2018. Her book Dissenting Counter-Publics in Pakistani Social Media and Café Culture by Palgrave Macmillan will be published in November 2025. This book analyses the ways in which anti-state/counter publics have emerged across mediated and physical spaces to respond to the state-led narrative on Pakistani identity. She is currently working on two projects, the first one evaluates the participation of female politicians across mediated and parliamentary contexts in Pakistan while the second focuses on the gendered impact of climate change in Pakistan.

Munira is also on the editorial board for Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics. Before joining the Department, she was Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Media and citizenship
• Political Economy of Media
• Identity Politics in the Global South
• Gender and Climate Politics
• Counter public spheres
• Cultural Industries in the Global South
• Populism in the Global South (South Asia, Muslim countries)
• Women in Politics
• Muslim/South Asian feminisms

Selected Publications

Book

• Cheema, Munira (2018) Women and TV culture in Pakistan: gender, Islam and national identity. London, New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781788311779
• Cheema, Munira (2025) Dissenting Counter-Publics in Pakistani Social Media and Café Culture
  Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN (Electronic)9783032055224. ISBN (Print)9783032055248, 9783032055217

Journal Issue - Guest Editor

• Cheema, Munira (2023) Guest Editor for the Special Issue of Gender Activism in India in Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, Volume 7, Issue 1.

Journal Article

• Cheema, Munira (2025) Under surveillance: How podcasting on YouTube is redefining the media landscape of Pakistan, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. 0 (0), 13548565251358024.
• Cheema, Munira (2024) YouTube Coke Studio Pakistan: Negotiating Identity, Blurring Boundaries Online, Media & Society. 5, 4.
• Cheema, M. (2020) Patriotism and Islam on Social Media: How Pakistani publics revisit their allegiance to the state? in Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 13 (2), 155-177. https://doi.org/10.1386/jammr_00017_1
• Cheema, Munira (2018) Talk shows in Pakistan TV culture: engaging women as cultural citizens. Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, 2 (1). 8 1-12. ISSN 2542-4920

Book Section

• Cheema, Munira (2016) Producing domestic abuse in Pakistani television: between commerce, ratings and social responsibility. In: Moseley, Rachel, Wheatley, Helen and Wood, Helen (eds.) Television for women: new directions. Routledge, pp. 183-202. ISBN 9781138914292
• Cheema, Munira (2014) Understanding the gender dynamics of current affairs talk shows in the Pakistani television industry. In: Raicheva-Stover, Maria and Ibroscheva, Elza (eds.) Women in politics and media: perspectives from nations in transition. Bloomsbury, London and New York. ISBN 9781628921069