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Cynthia Francis (History 2022) was delighted by the opportunity to travel to India over the long vacation to conduct research for her final year dissertation, supported by grants from ����Ӱҵ College and the University of Cambridge.

“When I chose my dissertation topic, I knew the primary sources were quite rare and wondered if it might be possible to go out to the archives in India where some of them are located,” she says. “I knew Caius had an Academic Travel Grant, which was great, and I found a University fund for Commonwealth research by searching online, which made it possible for me to go.”

Cynthia spent three weeks in Delhi, working in seven libraries and archives and visiting private collectors, markets and shops to find primary sources for her 10,000-word dissertation. She says: “The dissertation really gives students the opportunity to follow their interests. You have really original topics from every country, every period. There's great variation. Talking to people, some postgraduates have been amazed I was able to go on a research trip as an undergraduate.

“My dissertation looks at popular culture in the 1970s and 1980s through Indian popular culture magazines, published in English, aimed at an elite section of the population. They haven’t really been studied in much depth.

“They’re called film magazines, but they’re talking about the personalities, so they’re more like celebrity lifestyle or fan magazines. There’s very little content about the films themselves. The media was quite different then, so this was the only real way to get information about those celebrities. There was more mystique around them because they were not so accessible, as celebrities are now.”

Cynthia, who first became interested in these publications prior to coming to university, was familiar with many of the films and personalities, and is fascinated by what the texts tell us about society and popular culture at that time.

“Apparently, the term Bollywood was coined in one of these magazines by a journalist, in 1979. The word was just emerging, even though the Indian film industry had been big for decades,” she adds.

Looking at physical publications which are pre-digital was a rewarding experience for Cynthia, who is hoping to progress onto postgraduate study in South Asian History.

She adds: “The physical archive is totally different from when you're looking at something online, where you can see it in your own time and you can come back to it. When you're in the archive and you've ordered a few magazines, you have time constraints so it’s quite a different process. It was a real taster of postgraduate research.”

Cynthia has greatly enjoyed her time studying History at Caius. She says: “Caius is a great college to study History at. It has a big History cohort at undergraduate level, and many History Fellows. There are also many events for historians, such as the annual Brooke Society dinner and dissertation presentation evenings. My supervisors at Caius have been great. They’re all so supportive and genuinely want you to do well.”