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Letters & Testimonials 

Yesterday, I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Samita Nandy, the founder of the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies. I am currently working on an opinion piece about celebrity representation in journalism, and Samita’s expertise on the subject matter was incredibly helpful. She challenged me to reassess my own perception of what the culture of celebrity means and how it functions. “A celebrity is not a person,” she explained. “A celebrity is a media text… paparazzi, red carpets, glamorous dresses, limousines – these are the signs that connote the meaning of glamour and fame.”


Samita also got me to rethink my role and responsibility as a journalist in relation to how I should go about covering celebrity stories. In the mass media, performers are commodities used to generate profit. Samita emphasized that there is a more meaningful way to cover celebrity. She stressed the importance of incorporating critical interpretation, providing context, and treating celebrity culture as a platform for addressing larger social issues.

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I’m very glad to have found out about the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies. They are a great resource for expertise and materials related to the fields of media, communication and cultural studies. I’m grateful for Samita for having shared her knowledge with me, and for getting me to think more deeply about all the systems at work beneath the glam and glitz.

Jeanie Tran
Ryerson University, Canada

I was really inspired and intrigued by your speech about celebrities who are contributing to society and the world around us.

Galyna Duncan
Toronto, Canada

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I always had a concept of what a celebrity is — a famous person created by the entertainment industry. However, Dr. Samita Nandy’s assertion that a celebrity is not  actually a person, but a concept or persona of what the “public” wishes to see as an entity to idolize, seems to have merit.

Dr. Robert S. E. Caine, Ph.D.
Toronto, Canada

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You have been such a blessing in my life! I love your powerful and perpetual enthusiasm during the Friday afternoons. You give me something to take away on my weekends and something to look forward when I start my week

Abigail Lee, Miss Universe Canada 2006
Miss Congeniality 2006

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Wow Samita!! There is such a wealth and variety of information here that I wouldn’t know where to begin when it comes to commenting on everything. But I would like to say, that as always, you express yourself beautifully, eloquently, and with a passion & fierceness of spirit that is to be deeply admired! I’m honoured to call you my friend and like I said, I am in awe of the pace you keep when it comes to organizing and attending so many educational, creative and activist-empowered events! You’re a force of nature, my dear! With love and gratitude, Christine xox

Christine Bode
Social Media Manager for Grammy and Juno Award Winners
Scully Love Promo, Canada

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Firstly, please allow me to congratulate you on behalf of CanIndia News on your grant by the Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training, the Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (EIPRS) for your Doctoral research program and other contributions.

Editorial Department
CanIndia News, Canada

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Samita Nandy is an outstanding young woman who has shared her vast knowledge with us. She made me have a better understanding of the course due to her educational background.Samita is an excellent leader and role model. I really admire her strive and diligence. Samita guides the tutorial sessions with skill and grace. I really liked her teaching style. – Her teaching style was a plus. Very informative and knowledgeable in what she does.

We were given much opportunity to advance ideas. Looks out for her students and tries her best to make the material understanding. Samita presents the course material in a very enthusiastic manner. She teaches in a motivating atmosphere and welcomes different ideasWith her outstanding teaching skills, enthusiasm, and organization she will have a very bright future in communications.

CCIT 100/101 Institute of Communication and Culture
University of Toronto, Canada

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Samita’s outstanding contribution to education goes beyond the boundaries of the classroom.  Her many significant contributions to and national levels warrant recognition befitting his efforts.  As the Communication Director of Nouveau IDEA, a non profit organization for arts and culture with over 3,000 associates, Samita Nandy has advocated learning in the form of community-based education, utilizing post-graduate research, coalition building and documentary film making.  Her latest film Frame by Frame: Tushar Unadkat develops the visibility of the South Asian American community and has been broadcasted during her media coverage on Rogers Television in Canada.   She has received numerous awards at the provincial and international levels for her outstanding scholarship and leadership in media education and research.  At the same time, her South Asian heritage enables her to activate multicultural knowledge and voice cultural diversity in the Canadian society.

Alexander Tchoumak
Sales Representative
Remax West Reality, Canada

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I am really impressed by your achievements in getting so many challenging projects completed in such a short time.

Sincere appreciation for your professional editing of my paper. I am most impressed by your thoroughness of attention and exceptionably clear communication in this project. You have added immense value to the paper by the way you have expanded the meaning, added extra clarity as well as reduced the paper to a manageable size. I very much liked your examples at the end of the email pointing out your method of value-adding to the paper have made a hard copy of the paper which I will read on my way to Vietnam on Friday.

Dr. Samir Ranjan Chatterjee
Professor, International Management
Curtin University, Australia

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Many many congratulation for your great success.

Waseem Mahmood
The Design CircleCanada

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Samita is upbeat, professional and a pleasure to work with as a colleague. I was delighted that Samita was able to work on the CCIT 101 team.

Dr. Pascal Michelucci
Associate Professor, University of Toronto

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Samita Nandy is perhaps one of the most motivated young academics that I have met, with a degree of diligence which is utterly compelling.

I would like to conclude by reitering my belief that Samita Nandy’s intellectual capacities, achievements, and projects

Dr. Himani Bannerji
Associate Professor, Sociology, York University

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Ms. Samita Nandy has been an outstanding Instructor at the University of Toronto. Out of the many Instructors that I have had, none have been as enthusiastic, hard working, and dedicated as Ms. Nandy. Her passion and caring for students to excel and do their best has always been reflected in the classes led by Ms. Nandy. Her classes were always enjoyable and we learned so much more because of her strong educational leadership and innovative research channels. It has been an honour to be a student of Samita Nandy. I am sure she will continue to be very successful in the same way she has led to the success of many others. I can’t thank her enough for being such a great teacher”

Andrei Dinu
Communication and Culture, University of Toronto

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I think you handled the presentation extremely well. I look forward to seeing more of your in the future.

Soma Datta, PhD 
Curtin University, Australia

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The presentation generated a great deal of interesting discussion.

Maureen Gibbons
PhD (candidate), Curtin University

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I was quite engaged by the difference in the “star system” of Canada and the US. Well done! I was very interested!

Andrew Cameron
Doctor of Creative Arts (candidate), Curtin University

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The parts related to talent, very interesting. The first part, about celebrities and text, too.

Marita Narberhaus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Thank you very much for your presentation – very good structured

P. Friexa, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Good summary of the main celebrity culture scholars and concepts.

Good presentation!

Merce Oliva, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Your lecture has been very interesting for me

Monica Figueras Maz, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Fame of Art / Art of Fame: Aesthetics and Identity in Celebrity Culture
Department of Communications, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

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Just want to say THANK YOU to Samita and Isabelle for your great presentations yesterday. It was an incredible turn-out which attests to the interest in your fields of study. Best of luck to your future endeavours.

Carrianne K.Y. Leung
PhD Candidate, University of Toronto

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The turn-out is due to your great efforts and CMCE’s presence at OISE and the wonderful community of folks interested in culture/media at OISE.

I really enjoyed Samita’s presentation.

Isabelle Kim
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Toronto

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Great topic and work, Samita! Keep digging into the problems further and see what comes out – it will be most interesting to hear it next time.

Dr. Silvia Lozeva
Curtin University, Australia

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Dr Samita Nandy provided excellent teaching and unit coordination at Curtin University. I had the pleasure of working with her and learned a great deal during that time. Her enthusiasm and passion for academia and her chosen interests is inspiring, and her later founding of CMCS illustrates that she continues beyond her doctoral studies to encourage interest regarding Media and Celebrity studies.

Dr Hilary Wheaton
Curtin University, Australia