Shahal’s research investigates how media infrastructures and sensory practices shape experiences of space, power, and belonging, particularly in the context of Kerala. With a foundation in media theory and cultural studies, he works across media history, sound studies, and the anthropology of the senses to explore how public culture is formed, contested, and reimagined through everyday media forms.

Shahal’s doctoral project, Songbooks, Theatres, and Buses: The Many Embodiments of Cinema in Kerala’s Socialscape, examines four critical junctures in the arrival of sound technology in Kerala and how cinema became the primary vehicle for this arrival. He focuses on the phonograph, loudspeakers, audio cassettes, and CDs.

Conference Presentations

1. “Sounds at the sea: Music and sensorium of fishermen in Kerala (India),” Asian Sound Cultures Conference, University of Sheffield, UK (17-19 September, 2024).
2. “Marginal Notes, Musical Desires: Tracing Audience Engagement in Malayalam Film Songbooks,” ICA Preconference on “Repressed Histories of Communication and Media Studies” organized by Northwestern University of Qatar and International Communication Association (ICA), and hosted at Gold Coast, Australia (20-24 June, 2024).
3. “Hapticity of music in the context of Caste; An example from Kerala, India,” International Conference on Popular Music and Wellbeing, St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London (14-15 September, 2023).
4. “Multisensorial Boundaries between Urban and Non-urban,” ESSHC: European Social Science History Conference 2023, organised by International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam and hosted at University of Gothenburg, Sweden (12-15 April, 2023).
5. “The Arrival of Electricity and Life in the Grid: A Study on Designing Atmosphere in South India,” Media, Culture, and Society: The Inaugural International Academic Conference of UP Education (Australia and New Zealand), Yoobee College of Creative Innovation, Auckland, New Zealand (14-16 December, 2022).
6. “How do boundaries feel? A study on playing film songs in private buses of Kannur, Kerala,” Multisensuality Through History and Across Media - a virtual International Scientific Conference, co-organised by University of Vienna, Pedagogical University of Cracow, University of Humanities and Economics in Lodz (17-18 November, 2022).
7. “Sensory boundaries between urban and non-urban: a study on playing film songs in private buses of Kannur, Kerala,” Inside and outside ‘ordinary city’ margins- a virtual international workshop co-organised by Urban Studies Foundation (USF) and Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai (27 January, 2022).
8. “The Caste of Bodies and Sports: A Study of Indian Sports Films,” National Conference on Caste Communication, Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi (27-28 March, 2019).
9. “Imaginations of Israel in Post 9/11 Hollywood Cinema,” India International Islamic Academic Conference, held at IICC, New Delhi (8-9 October, 2016).
10. “Posing Gender and Class Questions: Pulimaranja Thondachan and Devakkooth,” National Seminar on Life Narratives, Krishna Menon Memorial Govt. Women's College, Kannur, Kerala (8-9 October, 2013).

Journal Article

1. “Film music and the mediation of everyday aurality in private buses: Field notes from Kannur, Kerala.” Studies in South Asian Film & Media, Special Issue: ‘Media Studies and the Contemporary.’ 15:1, pp. 83–94. 2023.https://doi.org/10.1386/safm_00072_1

Book Chapters

1. “Stepping outside the cinema and into the cinematic; theatre songs and azaan in Kerala.” The Routledge History of the Senses. Edited by Andrew Kettler and William Tullett. Routledge. 2025. 538-561. doi: 10.4324/9781003322924-36
2. “When Region Meets the Nation: 1921 and its Encounters with-in Malayalam Cinema.” Kerala and the Crises of Modernity. Edited by A.C. Sreehari. Payyanur: Dept. of English, 2018. 182-192. (ISBN: 978-93-84110-61-1)

Book Review

1. “Rhythms of Asia: assembling voices, noises, sounds, and technologies,” Asian sound cultures: voice, noise, sound, technology, by Iris Haukamp, Christin Hoene, and Martyn David Smith. Sound Studies, 9: 2, pp. 294-298. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/20551940.2023.2229194