Aalia's doctoral research is an extension of her previous engagements with Indian media’s representation of the Valley of Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, she will analyse contemporary Bollywood films depicting the region and its people and also examine the extra-textual contexts of film production which influence the message portrayed through these films as well as the networks of actors involved in said films.

Aalia is currently a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Media Studies under Prof. Dr. Susanne Marschall. In support of her doctoral research she is the recipient of the Landesgraduiertenförderung (State Postgraduate Fellowship) from August 2022. As part of her doctoral thesis, she is conducting research in the area of film and cultural studies where she analyses contemporary Bollywood films depicting Kashmir and Kashmiri Muslims and draws linkages between various actors involved with the film production as well as the extra textual contexts surrounding them, such as government policies regarding Kashmir and resultant political debates. Aalia was awarded the MPhil degree in Women’s Studies from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences where her dissertation topic was “Indian Mainstream Press and the Representation of ‘Violent Women’: A Textual Analysis of Mainstream Indian Press’s Representation of Kashmiri Muslim Women”. She joined the social science journal The Economic and Political Weekly as copy editor while pursuing an MPhil degree. She has also worked as a market research executive and as English language consultant for an education service providing company in India. She completed her Master’s degree in English Literature from R.D. National College where she was invited as guest faculty to teach the paper on Postcolonialism and Diaspora studies as well as poems, short stories, and the novel ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ by Kiran Desai. Aalia has a Bahcelor’s degree in Mass Media, where she specialized in Journalism, from the University of Mumbai. Following that, she did a voluntary internship as a reporter and sub-editor in Srinagar, Kashmir with an independent news portal kashmirdispatch.com.