How this researcher explored queer identities through a marketing PhD

 

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Life after graduate research: Dr Rohan Venkatraman

“World’s happiest PhD researcher” Dr Rohan Venkatraman wanted his lived experience as a queer person of colour to inform his marketing research. Supported by world-leading researchers at the University of Melbourne, he is now a successful early-career consumer culture theory researcher in the UK.

Dr Rohan Venkatraman, an Indian man in black-rimmed glasses and a grey suit, regards the camera seriously
Dr Rohan Venkatraman had planned to work in advertising, but he unexpectedly fell in love with research.

“I discovered that I was going to be an academic in a series of completely happenstance freak accidents,” says PhD in Marketing graduate Dr Rohan Venkatraman.

Dr Venkatraman had planned to return to advertising after his masters. But he unexpectedly fell in love with teaching and research.

“One of the reasons I was very happy that I got into the University of Melbourne was that a lot of the people the University hires at faculty positions tend to be either up-and-comers or world-leading researchers,” he says.

His mentors have been important to Dr Venkatraman’s success.

“Professor Julie Ozanne and Associate Professor Erica Coslor were just the best team of supervisors I could have ever asked for,” he says.

“Your supervisor’s brand matters extraordinarily in the early stages of your career. Because of who my supervisors were, people might have been  more willing to take a chance on me than they might have on other people, because they trusted that my training was at a certain level.”

How marketing research can help empower marginalised people

Dr Venkatraman researches how the marketplace can help – or hinder – people expressing their identities. He is part of a community that aims to use marketing’s power to influence people “for good”, Dr Venkatraman says.

Empowering people to express their identity is important to Dr Venkatraman. He grew up in India, where homosexuality was illegal until 2018.

“Melbourne was the first place where I was truly open about my sexuality and who I was. It was very safe for me because you can’t live in Fitzroy and be heterosexual. I’m fairly sure that’s illegal,” he laughs.

We all have many selves that we wear in different contexts. Dr Venkatraman wanted to understand how dramatic performances of identity, like drag, might affect a person.

Rohan Venkatraman, a brown-skinned Indian man, gives a presentation entitled How technoscapes gentrify subcultures: Theorising transforming subcultures and trajectories of consumer displacement
Dr Venkatraman researches how the marketplace can help – or hinder – people expressing their identities.
I got to go to drag clubs four nights a week and call it research! Dr Rohan Venkatraman

Learn more about our graduate research options

He recently published some results from his PhD research in a top marketing journal.

“We found that many drag artists went to drag because they felt a lot of shame around being queer,” Dr Venkatraman says.

For queer people of colour especially, drag could be a way to gain acceptance in the community.

“That first experience of being socially accepted and powerful actually gave them a lot of confidence in their everyday lives,” he says.

A five-year marketing PhD helps researchers explore their options

Dr Venkatraman hadn’t settled on drag as his research topic when applying for PhD programs.

“When I first applied for a PhD, I applied to do a very standard marketing PhD, because I didn't know of the various options that existed in the field,” Dr Venkatraman says.

The five-year structure of the University of Melbourne’s PhD in Marketing allowed Dr Venkatraman to explore his options.

During the first two years, he had the idea of studying drag performances through the lens of consumer culture theory. Researchers in the Department of Management and Marketing encouraged him to pursue his interests.

There was a lot of willingness to let me just do what I wanted to do. And there was very little push to force me down a safer marketing PhD. I'm really thankful for that. Dr Rohan Venkatraman
Faculty of Business and Economics and The Spot building with University of Melbourne logo
The Faculty of Business and Economics conducts research that thinks about what matters to us as a society. Image by Michael Kai.

Yet Dr Venkatraman also worked hard to prove himself.

“As an international student, as a brown guy, as a queer guy doing queer research – I felt like I needed to be the best. I don't think I gave myself breaks and definitely didn't take any, which in retrospect I regret,” he says.

Building academic networks at the University of Melbourne

Dr Rohan Venkatraman, a brown-skinned Indian man, happily receives a certificate from the Academy of Marketing while wearing a bright orange suit
Dr Rohan Venkatraman received a doctoral thesis award from the UK Academy of Marketing.

Dr Venkatraman made some of his best friends during his PhD.

“There was a very open and collegial atmosphere, which I don't see in a lot of departments,” he says.

“When lockdown happened and people were hit by rising food costs, the University organised for students to come in and pick up boxes of veg, which was really cool of them.”

Beyond fostering community, networking is a key way for PhD candidates to find academic work after graduating. Dr Venkatraman received generous funding from the Faculty of Business and Economics to spend on travel or research.

Before the pandemic closed borders around the world, Dr Venkatraman travelled to an international consumer culture theory conference. At the 2024 conference in San Diego, Dr Venkatraman features on two panels.

“I was invited onto both of those panels by people I met at the very first conference I ever went to,” he says.

How a University of Melbourne PhD helps graduates succeed internationally

After he finished his PhD, Dr Venkatraman received a Melbourne Early-Career Academic Fellowship. The two-year program is only open to University of Melbourne graduates.

It gave him a cushion to continue with his PhD research while applying for academic jobs.

While it isn’t a formal part of University of Melbourne training, Dr Venkatraman also found opportunities at the University to develop his teaching skills. During his PhD, Dr Venkatraman worked as a tutor and had the opportunity to be a module coordinator for a subject.

“And one of the things that I got to do as part of my Melbourne Early-Career Academic Fellowship was essentially design a new subject from scratch,” he says.

When applying for jobs in the UK, Dr Venkatraman says he was ahead of the curve compared to others, thanks to the University of Melbourne’s five-year marketing program. He is now a Lecturer in marketing at the University of Birmingham.

“I think the University of Melbourne is a good place to go. It's a place that rewards you for putting effort in, but it will also take care of you and support you and give you encouragement, which I think is a good balance.”

Learn more about a PhD in Marketing

First published on 17 May 2024.

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