The Speakers

Dr Amar Farooqui is a Professor of History at the Department of History, University of Delhi. He taught history for many years at Hans Raj College, Delhi; and has been Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. He was Member-Secretary of Indian Council of Historical Research in 2008. He is member of the editorial team of Social Scientist. His publications include Early Social Formations (2002); Smuggling as Subversion: Colonialism, Indian Merchants and the Politics of Opium, 1790-1843 (revised edition, 2005); Opium City: The Making of Early Victorian Bombay (2006); Sindias and the Raj: Princely Gwalior, c. 1800-1850 (2011), Zafar and the Raj: Anglo-Mughal Delhi, c. 1800-1850 (2013) and The Establishment of British Rule, 1757-1813 (2014).

In his talk, he intends to focus the ways in which new culinary traditions evolved in Delhi during the 1950s and 60s, especially in the wake of partition. He will also discuss changes in older traditions---particularly with reference to restaurants/dhabas/eateries of that era. Besides, he will be discussing the problems with recovering this history, and the lack of scholarly rigour in the anecdotal accounts, which form the basis of popular/journalistic writings on the subject.

Dr D. Parthasarathy is a Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. His research interests include urban studies, developmental studies, law and governance, legal pluralism, vulnerability and adaption to climate change, gender and development, disaster studies. He has led various national and international projects on climate change and sustainable development. He has been recently recognised with the India Value Fund Chair Professor award 2014-2020 along with several other awards and recognitions for his contributions in the field of Sociology.

Dr Simi Malhotra is a Professor of English at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Her research interests include contemporary literary and cultural theory, cultural studies, with special focus on postmodernism and the interface of the globalising media with politics, as also folk cultural forms, Indian philosophies and aesthetic practices, especially Sikhism. She has been recently awarded the 2020 DUO-India Professor Fellowship Award by ASEM- DUO, 2020. She has led various projects funded by the Government of India on local and cosmopolitan cultures. In her academic experience of more than twenty years, she has widely published in national and international journals as well as served in various positions of responsibility. She has recently edited a book on Food Culture Studies in India: Consumption, Representation and Mediation, Singapore: Springer, 2021.

Jayan Jose Thomas is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where he has been employed since July 2010, and a former Member of the Kerala State Planning Board. His research deals with various issues related to development, mainly labour, industrialization and the macroeconomy. He teaches courses on macroeconomics, Indian economic development, international economics, and planning and development. His previous academic positions were at the National University of Singapore, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Madras School of Economics, and Central University of Kerala.

Prof. Azizuddin Khan is a Professor of Psychology at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. His research interests include Developmental Neuropsychology, Education and Child Development, Eyewitness Testimony, Cognitive Economics, EEG/Event Related Potential, Working Memory and Prospective Memory and Developmental Dyslexia. He has taught various courses at IIT Bombay, including Advance Psychological Theory, Community Psychology, Development: Infancy to Adolescence, Introduction to Psychology, Human Cognitive Processes, Consumer Behaviour, Research Methodology, Computer Aided Statistics, Socio-Psychological Perspectives in Development and Change. He is widely published in national and international journals. He recently authored the book, Prospective Memory: Realization of Delayed Intention (2011), funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). He is also the reviewer of the journals Psychological Studies, India, Journal of Child and Family Studies and Interscience. Moreover, he has been conferred various prestigious awards and associated with esteemed research in the field of Psychology.