Mithilesh Kumar Jha teaches political science at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He previously taught at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, from where he earned his PhD in 2014. Dr Jha was a University Teaching Assistant in the Department and a recipient of the University Grant Commission's Junior and Senior Research Fellowship during his PhD. He also received the Charles Wallace Fellowship and the Indian Council of Social Science Research Fellowship for Data Collection Abroad in 2012. Dr Jha has been selected as a member of the International Science Council's (ISC) Global Roster of Experts (Oct 2024).

Dr. Jha's research interests are political thought, theory, and Indian politics.

His recent publications are Indian Politics and Political Processes: Ideas, Institutions and Practices (Co-edited with Kamal Nayan Choubey, Routledge, 2023), Language Politics and Public Sphere in North India: Making of the Maithili Movement (Oxford University Press, 2018). He has also edited and compiled a book on Grierson's letters to his contemporary Maithili writers and scholars entitled Glimpses of Mithila and Maithili: The Correspondence of George Abraham Grierson. This book was published under the Bihar Heritage Series of the Kalyani Foundation, Darbhanga, in 2013. Dr. Jha's articles and review articles have appeared in journals like EPW, Studies in Indian Politics, Contributions to Indian Sociology, Seminar, The Book Review, LSE Review of Books, Sablog, and Qurius. He has also contributed chapters in edited volumes published by Sage, Orient BlackSwan, and Springer. He has presented his works at national and international seminars and conferences, including at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi, and Arhus University, Denmark. As a member of the Seminar Series Committee, he conducts weekly and special seminars and talks at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati. He has also helped organize conferences like the 22nd Himalayan Language Symposium, the 38th International Conference of Linguistic Society of India, the Graduate Research Meet, and Truth and Non-violence: Gandhi in the Post-Truth Era.