Résumé

• The English and Foreign Languages University Hyderabad
  Ph.D. in Cultural Studies
  2013-2018, Awarded in 2020

• The English and Foreign Languages University Hyderabad
  M.A. English (Literary and Cultural Studies)
  2011 - 2013

• The English and Foreign Languages University Hyderabad
  B.A. English
  2008 - 2011

• Assistant Professor  of Literary and Culture Studies, School of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur

July 2022- present

Secondary Affiliations: 

1. IDRP Digital Humanities
2. Centre  for Education & Technology for Education (CETE)

• Assistant Professor  of English
  GITAM School of Gandhian Studies, GITAM Deemed-To-Be University
  November 2021 to July 2022

• Managing Editor of Aneekant : A Journal of Polysemic Thought (ISSN: 2320-6195)
  September 2018 to November 2021

• Academic Fellow  (Publications and Academic Projects on Education)
  Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences
  February 2020 to November 2021

• Academic Fellow at the Forum on Contemporary Theory
  August 2018 to February 2020

• Freelance content editor and content reviewer for Cambridge University Press
  January 2017 to August 2018

•  Freelance copy editor, content developer, content reviewer, proofreader, and translator for academic and literary projects in English and Bengali
  June 2014 to April 2018

1. Awarded an academic grant by the International Lincoln Centre for American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, for a short-term research project on Abraham Lincoln and Bengali Modernity in December 2020.

2. Awarded an academic grant by the International Centre for Writing and Translation, the University of California in Irvine, in March 2020 for a translation project working at the intersections of race, gender, and colonial administration in Kolkata. 

3. Selected for ‘The London Free School of Applied Critical and Feminist Theory’ hosted by the Institute of English Studies and The Aristotelean Society, University of London, London. Led a workshop on ‘Living a Sexed Life’ in the same. 17-21 July 2017.

“Adaptation/Transformation: Locating Amar Chitra Katha’s Mahabharata within Indian Bhasha Narratival Traditions” has been accepted for publication in an anthology of articles edited by Professor E. V. Ramakrishnan for Orient Black Swan, India (anticipated in 2024). 

1. Co-authored “Decolonising Digital Pedagogy: Agents of Ishq and Contemporary Discourses on Sex in India,” accepted for publication in the “LDaD: Languaging, Diversity and Democracy. Contemporary Issues of Participation and Ways-of-Being across the Global North-South” special issue of Bandung: Journal of the Global South in February 2022. ISSN: 2198-3534 

2. Published “Improper Contagion: Choddo Ain and the Bengali Bhadralok” in Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought’s Special Issue on ‘Disease, Medicine and the Humanities’, No 10, Autumn 2019-20 in September 2021. ISSN: 2320-6195 

3. “Becoming a Phantom People: Non-Oedipal Spatialities, the Sunderbans and the Bhadralok Gaze” has been published in Posthumanist Nomadisms across Non-Oedipal Spatiality. Java Singh, Indrani Mukherjee (Eds.) Vernon Press in March 2020. ISBN: 978-1-64889-113-7

4. Co-authored “Anita R. Ratnam’s “Ma3ka:” An Assertion of Feminist Life Writing,” published in Diotima’s: A Journal of New Readings’ Special Issue on ‘Life Narratives’, Vol 11, published by The Postgraduate Department of English, Providence Women’s College, Kozhikode in December 2020. ISSN: 2319-4189 

5. Co-authored “Liminal Existence, Decentred Gaze: Atin Bandopadhyay’s “Atapurer Bhut” as a Case Study” published in Critical Imprints, Vol VIII, published by the Department of English, Loreto College, Kolkata in December 2020. ISSN: 2319-4774

6. “Reading Lalon as an Exercise in Time-Binding” was published in Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought’s Special Issue on ‘General Semantics and Indian Philosophical Thought: A Comparative Approach’ in September 2020. ISSN: 2320-6195

7. Published “‘You and Me Could Write A Bad Romance?’: Games With (Male) Gaze in Popular Visual Culture” in Digital Democracy, New Delhi: Excel India Publishers, July 2016. ISBN: 978-93-85777-67-7

8. Published “Heterogeneous Time in Indian Modernity: Reading Chowringhee” in Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Volume VIII, Number 1: June, 2016. ISSN: 0975-2935

9. Published “Ivory and Salt: Reading Unease in (Post) Colonial Imaginations” in Asian Academic Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, Volume II, Issue 6: November 2015. ISSN: 2319-2801

10. Published “Reading Maqbool as a Brahminical Allegory: Indian Modernity in Unlikely Mirrors” in Deconstructing the Stereotype: Reconsidering Indian Culture, Literature and Cinema. Ed. Kaustav Chakraborty. Anchor Academic Publishing: Hamburg. 2014. ISBN: 978-3-95489-240-2

1. Acted as Chief Editor for a General Issue of Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought (Number 9, Spring 2018-2019).

Acted as Managing Editor for

2. Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought: Special Issue on ‘General Semantics and Media Ecology’ (Number 12, Autumn 2020-21). 

3. Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought: Special Issue on ‘General Semantics and Indian Philosophical Thought: A Comparative Approach’ (Number 11, Spring 2019-20). 

4. Anekaant: A Journal of Polysemic Thought: Special Issue on ‘Disease, Medicine and the Humanities’ (Number 10, Autumn 2019-2020). 

1. Presented "Decolonising the Anthropocene" A Political Ecological Reading of Sy Montgomery’s Spell of the Tiger: The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans" at the International Conference on 'Global Anthropo-scene: Rethinking Sustainability and Cultural Preservations' organised by the Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. 30-31 January 2024

2. Presented "Open Access Interactive Storytelling Project on the Manasamangal Kavya Teaching Political Ecology as Queer- Feminist Praxis" at the International Conference on ‘Sustainability, Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives’  organized by Department of Education, University of Calcutta, West Bengal, India Funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, in collaboration with National Library of India, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. 18th & 19th January 2024

3. Led a Panel Discussion on "Open Access Interactive Storytelling Project on the Manasamangal Kavya: Digital Pedagogical Tools on Environmental Crises & Local Stakeholders, Intangible Heritage Conservation, and Minimal and Green Computing Tools for Insider/Outsider Engagement with the Sundarbans in India" in the Electronic Literature Organisation's International Unconference 'Access Works'. January 18-19, 2024

4. Presented "Riverine Cartographies, Cultural Dichotomies: Epistemic Reconstitution through the Manasamangal Kavya" at the International River Congress organised by the University of Colorado (USA), Hokkaido University (Japan), South Asian Institute for Advanced Research and Development (India), Kathmandu University and Geomorphological Society of Nepal (Nepal). 6-8 October 2023

5. Plenary Presentation titled "Studying Gender in the Popular: Ursula K. Le Guin's Speculative Fiction as a Study of Resisting Stereotypes" at the International Conference on American Literature and Popular Culture hosted by GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM Deemed-To-Be University Visakhapatnam. 03-04 August 2023

6. Participated in the international conference on “Race and Environmental Justice in the Era of COVID-19: Rethinking ‘Social Distancing’” conducted as a part of the project 'Air and Environmental Health in the (Post-)Covid-19 World' by the University of Vienna, Austria. 

a. Chaired a session titled 'Transformative Justice: Perspectives of Visibility and Resilience', 

b. Presented the paper “Epistemic Reconstitution and Border Dwelling in Jamlo Walks: An Illustrated Book about Life During Lockdown.” 13-14 July 2023 

7. Presented "Decolonising Gender through Feline Femininity ‒ Reading “Shashti, the Benefactress” as a Colonial Queer-Feminist Critique” at the International Conference 'The Cat’s Pyjamas: Cats in Culture and Society' hosted by the University of London. 25-26 May 2023

8. Presented "Epistemic Reconstitution and Border Dwelling in Jamlo Walks: An Illustrated Book about Life During Lockdown" at the International Conference on 'Narratives of Criminality, Punishment and Social Justice in Children’s and Young Adult Literature' hosted by the Department of English, Jadavpur University and the Association for Children’s Literature in South Asia. 5-7 August 2022

9. Presented 'Imitative or Transformative? Normative Border Dwelling in Atin Bandopadhyay’s “Somudre Oshoriri”' at the International Conference 'Aquatic Surfaces & Depths' organised by the Haunted Shores Network, University of Southampton. 7-8 April 2023

10. Plenary speaker on ‘Digital Pedagogy, Feminist Critique, and the Indian Popular: Vitamin Stree and Agents of Ishq as Case Studies around Sex Education in India’ at the International Conference on 'Humanities in the Digital Age: New Directions and Emerging Trends' hosted by Kristu Jayanti College (Autonomous), Bengaluru. 29-30 March 2023

11. Presented “History, Gaze, and Identity Project in Bengali Middle-Class Modernity: Translation as an Act of Epistemic Intervention“ at the  International Seminar  ‘Translation as Reconstitution: Issues of Self, Canon, History, and Memory in India’ hosted by EFL University, Hyderabad. 9-12 May 2022.

12. Presented “The Royal Bengal(i) Tiger: The Uncanny Valley of Bhadralok Fiction“ at Forum on Contemporary Theory’s XXIII International Conference on `The Task of the Human Sciences in Times of Climate Emergency’ at Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India. 25-27 March 2021.

13. Presented “Decolonising Digital Pedagogy: Transformative Work, Popular Culture and Open Access Media” in the International Media Summit titled ‘LeaDMe 2020: Learning, Digitization and Media’ in Mumbai organised by the Department of Mass Media, Kishinchand Chellaram College, Mumbai, India, Bombay Teachers’ Training College, Mumbai, India,  Jonkoping University, Sweden and CCD (Communication, Culture and Diversity) Research Group, Sweden. 13-15 February 2020.

14. Presented “Producing a Phantom People: Bhadralok Fiction, Border Dwelling and the Sunderbans” at Forum on Contemporary Theory’s XXII International Conference titled ‘Global South Cultural Production and Dialogue’ jointly organised by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India, and International Lincoln Centre for American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, USA in Hyderabad, India. 19-21 December 2019.

15. Presented “The Cosmopolitan Imagined Community and Its Identity Project(s): Towards a Critical Cosmopolitanism” at Forum on Contemporary Theory’s XXI International Conference titled ‘Revisiting Cosmopolitanism’ jointly organised by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India, and International Lincoln Centre for American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, USA in Puri, India. 18-21 December 2018.

16. Presented “Containing Multitudes: Investigating Gender Ambiguity in Indian Athletics” at ‘The London Free School of Applied Critical and Feminist Theory’ hosted by the Institute of English Studies and The Aristotelean Society, University of London, London. 17-21 July 2017.

17. Presented “Sweet Violence: The Quotidian Life of the “Bengali” Sweet” at ‘International Conference on The Culture of Food: Literature & Society’ hosted by M.E.S. College of Arts and Commerce, Zuarinagar, Goa. 24-26 February 2016.

18. Presented “‘You and Me Could Write A Bad Romance?’: Games With (Male) Gaze in Popular Visual Culture'' at ‘International Media Summit 2016: Digital Democracy’ organised by  Kishenchand Chelaram College, Mumbai. 19-20 February 2016.

19. Presented “She’s the Man!: Reading “Strange” Genders in Modern Indian Imaginaries” at ‘International Conference on Space, Spatiality and Performance’ organised by the Centre for Performance Research and Cultural Studies in South Asia, Thrissur. 7-8 February 2015.

1. Presented "Ghost Stories of/from Sunderbans: Interdisciplinary Ecologies of Knowledge Systems" at the National Seminar 'Disciplinarity and Difference' organised by Forum on Contemporary Theory (A Member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes), Vadodara. 20-21 August 2023

2. Presented “The Subject of Knowledge: Radical General Semantics as General Semantics” in a National Seminar on ‘Radical General Semantics’ jointly organised by Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences, Baroda, and Department of English and CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, at Saurashtra University, Rajkot. 26-27 August 2021. 

3. Presented “Decolonizing the Liminal: Notes on (Re)Imagining the Sunderbans” in Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences’  VII Balvant Parekh Memorial Lecture and National Symposium with Walter D. Mignolo titled ‘Epistemic Reconstitution(s), Colonial/Imperial Differences and Border Thinking’ at Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. 12-14 December 2019.

4. Presented “The Story of The Story: Locating Amar Chitra Katha’s Mahabharata within Indian Bhasha Narratival Traditions” at Forum on Contemporary Theory’s National Seminar on ‘The Literary Across Cultures: Cultural Poetics of Bhasha Literatures in Theory and Practice’ in Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. 25-27 February 2019.

5. Presented “Piracy, Popular Culture and Transformative Work: Yeh Hai Malegaon ka Superman as a Case Study” at the ‘UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Understanding Minority Discourses’ organised by the Department of English, Christ University, Bangalore. 12-13 January 2015.

6. Presented “Heterogeneous Time in Indian Modernity: Reading Chowringhee” at the ‘UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Literature in the Social Context: Theory and Practice of Cultural Criticism’ conducted by the Department of English, CMS College, Kottayam. 30 September-1 October 2015.

7. Presented “The Independent Zenana: Self-Evaluations of the Bengali Bhodromohila” at the ‘UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Social Ex(in)clusion and Women in India’ hosted by Southfield College, Darjeeling. 16-17 March 2012.

8. Presented “Reading Maqbool as a Brahminical Allegory: Indian Modernity in Unlikely Mirrors” at the National Seminar on ‘De-Stereotyping Indian Body and Desire; Reconsidering the Representations’ jointly hosted by Southfield College and St. Joseph’s College, Darjeeling. 12-13 March 2012.

9. Presented “‘You and Me Could Write a Bad Romance?: A Pop Diva’s Dithyramb” at the National Seminar titled ‘Laugh so You Don’t Cry: Contemporary Encounters with the Tragic and the Comic’ conducted by the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Delhi. 2-5 March 2012.

10. Presented “Story-Telling: The Dialogue between the Plot and the Narrative Techniques of Wuthering Heights” in Student Seminar on  ‘Reading Fiction’ at EFL University, Hyderabad. 24-25 March 2008.

1. Participated in the workshop on 'Design Thinking' organised by the School of Design, IIT Jodhpur from 29-30 May 2024.

2. Participated in the Centre for Creative Learning, IIT Gandhinagar's workshop on 'Creative Learning & Experimental Pedagogy' from 21-24 May 2024.

3. Participated in and moderated a session at the Translation Training Program, organised by the Department of Comparative Indian Language & Literature, University of Calcutta in collaboration with RUSA 2.0. 19-23 December 2023.

4. Participated in the International Faculty Development Program on ‘Pedagogy and Technology-Enabled Learning’ organised by the Centre for Education and Technology for Education, IIT Jodhpur. 19-23 July, 2023

5. Participated in the National Workshop on ‘Translating Sunderban’ conducted by the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ERC). 21-23 March 2022. 

6. Participated in the National Workshop on ‘General Semantics and Western Thought: A Comparative Approach’ conducted by Balvant Parekh Centre for General Semantics and Other Human Sciences, Baroda. 31 January-1 February 2020. 

7. Participated in the National Workshop on ‘The Construal of Ideal Governance in Greek Thought’ organised by the Department of Political Science, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, and presented a paper titled “She’s the Man!: The Pinki Pramanik Case and the Conflation of Sex-Gender-Sexuality in Modern Indian Imaginaries.” 10-13 October 2020.

8. Participated in the National Workshop on ‘Performance Theories from and about the Global South: Space and the Body, Cultural Politics and Resistance’ conducted by Forum on Contemporary Theory at Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. 12-14 September 2019.

9. Participated in ‘Technology, Urban Space and Culture: Emerging Paradigms for Global India’ conducted by GIAN, IIT Kharagpur, and The Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. 8-13 December 2017.

10. Participated in ‘International Workshop on Digitization and Archiving’ conducted by Sir Ratan Tata Fund for Collaborative Project between The School of Cultural Text and Record, Jadavpur University, the British Library, London, and the Society for the History of  Authorship, Reading and Publishing at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. 19-21 August 2015.

11. Participated in ‘International Workshop on Envisioning the Indian City: People, Places, Plans’ conducted by the University of Liverpool and Jadavpur University at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. 17-18 August 2015.

12. Participated in International Workshop on ‘Indian Literature as Comparative Literature: Regional Modernisms and the Idea of Indian Literature’ jointly organised by the Department of Indology, French Institute of Pondicherry; African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Rutgers University, USA, and Rutgers University Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA) at the French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry.  18-19 December 2014.

13. Participated in the National Seminar on ‘Understanding Emancipation Today: Theory, Philosophy, Politics’ organised by the Department of Cultural Studies, EFL University Hyderabad. 19-21 February 2014.

1. Organised Forum on Contemporary Theory’s XXII International Conference titled ‘Global South Cultural Production and Dialogue’ jointly organised by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India, and International Lincoln Centre for American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, USA in Hyderabad, India. 19-21 December 2019.

2. Organised National Workshop on ‘Performance Theories from and about the Global South: Space and the Body, Cultural Politics and Resistance’ conducted by Forum on Contemporary Theory at Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. 12-14 September, 2019.

3. Organised Forum on Contemporary Theory’s XXI International Conference titled ‘Revisiting Cosmopolitanism’ jointly organised by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India, and International Lincoln Centre for American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, USA in Puri, India. 18-21 December 2018.

4. Organised Forum on Contemporary Theory’s National Seminar on ‘The Literary Across Cultures: Cultural Poetics of Bhasha Literatures in Theory and Practice’ in Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. 25-27 February, 2019.

1. Convened and moderated the FCT Discussion Group—an open, inclusive platform that discusses critical theory in relation to everyday life practices around notions like modernity, culture, gender—from September 2018 to March 2020.

2. Has published opinion pieces and commentaries on digital platforms since 2012. 

3. Has created informal, not-for-profit soft skills platforms that provide free English Language lessons to high school and undergraduate ESL (English as Second Language) learners from 2008 to 2018.