Bio
I am a Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi . I was formerly a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. I am the author of A History of the Jana Natya Manch: Plays For the People, Freedom from Profit: Eschewing Copyright in Resistance Art and an annotated translation of Bijon Bhattacharya’s Nabanna (with a critical introduction).
President of the Digital Humanities Alliance for Research and Teaching Innovations (DHARTI).
Member of the Voyant Consortium.
My research interests include: Digital Humanities; Performance and Theatre Studies; Authorship; Copyright and Intellectual Property; Political Communication
(prospective applicants for the PhD programme – please check this page for details)
Education
- PhD “Idiom for Change: A Study of the Jana Natya Manch” (Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi)
- MPhil in English (Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi)
- MA in English (Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi)
- BA(Hons.) in English Literature (St. Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta)
Employment
- 2021–: Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi
- 2014–2021: Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi
- 2011–2014: Assistant Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Delhi
- 2010—2011: Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi
- 2009 – 2010: Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
- 2005–2009: Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Shivaji College, University of Delhi
- 2002–2005: Ad Hoc/ Temporary Lecturer in English in various colleges, University of Delhi
Awards
-
Was awarded a winning position in the Gyan-Setu Naitonal AI Innovation Challenge for India’s Manuscript Heritage organized by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India on 11-13 September 2025 as part of the Gyan Bharatam Mission. I received this award jointly with my collaborator Chetan Arora (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Delhi) for our work on Lipikar an OCR solution for over twenty Indian languages and scripts.
-
Participated in the institute on ‘Theater and Civil Society: Politics, Public Space, and Performance‘ at the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA between 9-23 June 2012.
-
Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla for 2009-10 to work on the project entitled “Freedom from Profit: Eschewing Copyright in Resistance Art”.
-
Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Westminster University between 19 May – 18 July 2008 sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom. Under the project I engaged in academic exchange with Dr. Dibyesh Anand, Reader in International Relations, Westminster University. The title of the project was: “The Politics of Performance: The Uses of Spectacles for Political Mobilisation in Contemporary India”.