Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Indian Institute Of Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Expertise

Sociology

Religion,Islamic activism, womens question, sectarian identities and emerging Muslim politics, New spirituality, identity questions and political mobilization within Hinduism.

Academic Background:

• Ph.D. (Sociology) from Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore (2010).
• M.A. in Sociology from Bangalore University (1998)
• National Eligibility Test (NET) 1999

Academic Positions:

• 2011-Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.
• 2008-2011, Assistant Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Mangalore University, Mangalore.
• 2003-3008, Lecturer, Post Graduate Department of Sociology, Christ University, Bangalore.
• 1998-2003, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore.
• 1998-1999, Research Associate, ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews: Sociology and Social Anthropology.

Areas of Research Interest:

• Religion as a social phenomenon fascinates me. My primary research interests revolve around questions of religious articulations in the contemporary times, especially in the context of modernity and late-modernity. In particular, I work on broader areas related to Islam in the postcolonial Indian context, focusing on questions of Islamic activism, womens question, sectarian identities and emerging Muslim politics. I also have keen research interest in the emerging forms of new spirituality, identity questions and political mobilization within Hinduism.

Courses Taught:

• Contemporary Indian Society: A Sociological View, Globalization and Change, Introduction to Sociology, Development Perspectives and Religion and Modernity

Area of Doctoral Research:

• In my doctoral research, I tried to understand the ideological as well as organizational contestations among Muslims of a coastal village in Kerala. In particular, I examined the claims of Islamic reformism and traditionalism in these contestations within the context of Kerala’s socio-cultural context shaped by modernity.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Visiting Fellowship by Leibniz Zentrum Moderner, Berlin. 1st June to 30th July 2017.
• Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute award for Faculty training and Internationalization with the Department of Religious Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada. 1st May to 30th May 2017.
• Prof. MN Srinivas award for the best PhD thesis in sociology, constituted by Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
• 2015 Summer School Fellowship at Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, New School for Social Research, New York, USA.

Sponsored Research Projects involved:

• ‘From Cell to Society: A Study on the Social Reintegration of Released Prisoners in Kerala and Tamil Nadu’ funded by National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, 2018.
• ‘Religion in the Cyberspace: A Study on the Emerging Religious Cyber Sphere among the Muslim Religious Organizations in Kerala,’ Exploratory Research project sponsored by IIT Madras, 2017.
• ‘Democracy and Minority Citizenship: A Study on the Emerging Forms of Muslim Political Mobilization in South India’ Research project sponsored by ICSSR, 2017.
• ‘Changing Contours of State Welfarism and Emerging Citizenship: A Comparative Study of Kerala and Tamil Nadu’ Sponsored research programme funded by ICSSR, 2014. Programme awarded to a team of researchers including Drs. Binitha Thampi, Suresh Babu, Kalpana K and Vijayabhaskar.
• ‘Displacement and livelihood: A Study of MRPL rehabilitation colony with special reference to Dalit families’ sponsored by ICSSR, 2009.
• ‘Discrimination and social exclusion; a study on the development experience of Dalits in Karnataka’ sponsored by ICSSR, 2009.