Research and
publications.
My research examines the ways literature and cinema imagine identity, memory, exile and belonging. I work across postcolonial writing, diaspora studies, literary theory and adaptation, with particular interests in South Asian literature and cinema.
Areas of research
Postcolonial Studies
Decolonial readings, national narratives, and representations of historical trauma.
Diaspora Studies
Migrant memory, exile, transnational identities, and belonging across geographies.
Literary Theory & Criticism
Critical methodologies, aesthetic structures, hermeneutics, and modern textual analysis.
Indian Writing in English
From classical traditions to contemporary Indian prose, poetry, and drama in English.
Cinema & Adaptation Studies
Transmediation from literary texts to cinematic forms, cinematic grammar, and cultural recontextualization.
Cultural Translation
Bridging textual hermeneutics, South Asian historiography, and cinematic transmediation across regional and global contexts.
Michael Ondaatje’s Fiction: Poetics of Exile
A comprehensive critical monograph examining the themes of diaspora, memory, personal histories, and the poetics of displacement in the narrative works of Sri Lankan-Canadian author Michael Ondaatje.
Key Thematic Threads
- Poetics of displacement & return
- Historiographic metafiction
- Exilic memory & identity
InDie Shakespeare
InDie Shakespeare is a monograph in progress on Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptations of Shakespeare. The project examines the transformation of Shakespeare within Indian cinematic and cultural contexts. It is presented here as ongoing research exploring the intersections of dramatic traditions, indigenous idioms, and cinematic realism.
Research Trajectory
Investigating how local underworld politics, caste tensions, and regional conflicts transfigure early modern tragedy into contemporary Indian cinematic idioms.
Selected book chapters
“Eclectic Cartography: Spaces of Memory and Belonging in Sorayya Khan’s Noor”
In Crossing Borders, Edited by Jasbir Jain.
“Packaging India: The Fabric of Deepa Mehta’s Cinematic Art”
In Films, Literature and Culture, Edited by Jasbir Jain.
“Against Forgetting: The Constructs of History, Memory and Nation in Rushdie and Kamleshwar”
In Writing Partitions / Living Partitions, Edited by Jasbir Jain.
Research guidance
Over three decades of active teaching and scholarship, I have fostered advanced inquiry in English literature, literary theory, and cultural studies through doctoral and postgraduate supervision.
Doctoral Supervision (Ph.D.)
I have guided four scholars to successful Ph.D. completion in areas covering postcolonial critique, diasporic memory, and modern drama.
Postgraduate Dissertations (M.Phil.)
Supervised 24 M.Phil. dissertations on diverse themes across Indian Writing in English, narrative theory, and translation studies.
UGC Minor Research Project
Successfully completed a University Grants Commission (UGC) funded Minor Research Project in 2006.
Selected conference presentations
“Literary and Cinematic Constructs of South Asian Diaspora”
Keynote address on Diaspora and Cultural Exchange, Vidyasagar College for Women, Kolkata.
“After the Last Frontiers: Poetics and Politics of Belonging in Palestinian and Kashmiri Poetry”
International Conference on Shifting Paradigms of Comparative Literature, Central University of Rajasthan, Kishangarh.
“Digging Dangerously: Human Rights and the Archaeology of Belonging in Contemporary Fiction and Media”
International Seminar on Globalization, Values and World Peace, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.
“Of Romance, Nostalgia and Reality: Constructs of Muslim Identity in Mere Mehboob and Bazaar”
National Seminar on Representation of Muslim Culture in Indian Cinema, IRIS, Jaipur.
“After the Last Skies: Postcolonial Homelands in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist”
National Seminar on New Directions in Literary Studies, ICG, Jaipur.