Dr. Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha Associate Professor Department of English Kazi Nazrul University, India Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellow (Lecturing and Research) 2018-19, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA Fellow, Institute of Critical Social Inquiry, New school for Social Research, New York, 2017 Bio-data: View detail profile Email: anindya.purakayastha@knu.ac.in anindyasp@gmail.com Skype: anindyasp_1 Dr. Anindya Sekhar Purakayastha, formerly Assistant Professor in Central University of Orissa, and Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia, now teaches in the Department of English, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, India. Academic and Research Background He holds a Ph.D. on Western Critical Theory and Postcolonial interventions from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, India
and his area of research covers domains of contemporary critical theory, postcolonial politics, literary 1
representations and radical political theology. His current postdoctoral research focuses on the radical philosophical trajectories of contemporary continental thinkers such as Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Antonio Negri, Etienne Balibar, Talal Asad, Achille Mbembe, Jurgen Habermas and the late writings of Jacques Derrida, Giles Deleuze and Michel Foucault and it seeks to incorporate theoretic tropes of these thinkers in forging critical theories of the future. At present, as part of his current research, he is also engaging with the recent theoretic turns in post-humanism, Anthropocene studies and Transnational Studies (Writings without borders). Fellowships, Scholarships and Awards He has been awarded the Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship 2018-2019 for research and lecturing in the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has also been invited to speak in Fordham University, Clark Atlanta University and Villanova University, USA in 2018. He was also selected as a Fellow in the Institute for Critical Social Inquiry, New School for Social Research, New York in 2017. He was the recipient of the United States Department of State Exchange Fellowship for research and academic visit to the Center for Commonwealth Studies, University of Louisville, Kentucky and also to University of California Berkeley and University of Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2010 Earlier he received the SUISS Scholarship to attend the SUISS Course on Modern and Postmodern Literature in Edinburgh University, UK in 2005. International Travel Grants Has been selected for the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar to be held in the University of California, San Diego in November 2018. He would be given full funding by the 2
Institute of International Education and Fulbright Commission, USA to attend this seminar. He got full funding (travel and accommodation) for his invited presentation in the First Radical Relevances Conference held in Aalto University, Finland in April 2018. Have got partial travel grant to present his paper in the Bremen Annual Conference on Postcolonial Knowledge, held in the University of Bremen, Germany in March, 2016. Got full funding from the University of Bonn, Germany to present his research paper in the final Area Studies Conference organized by the University of Bonn, Germany in September, 2016. Got partial travel grant to present his paper in the GAPS Annual conference held in the University of Munster, Germany in 2015. He got partial travel grant from ASNEL, Germany for presenting his paper in the ASNEL Postcolonial Justice Conference held in the University of Potsdam, Germany in 2014. Research Publications: International and National Journals: He has contributed in journals such as, International Journal of Zizek Studies, Parallax (Routledge), Postcolonial Studies (Routledge), Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Routledge), Contemporary South Asia (Routledge), Transnational Literature (Flinders University), Radical Philosophy, Journal of Postcolonial and Commonwealth Studies, Journal of Post-colonial Cultures & Societies (Wrights State University), History and Sociology of South Asia (Sage), Journal of Social Movement Studies (Routledge), South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Writers in Conversation (Flinders University), Rethinking Marxism (Routledge), Cafe
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Dissensus, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Economic and Political Weekly, The Wire, etc. He has been assigned to contribute in the following journals and his contributions would be forthcoming in journals such as Philosophy in Review, Deleuze Studies, Ephemera, New Formations, Badiou Studies, Political Theory, Ariel, the Journal of International Review of Literature in English, Intervention, the International Journal of Postcolonial Theory, Derrida Today, etc. Books: His jointly edited book Cultures of Violence in South Asia: Contemporary Perspectives is forthcoming in 2019. His jointly edited book, Different Americas, American Identity in the Post 9/11 Third World Class Room has come out from Author Press, New Delhi in 2014. He is currently working on book projects related to Anthropocene and Indian Philosophy, W.E.B DuBois and B. R. Ambedkar for Cosmopolitan Future, The Postcolonial Unrest: State and Citizenship Rights and on Arcana Imperii and Arundhati Roy. His book chapters have come out and forthcoming in volumes, published by Routledge, Brill and Aakar Press and Sage. Ongoing Research Project: He is currently working as Project Director in the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) funded major research project on New Social Movements, Civil Society and Media in Contemporary India. This project has resulted in multiple international publications and has earned worldwide recognition. The three Project Associates working in the research project, namely Richa Biswas, Mustakim Ansary and Arindam Saha have received full international funding to present their research papers in Queens College, City University of New York, USA and the American University, Cairo. 4
As part of this research project Dr. Purakayastha was invited to deliver his talk on new social movements in India in the Institute for Social Movement in Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany in 2016. PhD Research Supervision and impact of current research: At present Dr. Purakayastha is supervising five PhD Research scholars who are working in domains such as Subaltern Studies, Postcolonial Literature of Dissent, Anthropocene and literature, Transnational Literature and Working Class literature. Md. Mursed Alam, a Research Scholar working with his supervision on revisiting Subaltern Theory has been awarded the 2018 Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship for his research visit to the British Library, London and to SOAS, London. Saptaparni Pandit, a research scholar working with his supervision received funding from the State University of Colorado in 2017 to present her research paper in the State University of Colorado, USA conference on Anthropocene and Justice. Mursed Alam, Saptaparni Pandit and Sankha Maji, the research scholars working with Dr. Purakayastha have published their research works in leading national and international journals published by Routledge, Duke University Press and Sage. Arpita Chakrabarti, another research scholar working with his supervision has recently got her work accepted for publication in the November, 2018 issue of Transnational Literature, a journal published by Flinders University, Australia Journal Editing and Research Organisations Dr. Purakayastha co-edits the journal, Kairos, A Journal of Critical Symposium, www.kairos.org.in He is one of the founding members of the Postcolonial Studies Association of the Global South (PSAGS) https://psags.org/ He is one of the founding coordinators of the Center for Critical Social Inquiry, A Faculty of Arts Research Collective of Kazi Nazrul University. Membership of Academic Bodies:
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Modern Language Association (MLA) Postcolonial Studies Association, UK European Association of South Asian Studies GAPS, Germany International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture International Association of Literature and Religion For further details of his publication, seminar attendance and for the full curriculum vitae, Visit Personal Webpage: https://knuedu.academia.edu/anindyasekharpurakayastha 6