The Night the Writing Fell Silent – Words by Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS, Krea University / Works by Jogen Chowdhury published by Priyasri Art Gallery (2023) has been longlisted by The Oxford Bookstore for their Art Book Prize 2024. Dr Alka Pande and HE Ms May-Elin Stener revealed thirteen titles recognised for their artistic quality and overall design. The jury for this prize includes May-Elin Stener, Priti Paul, Dr Alka Pande, Anjani Kumar Singh, and Sunaina Anand. The Art Book Prize aims to celebrate and support artists, designers, and publishers in India.

Check out the Longlist  here:

Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS, Krea University has been awarded an IFA Grant under their Archives and Museums Projects for one year 2024-25, to work with the collection at the Zapurza Museum of Arts and Culture, Pune. Dr Kaikini as the Principal Investigator, will be researching the narratives of the intellectual history of Bombay and Pune of the 19th and 20th centuries and will situate the museum and its collection within the larger context of the history of Pune and its traditions of ‘avant-garde’ and the manners in which it intersected with its pre-modern, and modern historical inheritance.

Read about the grant  here:

Dr Joya John, Assistant Professor of Literature, SIAS, Krea University presented a paper in a symposium on Energy History and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Chicago, Delhi Center on 3 May, 2024. The paper is titled, The Subaltern Modernizers of World History: Belatedness and Vernacular Publics in the Energy Humanities.

Dr Shuchita Goyal, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, SIAS, Krea University has been selected to participate in the American Mathematical Society’s Mathematics Research Community (MRC) summer conference on Homotopical Combinatorics. The conference will take place at the Beaver Hollow Conference Center in Java Center, New York, USA, from 30 June to 6 July, 2024. Now in its sixteenth year, the MRC programme has chosen Dr Goyal as the sole Indian national to join this year’s conference.

Dr Sambaiah Gundimeda, Associate Professor of Politics, SIAS, Krea University has been invited by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to deliver the 6th Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial Lecture titled Democracy and Social Justice: Reading Ambedkar in Our Times, on 3 May, 2024. 

Abstract: According to the Paris-based Reporters without Borders, India has fallen to 161st place out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. Similarly, in the V-Dem Academic Freedom Index, India is ranked in the bottom 20-30% category, below countries such as Libya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and others.

How would Ambedkar have responded to the shrinking space for dissent in contemporary India?

For the past three decades, there has been a serious divide between some Dalit castes that accessed reservations and others who could not. While the latter demand sub-classification of SC reservations in the name of social justice, the former counter such demands in the name of unity within the Dalit category.

If Ambedkar were to be alive, what kind of solution would he have offered?

In a move toward eradication of caste, Ambedkar in his “Annihilation of Caste” argued that only ‘fusion of blood’ can truly evoke the sense of kinship.

How can we advance Ambedkar’s project of the annihilation of caste?

Drawing from Ambedkar’s insights, the proposed lecture aims to reflect upon the questions of freedom of speech, social justice and annihilation of caste in our times.

For more details, click here

Dr Vivek Radhakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SIAS, Krea University has authored two recent publications:  

1. An article titled Immaṉuel Kāṇt: Maṉithaṉai Aṟiyum Vaḻi (Immanuel Kant: Knowing the Human), published in The Hindu – Tamil Thisai

Access the publication here and here. 

2. Crito (allathu, Naṉṉaṭatai Patṟi) (Translation of Plato’s Crito), published in Kanali – Online Cultural-Literary Magazine, 34

Read the article here. 

Dr Sayandeb Chowdhury, Senior Assistant Professor of Literature, SIAS, Krea University recently authored two articles. 

The article titled The Spectre Of Sergei Eisenstein In Cinema, published in the magazine Outlook India, can be read here. 

The article titled Mistimed Politics: Why The Left Is Partly Responsible For The BJP’s Rise In West Bengal, published in The Wire, can be read here.