My primary teaching/research interests lie at the intersection of comparative literature and cultural studies. The "interstitial" potentialities, prospects, tensions, and fault lines that animate regimes of discipline and habits of thought continue to fascinate me. I value the pursuit of a kind of critical humanities which is driven less by problem-solving/instrumental rationality than by the labour of understanding/critique: What if we conceive of the humanities as a labour of love which is not a "guarantee" but a "possibility," wherein the cultivation of "negative capability," for example, rather than of grand, conclusive and certain knowledge, is sought after and prized?

My PhD work explored devotional performance genres in the Mappila Muslim literary culture of the Malabar Coast in southwest India. I have long been intrigued by the relationship between religion and literature. One of the engaging questions, for me, has been the "co-production" of literature (broadly defined) and of selves, communities, cultures, lifeworlds, and so on. I also try to follow contemporary critical theory, minority studies, debates around tradition and modernity, and religion and the secular. I am also very interested in questions about the disciplinary formations of English studies in India. 

For research advice and/or research collaboration, I welcome projects in comparative literary and cultural studies, especially the ones involving such languages and literary cultures as English, Arabic, Malayalam, and Urdu or Hindustani. The question of rendering legible the rich, diverse vernacular cultures of the Global South within the regnant disciplinary protocols of "Comparative Literature" and "World Literature" remains my larger research problem/agenda.  

I am a recipient of the University Grants Commission Junior Research Fellowship (2012) and the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral and Professional Research Fellowship at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley (2013-2014). 

Courses Taught: Comparative Literature; Cultural Studies; Anglophone Arab Literature; Contemporary Critical Theory; Politics of English Studies; Philosophy of Literature; Linguistic Turn in the Humanities; World Literature; Modern Classics. 

Research Project: 
Minor Research Project funded by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), 2022-23
Project Title: "Women and the Tradition of Arabi Malayalam Song-Poetry: A Study of Texts and Contexts"
Budget Approved: Rs. 4,72,000/-
Project Duration: 12 months; Year of Award: 2023

ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4065-4095

SCOPUS ID: 57795268900

Web of Science ResearcherID: GQB-5291-2022

Google Scholar ID: 4UFNOE4AAAAJ

Vidwan ID: 291657