KARTHICK RAM MANOHARAN
Office Address: CSSSC, R-1, Baishnabghata-Patuli, Kolkata 700094, West Bengal, India. Email ID: [email protected]; [email protected].
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
2011-2015 Ph.D. from the Department of Government, University of Essex.
2009-2011 M.A. in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
2008-2009 Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism, specializing in Print Media, from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, India.
2005-2008 B.A. in Sociology from Loyola College, Chennai, India.
WORK EXPERIENCE
July 2017 - Present Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta; Assistant Professor (Political Science)
October 2016 - June 2017 School of Development, Azim Premji University; Senior Lecturer
October 2014 - March 2015 Department of Government, University of Essex; Graduate Teaching Assistant
AWARDS
Recipient of the University of Essex Scholarship (October 2011 – October 2014)
PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (In Press). “Towards a Žižekian Critique of the Indian Ideology.” International Journal of Žižek Studies.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2019). “Counter-media: TamilNet and the Creation of Metanarratives from Below.” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 33:3, 386-400. DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2019.1591340 [Published Online on 17 March 2019].
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2017). “Anti-Casteist Casteism? A Fanonist Critique of Ramasamy's Discourse on Caste.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 19:1, 73-90. DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2016.1142885 [Published Online on 11 February 2016].
Books
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2019). Frantz Fanon: Identity and Resistance. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
Eds. Anandhi, S., Manoharan, Karthick Ram, Vijayabaskar, M. and Kalaiyarasan, A. (In Press). Rethinking Social Justice: Essays in Honour of MSS Pandian. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
Chapters
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (In Press). “An Ethic beyond Anti-Colonialism.” In Rethinking Social Justice: Essays in Honour of MSS Pandian, edited by S. Anandhi, Karthick Ram Manoharan, M. Vijayabaskar, and A. Kalaiyarasan. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Journal Articles
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. “In the Path of Ambedkar: Periyar and the Dalit Question.” Under review with South Asian History and Culture.
Books
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. Radical Freedom: The Political Thought of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy (tentative title). In progress.
Chapters
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. “Being Dalit, Being Tamil: The Politics of Kabali and Kaala.” In Tamil Cinema in the 21st Century: Politics, Genre and Technology, edited by Selvaraj Velayutham and Vijay Devadas. Under review with Routledge.
SELECT BOOK REVIEWS
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2018) Rev. of Alienation and Freedom. Frantz Fanon. E- International Relations. https://www.e-ir.info/2018/12/05/review-alienation-and-freedom/
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2018) Rev. of Brahmin and Non-Brahmin: Genealogies of the Tamil Political Present. M.S.S. Pandian. Seminar. 708. pp. 69-71.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2017) Rev. of Hegel’s India: A Reinterpretation with Texts, Aakash Singh Rathore and Rimina Mohapatra. Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2017/2862
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2016) Rev. of Frantz Fanon: Toward a Revolutionary Humanism, Christopher J Lee. Marx and Philosophy Review of Books. http://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviewofbooks/reviews/2016/2251
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2015) Rev. of Existentialism: An Introduction, Kevin Aho. Political Studies Review, VOL 13, Issue 4. p. 560.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2015) “Remembrance of LTTE’s Past.” Rev. of A Fleeting Moment in My Country: The Last Years of the LTTE De Facto State, N. Malathy. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol L. No 30. pp. 38-40.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2015) Rev. of Identity as Reasoned Choice: A South Asian Perspective on the Reach and Resources of Public and Practical Reason in Shaping Individual Identities, Jonardon Ganeri. Political Studies Review: 2015, VOL 13, Issue 2. pp. 309-310.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2014) Rev. of When Counterinsurgency Wins: Sri Lanka's Defeat of the Tamil Tigers, Ahmed S. Hashim. Political Studies Review. VOL 12, Issue 3. pp. 474-475.
SELECT COMMENTARIES
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2019) “A Paradigm Shift in Sri Lanka.” The Telegraph. https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-recent-bomb-blasts-underscore-a-paradigm-shift-in- sri-lanka/cid/1689403
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2019) “The Changing Fortunes of Israel.” The Telegraph. https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-changing-fortunes-of-israel/cid/1687024
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2018) “A Dravidian Leader for a Plural India.” The Telegraph. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/a-dravidian-leader-for-a-plural-india/cid/1216673
Kalaiyarasan, A. and Karthick Ram Manoharan. (2018) “M. Karunanidhi: The Dravidian Sun Sets.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 53, Issue No. 31. https://www.epw.in/engage/article/m-karunanidhi-dravidian-sun-sets
Manoharan, Karthick Ram (2017) “Amour, caste et ideologie – note sur un film tamoul.” La Nouvelle Revue de l’Inde (L’Harmattan). N° 12 - Spécial Tamil Nadu. 61-62.
Manoharan, Karthick Ram. (2016) “The Missing Periyar and the Curious Tamil Nationalism of Kabali.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 51, Issue No. 33. http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/33/web-exclusives/missing-periyar-and-curious-tamil- nationalism-kabali.html
Manoharan, Karthick Ram and Onur Yildiz. (2015) “Peace in Progress: How Turkey’s Leaders Will Combat Extremism.” Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 50, Issue No. 43. http://www.epw.in/web-exclusives/peace-progress.html
Manoharan, Karthick. (2014) “The Battle for Kobane Offers a Glimpse of Kurds’ New Model Democracy.” The Conversation. 11 November. http://theconversation.com/the-battle-for-kobane- offers-a-glimpse-of-kurds-new-model-democracy-34027
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
April 2019 Taught segment on the Dravidian Movement for MPhil course ‘Institutions and Identities in Contemporary India’
2018-2019 Co-taught MPhil course ‘Rethinking Political Theory’
March 2018 Taught segment on Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth for MPhil course ‘Introduction to Modern Social Thought’
August 2017 Taught segment on Race for MPhil core course ‘Research Methods in Social Sciences’
Azim Premji University
January-May 2017 Co-Taught Masters’ core course ‘Understanding Development: Theoretical and Philosophical Explorations’
University of Essex
January-March 2015 Graduate Teaching Assistant for compulsory UG module ‘Democracy: Forms and Futures’
October-December 2014 Graduate Teaching Assistant for compulsory UG module ‘Introduction to Politics’
RESEARCH SUPERVISION
Currently supervising PhD student Ruchira Goswami, title yet to be finalized. (CSSSC, ongoing)
Currently supervising PhD student Georgy Roy’s research tentatively titled A Zizekian critique of Indian postcolonialism. CSSSC, ongoing.
Supervised MPhil student Sneha Mangar’s research titled On being 'Casted' and 'Categorised': A study of the Nepali communities in India. CSSSC, 2019.
Research Advisory Committee member for MPhil student Debjani Chakrabarty’s research titled History, Orality, Denigration: Exploring the Pardhi Oeuvre. CSSSC, 2019.
Research Advisory Committee member for MPhil student Mukund Madhav Jha’s research titled Theravāda-Buddhist Networks and the Caste Question in 19th and 20th Century Northern India. CSSSC, 2019.
Supervised MA student Sanjana Santhosh’s research study titled Understanding ‘Moovalur Ramammirtham Ammaiyar Ninaivu Marriage Assistance Scheme’ in Tamil Nadu - A historical enquiry into welfare schemes for gender justice. Azim Premji University, 2017.
CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND INVITED LECTURES
2019 “A Zizekian Critique of the Indian Ideology,” at the Redefining the Political seminar at Calcutta University, Kolkata.
2018 “Accelerated Victimhood: Injured Identities on Social Media,” at the Publics, Ethics and Politics on Social Media national conference at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
2018 “An Ambedkarite-Periyarist Critique of the Indian Ideology,” Keynote Address at the First Periyar Memorial Lecture, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
2018 Convener of the “Doing Ambedkarism Today: Issues of Caste, Gender and Community” workshop, organized by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).
2018 “Re-Presenting the Dravidian: Problems of Universality and Particularity” at the Dravidianism, Nationalism, Federalism conference hosted by Ashoka University, Ambedkar University and the Trivedi Centre for Political Data.
2017 “The Genuineness of the Fake Profile” at the Seventh Anjan Ghosh Memorial Seminar, Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, Kolkata
2017 “Ambedkarism as Critique of Ideology” at the Second Ambedkar Memorial Week, Azim Premji University.
2017 “Periyar and the Politics of the Postcolonial Nation” at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
2017 “The Marginal as Exotic: A Critique of Identity Politics” at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences conference on Traversing the Margins, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
2016 “Identity, Recognition and Violence: Reflections on Fanonian Themes” at the ICSSR- ERC funded Cultural Studies Workshop on Cultures of Violence, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
2016 “Understanding Caste Violence in Tamil Nadu” at the UGC-SAP National Seminar on Elusive Equality: Mapping Social Hegemony in India, University of Hyderabad.
2015 “Periyar, Fanon and the Dialectics of Identity” at the Madras Institute of Development Studies.
2015 “Human Rights at the Cost of Political Rights: The International Crisis Group in Sri Lanka” at the Human Rights Research Students' Conference, University of Essex.
2014 “‘Counter-counterinsurgency’: Creation of metanarratives as a resistance strategy” at the Global Insecurities International Conference, University of Bristol.
2014 “Researching Fanon: Interpreting a ‘Rorschach blot on legs’” at the Third Annual Student Conference, Department of Government, University of Essex.
2011 “Resisting the Seductions of the Text: Rethinking the Role of the Word” at the Conceptualising Resistance conference, Department of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia.
INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Publications Committee at CSSSC, from August 2017.
Member of the Anti-Ragging Committee at CSSSC, from August 2017.
OTHER INTERVENTIONS
Co-translated (with N. Malathy) Kuna Kaviyalahan’s novel The Poisoned Dream (Chennai: Pragnai, 2017) from Tamil to English.
PhD Colloquium organizer at the Department of Government, University of Essex, for the academic year 2012-2013.
Cultural secretary at the Department of Sociology, Loyola College, for the academic year 2007-2008.
Have contributed numerous political commentaries, articles, blog-posts, book reviews to portals like The Telegraph, The Philosophical Salon, The Wire, Scroll, The European Magazine, Outlook, Firstpost among others.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Identity politics, political theory, caste, race studies, Fanon studies, Dravidian movement, South Indian politics and history, existentialism, Marxism and post-Marxism, nationalism, multiculturalism, pluralism, post-colonialism, counterinsurgency.