Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS)

1. International Interdisciplinary Lecture Series

MMIAS International Interdisciplinary Lecture Series are held in the following target areas:

• Political, Social, Cultural and Economic Aspects of Diaspora Studies
• Law and Literature
• Cultural Links, Trade and Commerce in the Indian Ocean Littoral States
• India’s Diplomatic and Security Role in the Indian Ocean Region
• Asian Studies related specially to the History, Politics and Economics of South Asia
• Other related Historical, Political, Diplomatic and Financial areas of Higher Research

These lectures are delivered by well-known experts in the field.

2.Workshops

MMIAS organises research student oriented workshops in the areas listed above.

3.International Conferences

MMIAS  organizes international interdisciplinary conferences. The themes of the conferences revolve around:

• The Reflections of the Indian Diaspora in the 75^thYear of India’s Independence
• The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space
• The Contribution of the Kuchchhi Diaspora from India to the Development of East Africa
• The Changing Face of the Indian Diaspora in the 21^stCentury

These conferences are held jointly with collaborators in India, Germany, Kenya, and the USA.

4.Senior Fellowships

The MMIAS has instituted an annual Senior Fellowship. This fellowship is by invitation only and the Institute shall invite appropriate senior experts in the field. Public lectures by the Senior Fellow will be announced near the date of the event.

5.Junior Fellowships

The MMIAS has also instituted an annual Junior Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to young researchers in the Institute’s core areas of critical concern. This fellowship is by application and interviews.

6.Internships:

The MMIAS encourages undergraduate/postgraduate/research students to work as interns at the institute for periods ranging from 1-3 months. Such internships would provide them with scholastic and research experience. In the process, they would also gain work experience in the administration of an international interdisciplinary research institute. Internships are by application and interviews.

7. Publications

MMIAS continues with the Diaspora Studies Series started during the CoHaB IDC period. SO far, two volumes – Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Diasporic Images in Literature and Cinema and The Past, Present and Post Diaspora: New Directions in Diaspora Studies have been published and the third volume – India 75: Reflections On and From the Indian Diaspora is forthcoming.

MMIAS draws upon the extant collaborations of CoHaB IDC and has also struck new ones.

The extant collaborations:

1. The Department of Law, Mumbai University (Click Here for details) and the Law and Literature Project (Click Here for details) at the WW Münster University have been collaborating for over a year with the CoHaB IDC in the organization of webinars and webcasts and research publications. This collaboration is further extended through the MMIAS at both the universities.
2. The Centre for Excellence in Maritime Studies, University of Mumbai (Click here for details), has also collaborated with the CoHaB IDC in the context of several webinars on the Indian Ocean and the Diaspora. This collaboration is extended to include full-scale projects on the Maritime Indian Diaspora and the Indian Ocean as a Memory Space.
3. CoHaB IDC has been collaborating with the Department of English, University of Bayreuth, Germany, in the areas of migration and diaspora studies which the MMIAS shall extend through student and faculty exchange, joint research publications and projects.
4. CoHaB IDC has collaborated on a joint international interdisciplinary conference on Gandhi in Africa with the KSKV Kachchh University, Bhuj, India and the MMIAS is now considering joint research projects with the Kachchh University in the area of maritime diaspora from Kachchh to the Arab world and to East Africa.
5. The Diaspora Centre at the University of Hyderabad, India, has already collaborated with the CoHaB IDC through participation in conferences and webinars. The MMIAS will carry on with this collaboration and extend it to joint research projects and publications.
6. CoHaB IDC has organised joint symposiums and conferences with the Indo-Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Mumbai (Click here for details). MMIAS will now consider working on collaborative research projects on various aspects of the Indo Canadian Diaspora.

The new collaborations:

1. The Western Regional Centre-Indian Council of Social Science Research (WRC-ICSSR) shall be collaborating with the MMIAS in its future research activities and the organisation of conferences.
2. The Asian African Heritage Trust and the University of Nairobi shall be collaborating with MMIAS on research projects and conferences.
3. The MMIAS is also in conversation with other universities and institutes in India and abroad for collaborative activities.
4. The University of Mumbai’s History, Civics and Politics and Sociology Departments and the Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies shall be drawn in as future target areas of the MMIAS, including diaspora studies in these disciplines.

International Advisory Board Members

Ajaya K. Sahoo teaches at the Centre for Study of Indian Diaspora, University of Hyderabad, India. His areas of research include international migration, South Asian diaspora, transnationalism, and religion. Some of his recent publications include Routledge Handbook of Indian Transnationalism, Routledge Handbook of the Indian Diaspora, Indian Transnationalism Online: New Perspectives on Diaspora, Transnational Migrations: The Indian Diaspora, Tracing an Indian Diaspora: Context, Memories, Representations.

Anuradha Majumdar, Former Dean of Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Mumbai, was the founding in-charge Director of the newly established Centre of Excellence in Maritime Studies (CEMAS) established in the Kalina Campus of University of Mumbai. Dr. Majumdar’s area of specialization is Pharmacology. She has successfully completed a significant number of government-sponsored projects including AICTE, BRNS-DAE, DBT-BIRAC, DBT and UGC Major. She is a consultant to Pharmaceutical and allied industries and has completed several industry-sponsored projects. Recently her “Proof of Concept” on a drug delivery system platform has been selected by Cipla Ltd. in its Innoventia drive and taken up by the company for further development.

Anisur Rahman is a bilingual poet in English and Urdu, translator and literary critic. Formerly a Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi, and subsequently Senior Advisor at Rekhta Foundation, the world’s largest website on Urdu language, literature, and culture, he has worked and published in the areas of comparative, translation, postcolonial, and Urdu studies. He has six books, five edited/co-edited volumes, and two collections of Urdu poetry in English translation to his credit. His recent publications include Earthenware: Sixty Poems, In Translation: Positions and Paradigms and Socioliterary Cultures in South Asia. and Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi: The Wonderful World of Urdu Ghazals, Professor Rahman has been a Shastri Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2002) and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA (2007). As an academic administrator, he has served as Head, Department of English; Dean, Students Welfare; Director, Centre for Coaching and Career Planning; and Registrar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Avtar Brah is Professor Emerita at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research covers fields of race and ethnicity, decolonial theory, diaspora studies, intersectionality studies, and, feminist and social theory. Her books include: Cartographies of Diaspora/Contesting Identities; Hybridity and Its Discontents: Politics, Science, Culture (edited with Annie E. Coombes); Thinking Identities; and Global Futures, both edited with Mary J. Hickman and Mairtin Mac an Ghaill. Her most recent book is Decolonial Imaginings/Intersectional Conversations and Contestations, published by Goldsmiths and MIT press, June 2022. She was appointed MBE in 2001, for services to race, gender and ethnic identity issues. She has been visiting professor at the University of California, 1992, and Cornell University, 2001.

Dr. C H Asrani, MBBS, has a comprehensive family medical practice since 1977. He is an insurance consultant since 2000 and expert in the Medicolegal systems. Dr. Asrani has founded InCHES group, India’s leading insure-tech enterprise and INCHES Academy, a company focused on competency building workshops for practicing doctors and insurance professionals. He leverages Medical, Forensic and Legal insights to help the industry – insurance, bio-tech, pharma and corporate health. Dr. Asrani was nominated for the Legend in General Medicine at Times Healthcare Achiever’s Awards, 2018. He is currently in his third stint as Senior Health Insurance Consultant at the World Bank and has worked closely with the NHA to create medical audit process and capacity building. He has conducted over 850 training sessions as CME for medicos and quasi medical training for others. He has contributed several articles and has given 25 talks on All India Radio on wellness and health management. The doctor is also active on several social media platforms disseminating information. Dr. Asrani has conducted grassroots level research on Social/Medical Counselling as an Outbound Orientation service for Immigrants/student visitors to Canada in 2014, as Senior Fellow of the Indo-Canadian Studies Centre, University of Mumbai.

Elleke Boehmer, FRSL FRHistS FEA, is Professor of World Literature in the English Faculty, University of Oxford, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing at Wolfson College. She is a founding figure in the field of postcolonial and world literature studies in English. Recent work includes Postcolonial Poetics and Indian Arrivals, which won the ESSE prize 2015-16. Her biography of Nelson Mandela 2008 has been widely translated, as has Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Other work includes Empire, the National and the Postcolonial, and the influential Stories of Women. Elleke’s Boehmer’s fiction To the Volcano was commended for the Australian Review of Books Elizabeth Jolley Prize, 2019, and longlisted for the Edgehill Prize and The Shouting in the Dark is the co-winner of the EASA Olive Schreiner Prize for Prose, 2018. Elleke Boehmer was awarded a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship 2020 for ‘Southern Imagining’— a project exploring understandings of the world from the Global South. Elleke also works on the UKRI funded ‘Accelerate Hub’ based at UCT and Oxford, in which she researches how storytelling practices underpin and impact identities. In 2019 Elleke Boehmer was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, UK. She is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

Gareth Griffiths was educated at Cyfarthfa Castle Grammar School, Merthyr Tydfil and the University of Wales, Cardiff (Senior University Scholarship 1961). Since his retirement in 2013, Griffiths has been awarded Emeritus Professorship from September 2013. His expertise lies in Post-colonial literature and theory, African English Literatures, Theatre and Drama. He has edited a book with Professor Philip Mead on The Social Role of Narrative: Human Rights and the Cultural Imaginary that Ibidem and Columbia U.P. released in 2017. His areas of research include Narrative and Human Rights; Mission texts and colonial resistance; Textual Representation of Africa and Africans; the intersections of secular and sacral discourses and practices in the post-Enlightenment period and the implications of changes in these engagements for cultural, social and political practices in the 21^st century; Post-colonial theory and literature; Issues of identity, culture and land; and Drama, Performance and Cultural representation.

Janet M. Wilson is Emerita Professor of English and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Northampton, and Visiting Professor of the Birmingham Institute of Media and English, Birmingham City University, UK. Her research focuses on the diaspora and postcolonial writing of the settler colonies of Australasia, as well as refugee writing, the global novel, transnationalism and transculturalism. Recently she co-edited with Klaus Stierstorfer The Diaspora Studies Reader, with Aimee Gasston and Gerri Kimber the volumes, Katherine Mansfield: New Directions , and Katherine Mansfield: The Gift of Breath, special issue of the Journal of New Zealand Literature, and two special issues of The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, with Om Prakash Dwivedi and Cristina M. Gámez-Fernández Planetary Precarity and the Pandemic, and with Paloma Fresno-Calleja New Zealand and the Globalization of Culture, and she edited The General and the Nightingale: The War Stories of Dan Davin. She is editor-in-chief of The Journal of Postcolonial Writing and the series, Studies in World Literature (Ibid em-Verlag), chair of Challenging Precarity: A Global Network, and principal investigator of the AHRC-funded Diaspora Screen Media Network. In 2022-23 she is Fellow-in-Residence at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford, UK.

Jason A. Scorza is a Professor of Philosophy and Political Science and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He earned his doctorate in political philosophy from Princeton University and has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Caucasus University in the Republic of Georgia, as well as fellowships by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Fulbright Specialist Program. Scorza is author of Strong Liberalism: Habits of Mind for Democratic Citizenship, as well as articles appearing in peer-reviewed journals such as Political Theory, The Review of Politics, Theory and Research in Education, the International Journal of Politics and Ethics, and the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, and more than thirty book chapters, reviews, and short articles. He also is the editor of Higher Education as a Bridge to the Future. In the past, Scorza has served as: Secretary-General of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP); adviser to the Commission of the African Union Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology; member of the Board of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO); and coordinator of the WISE Program on Education Leadership in Qatar.

Mala Pandurang is Principal at Dr. BMN College (Autonomous). She is a postdoctoral fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany) and is currently their ‘Ambassador Scientist to India’ for 2019-2022. Her research grants include: Fulbright Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at Austin; recipient of the Charles Wallace In-UK Research grant; Major research grant from the University Grants Commission (New Delhi); Dr Aroon Tikekar Research Fellowship of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai; Inlaks Fellowship in Social Sciences from the Asiatic Society of Mumbai and Associateship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (Shimla). She is series editor of Postcolonial Lives (Brill) and member of the editorial advisory board of South Asian Diaspora. Her areas of research include postcolonial writing, diaspora theory and gender studies.

Sonali Pednekar is a highly accomplished and dedicated Principal of Parle Tilak Vidyalaya Association’s Mulund College of Commerce (Autonomous). Having completed her BA in History from Ramnarain Ruia College, MA, M.Phil. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Mumbai, she worked as Associate Professor and Head, Department of History at V.G. Vaze College till 2019. She is also a recognized Post Graduate teacher and a Research Guide for M.Phil. and PhD. candidates. She has a rich experience of 38 years in teaching and administration.
Sonali has completed several research projects funded by the University of Mumbai, UGC and Government of Maharashtra. She is the recipient of the Heras – Sir Dorabjee Tata Post-Doctoral Fellowship. She has presented several research papers at various national and international conferences. She has more than 40 publications in reputed research journals and has authored 10 books.
She is the recipient of several awards including the ‘Best Teacher’ Award, ‘Best Research Paper’ Award at a National Conference, ‘Best Senior Researcher Award’, ‘Transformational Leadership’ Award, ‘Best Practices in Quality Education’ Award, Bengaluru. She received the ‘Outstanding Woman Achiever’ Award in 2019, ‘Outstanding Achiever’ Award by Thane Janata Sahakari Bank in March 2020, ‘Top Educator’ Award and ‘Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’ Award in 2022.
Sonali has featured as subject expert on multiple episodes of four serials telecast on the television channel EPIC – Adrishya, Epic ke Dus season 1, Epic ke Dus season 2, and Lootere- Criminal Tribes of British India.
She is an expert in Modi script, a highly specialized script that requires special training for reading and transliteration of documents and has offered consultancy to numerous individuals and corporate offices that are in possession of such 18^th, 19^th and 20^th century documents written in Modi. Sonali has designed basic and advanced courses in the reading and writing of the Modi script and has taught these courses at Vaze College and St. Xavier’s College for over a decade.
Sonali has contributed to administration as Chairperson and Member of several academic and administrative committees at the University and college levels. She has served as Hon’ble Vice Chancellor’s nominee on various Screening-cum-Selection committees, Governing Bodies, Academic Councils and Board of Studies of several autonomous colleges.
With an extensive educational background spanning close to four decades, Principal Dr. Sonali Pednekar brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience to any role assigned to her.

Manjiri Kamat is Professor at the Department of History and former Associate Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Mumbai. She was formerly Professor and Head of the Department of History, University of Mumbai. Manjiri holds M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in History from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are in modern Indian history, urban history and heritage, labour history and medical history. She has recently co-edited the book, Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos with Prashant Kidambi and Rachel Dwyer published by Hurst Publishers, London, Oxford University Press, New York and Penguin Random House, Delhi in 2019. She is also the editor of Mumbai Past and Present: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges and editor of Mumbai Kaal ani Aaj: Aitihasik Akalan ani Samakaleen Awhana. Manjiri is Member of the Academic Council and Member of the Advisory Board, Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Mumbai; Member of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Member of the Board of Trustees of the CSMVS Museum; External Associate at the Centre for Global Health Histories, University of York; Ambassador for the Association of Commonwealth Universities, London; and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 

Nalini Iyer is Professor of English at Seattle University and the Theiline Pigott-McCone Endowed Chair for the Humanities. She teaches postcolonial studies including South Asian and African writing, and courses on postcolonial and transnational feminisms. Her publications include the following: Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India; Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest; and Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics. She is currently co-editing with Pallavi Rastogi Teaching South Asian Anglophone Diasporic Literature (forthcoming MLA 2023). She is the Chief Editor of South Asian Review.

Nandi Bhatia is Professor in the Department of English and Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada. Her research interests include Postcolonial Literature and theory, literature of the 1947 Partition of India, diasporic literatures, and theatre. She is the author of Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theater and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India , Performing Women/Performing Womanhood: Theatre, Politics and Dissent in North India , and co-editor (with Anjali Gera-Roy) of Partitioned Lives: Narratives of Home, Displacement, and Resettlement . At present, Nandi is working on a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded project on female performance in India. She has served on the editorial/advisory boards of the Journal of South Asian Popular Culture, Feminist Review, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, Negotiations: An International Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies and The Forest City Film Festival. For her research, she was awarded the John Charles Polanyi Prize for Literature and was named UWO Faculty Scholar.

Sir Paul Chukwuma studied philosophy and law, both of which he graduated with first class honors from the prestigious University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). He is also an Alumnus of the acclaimed Lagos Business School. Having excelled in higher education, Sir Paul Chukwuma turned his full attention to the business world, exhibiting extraordinary business savvy and entrepreneurial skills. He set up a group of companies that were initially involved in importation, construction and real estate. His real estate construction business has serviced institutions of higher learning throughout Nigeria, and now, has extended into the East African sub-region.
Over the years, he expanded the scope and expertise of his group of companies to include an on-going establishment of a steel manufacturing company and Olivia University of Medical Sciences; both in Anambra State, Nigeria. Added to this is the already completed Olivia University Bujumbura, Burundi, a first-class conventional institution of higher learning. Sir Paul Chukwuma’s group of companies has also acquired the chain of Olivia Hotels in West and East Africa.
Having excelled in formal education and in the private sector, Sir Paul Chukwuma also sought ways to give back to society and humanity. To that end, he set up several scholarship programs, philanthropic activities, as well as created a non-profit arm of his group of companies called the Center for Applied Research & Development (CARD).
Sir Paul Chukwuma is a longstanding member of the noble and ancient Order of Knights of St. John International; Rotary Club International; the Nigeria Philosophers Association; the IBB Golf Club of Nigeria; the Golf Club of Bujumbura, Burundi; and currently, is the President of the Nigeria-Burundi Business Council. Sir Paul Chukwuma is a self-made man that rose from humble origins to socioeconomic and political prominence.

Pheroze Nowrojee, Senior Counsel is an Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya (1967), Tanzania (1970) and Zanzibar (1989). He has also appeared in the High Courts of Uganda and the Seychelles. Born in the Diaspora, in Nairobi, he studied in India (B.A., University of Bombay, 1957), in the U.K. (of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister, 1965) and in the U.S.A. (LL.M., Yale, 1974). His awards include the International Commission of Jurists (Kenya) ICJ Jurist of the Year, 1995, the International Bar Association (IBA) Bernard Simons Human Rights Prize, 2002-2004, the Law Society of Kenya Roll of Honour, 2005, the Maasai People Safeguarding Rights Award, 2007, and the CB Madan Constitution Prize 2014.
His family has been a part of the Diaspora since 1896. He has been awarded the Bharatiya Pravasi Samman Award in 2007 by India. He has given the South Asian Studies Council’s Annual Gandhi Lecture at Yale University in 2017. He is the author of A Kenyan Journey, a rumination on the Diaspora in East Africa and of Dukawalla and Station Master, Eburru, collections of short stories set there. He is a BBC Africa Poetry Competition Prize winner in 2001.

Pradeep Trikha is Former Professor of English and Former Dean, University College of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Director, International Students’ Affairs at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur. He is a poet, translator, literary critic and academician and has to his credit several books and more than sixty papers, articles, and reviews on literature, bhakti and Sufi poetry culture and history. He is Visiting Faculty at the British Seminar, University of Münster, Germany. He has delivered lectures at the University of Washington, Seattle, Harvard University, Boston, USA, and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sydney since 1999. He has also been a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. His books include Delphic Intimations: Interviews with Australian Creative Writers & Critics, Celebrating Multiplicity in the Plays of Girish Karnad and Literature, Nation and Revolution: Celebrating the 150th year of 1857 (Ed.), Dynamics of Cultural Diversity. His latest book is Meera vs Meera. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal on Art, Culture and Museum Studies, Objet-d-Art and Sukhadia University Journal of English Literary Studies.

Pravin Walke has obtained a PhD from Naples University, Federico-II, Naples, ITALY in collaboration with National Council for Research, CNR-ITALY in 2010 worked on ‘nanoscale SQUID devices for high sensitive nanoscale applications’ under the supervision of Dr. Carmine Granata. Before joining for a PhD, he worked in CSIR-NCL, Pune under the guidance of eminent scientist Dr. K. Vijayamohanan (2006-2007) followed by South Dakota State University, SD, USA at Advance Centre for Photovoltaics with Prof. Qiquan Qiao (2007). During the postdoctoral training as a prestigious Marie Curie Experienced Researcher with Dr. Ulrike Luders, CNRS-CRISMAT, Caen, FRANCE (2011-12), he developed high K dielectric materials using oxide nanolaminates for capacitive devices. He worked as a RA (2012-13) and obtained best RA award in inter-university RMC at Department of Physics, University of Pune. He has awarded UGC Raman Fellowship for 2015-16 to pursue his postdoctoral training in University of California, Berkeley, USA under the guidance of Prof. R. Ramesh, former Director of National Nano-Initiative Program, USA. Since he joined Mumbai University in 2013, he has established research group working on energy nanomaterials, thin films and nano/micro devices in NCNNUM. He published his work in reputed international journals > 50 research articles, 5 patents filed and couple of books to his credit. He is a reviewer of several reputed journals. He is a member of various national and international societies. Recently he is writing science articles in Marathi for spreading awareness of science in the society. His research in energy storage especially fast charging, lightweight and long life batteries has attracted media attention.
Pravin is member of board of studies of Nanoscience in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, Amity University, Mumbai, Abasaheb Grarware College, University of Pune, Pune and University of Mumbai. He is member of expert committee constituted by Govt. of Maharashtra and Marathi Vishvanath Nirmiti Mandal for Nanoscience subject. He is recipient of young scientist research grant from DST and Reviewer Recognition Award 2017 by DAE, BARC Mumbai. He actively participates as a recourse person in the international bilateral programs such as Indo-France (CEFIPRA) at VIT Chennai and Indo-Egypt conference of DST hosted by IIT Mumbai. He is now working as Assistant Professor at National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Mumbai.

Rajesh Kharat is Professor and former Chairperson of Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU and former Chief Advisor to EOO, JNU, New Delhi. He graduated from University of Poona, Pune, and completed MPhil and PhD from Centre for South Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi. He has been actively engaged in teaching and research for more than thirty years, first at the Department of Civics and Politics, University of Mumbai and then at South Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi. He has authored and edited more than 10 books and 30 plus research articles in various international and national peer-reviewed journals published from Anthem, Blackwell, Palgrave McMillan, Oxford, Routledge, Sage, Springer Nature and few Indian publishers too on the contemporary issues of South Asia, especially Himalayan region. He is also Chief Editor of Three interdisciplinary Online Research Journals namely, Sambhashan (in English), Shodhavari (in Hindi) and Sambhashit (in Marathi) published by the University of Mumbai. He has served on the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Maharashtra Public Service Commission and many other institutes and organisations of Central Government in different capacities. Rajesh has recently been appointed as ‘Visitor’s (H E President of India) Representative at the Executive Council of Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar. He was former Dean, Humanities, and former I/C Director, School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, University of Mumbai.

Renu Modi is Former Professor and Director at the Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai. She read at the Lady Shree Ram College for Women and Jawaharlal Nehru University. She has held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, University of Hannover (Germany), the Nordic Africa Institute (Uppsala, Sweden) and the Shastri India- Canada Fellowship at the Centre for Global Studies (CFGS), University of Victoria, Canada. Renu has taught at the Universities of Bahia, São Paulo and Rio De Janerio (Brazil), Erasmus Mundus Programmes, University of Oldenburg (Germany), Tor Vergatta (Rome), Grenoble (France), Leiden (Netherlands), UCT (Cape Town), Witwatersrand, Kwazulu Natal, Mauritius, Nairobi, Dar es Salam, Cambridge, Edinburg, Rutgers, UBC and Montreal (Canada), amongst others. She has also served as the Social Development consultant for the Inspection Panel (World Bank). Her recent publications include India-Africa Partnerships for Food Security and Capacity Building (co-ed with Meera Venkatachalam), Connecting Threads: Made in India Fabrics for Africa (with Meera Venkatachalam and Johann Salaazar) and The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy, (Co-ed with Shaw, T.M., Mahrenbach, L.C., Yi-chong, X.). She has to her credit documentaries on Connecting Threads: India- Made in India Fabrics for Africa with Meera Venkatachalam, Abhishek Sharma and Johann Salazar and Sidis of Gujarat: Maintaining Traditions and Building Community with B. Shroff. 

Smita Shukla is currently Director of the Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute for Financial and Management Studies, University of Mumbai and Honorary Director, Western Regional Centre-Indian Council of Social Science Research (WRC-ICSSR). She is also IQAC Director at University of Mumbai. Smita has published over sixty papers in International and National Journals and Books, attended several International and National Conferences and Seminars and edited five books which have been published by reputed Indian Publishers. She has also been invited to speak at several national and international conferences and summits.

Somdatta Mandal is Former Professor of English and Former Chairperson at the Department of English, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. She has held several administrative posts and has lectured widely in national and international fora. A recipient of several prestigious international fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Foundation, Charles Wallace Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, Salzburg Fellow, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and Sahitya Akademi. She has published widely in her areas of interest — American Literature, contemporary fiction, film and culture studies, Diaspora studies and translation. Apart from editing the first Indian English narrative published in 1835 entitled A Journal of Forty-Eight Hours of the Year 1945 by Kylas Chunder Dutt, and the first Indian English drama published in 1831 entitled The Persecuted by Krishnamohan Banerjee, she has also translated and edited several Bengali travel narratives. Her recent publications include Kobi and Rani: Memoirs and Correspondences of Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis and Rabindranath Tagore ,The Last Days of Rabindranath Tagore in Memoirs and Manottama, the first anonymous Bengali novel written by a woman in 1868, throughout her academic career spanning over three decades, Somdatta has published and edited many other books and journals. 

Sridhar Rajeswaran is the Founder Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in India (CASII). He is Visiting Faculty at the WW University, Muenster, Germany. He was Professor and Head of the English Department and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the KSKV Kachchh University in Gujarat. He was a South Asian Diaspora Fund Fellow of the Indo-Canadian Centre at the University of the Fraser Valley, B.C., Canada. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute for Advanced Study, Shimla, India. He has also been a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Visiting Professor of Postcolonial Theories, Indian Literature and Bollywood cinema at the University of Muenster. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Bonn and Dusseldorf, Germany.
He has published and edited widely in India and abroad and some of his books are as follows – English Cup, Irish Coffee and Black Sugar: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Poetry of W.B. Yeats. He has co-edited a collection of essays entitled Constructions of Home in Philosophy, Theory, Literature and Cinemas. He is also co-editor of the Diaspora Studies Series, CoHaB/MMIAS, University of Mumbai.
He is also a creative writer whose plays have been broadcast over the All India Radio and read at professional theatres in Mumbai. His poetry has been published in National and International journals. He has published a collection of his poems called Cracked Images: Frozen Frames. He has been a Poet-in-Residence at the University of Dusseldorf and has been invited to read his poems at the London Book Fair.

Cmde Srikant Kesnur, an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy, was commissioned in the Indian Navy in July 1986. In his 36 years career he has had extensive experience in maritime operations, training, leadership, diplomacy, administration, mentoring and communication. He has been the Captain of two frontline ships – an anti-submarine frigate INS Vindhyagiri and India’s only Landing Platform Dock INS Jalashwa – and, in addition, his tours of duty have witnessed several important assignments, prestigious courses and interesting tenures – at sea, and ashore.
His other tenures include being the Defence Adviser at the High Commission of India, based In Nairobi, Kenya, from Oct 2008 to Mar 2012, with Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Eritrea and Somalia as his area of responsibility as well as being Faculty/Dean of Studies, at different times, at the National Defence Academy, Pune, at Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and at the Naval War College, Goa.
He has a PhD from Mumbai University apart from five postgraduate degrees in science and social sciences. He has been Lead Writer and Chief Editor of eleven books/monographs and many journals for the Indian Navy. He has been involved with several academic, creative and corporate outreach endeavours of the Navy. Prior to his retirement on 30 Jun 22, he was the Director of Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai and, in addition, also the Officer in Charge of Naval History Project.
He was conferred the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) in the Presidential Awards in 2021.

Swati D.S. Rautela is Professor and Head, Department of Law and In-charge Director, Law Academy, University of Mumbai. Her research areas include socio-legal implications of assisted reproductive techniques, surrogacy agreements, and Goods and Service Tax. She has participated in several national and international conferences and has published research articles in various journals. She has delivered guest lectures in various institutions to create an awareness in constitutional law, international treaties and their implications, intellectual property rights, rights relating to women and children, social justice and protection of traditional knowledge from bio-piracy. She has also edited the bi-annual peer reviewed journal Law Quest and is Associate Editor for SCLC Law Review at the Shankar Rao Law College, Pune, India.

Vidya Vencatesan is Professor and Head, Department of French and I/C Director, Centre for European Studies, University of Mumbai. Docteur ès lettres from Paris 3, La Sorbonne Nouvelle, her research areas include a comparative study of medieval French and Indian epic traditions and contemporary French and Francophone literature. Committed to literary translation, Vidya has published a French translation of Javed Akhtar’s poetic oeuvre from Urdu to French, D’autres mondes and an English translation of Raphael Confiant’s La Panse du Chacal. She has numerous national and international publications in research journals and has lectured in several institutions in India and abroad. She has been awarded two national awards by the Republic of France (Chevalier de l’ordre des palmes académiques, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres) and the Republic of Italy (Cavaliere del ordine della stella d’italia). She is the editor in chief of the only francophone university research journal Synergies Inde published in France since 2006. She is also the co-ordinator for Master CLE Erasmus which is an MA/M.Phil programme run by the University of Bologna in collaboration with a consortium of 8 European and non-European Universities.

Vijay Mishra is Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, where he held the chair in the discipline from 2000 to 2021. Prior to that he was Professor of English Literature at the University of Alberta. He holds two doctorates: the first in Medieval Indian Poetics from the Australian National University; the second in Eighteenth-Century English Literature from Oxford University. Among his book publications are Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Postcolonial Mind [with Bob Hodge], The Gothic Sublime, Devotional Poetics and the Indian sublime, Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire, The Literature of Indian Diaspora, What Was Multiculturalism?, Annotating Salman Rushdie, Salman Rushdie and the Genesis of Secrecy. He has recently completed a manuscript on V S Naipaul. He has published over 100 articles and book chapters and is a Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy (FAHA). His great grandparents went to Fiji as indentured labourers in the late nineteenth century. In his spare time, he reads Sanskrit, plays the Indian harmonium and is a Beatles fan.

The administration of the MMIAS is done jointly by the Co- Directors of MMIAS, one each at the Mumbai University and the University of Münster Germany.

Professor Nilufer E. Bharucha
Co-Director, MMIAS, University of Mumbai

NILUFER E. BHARUCHA is the Co-Director of the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS) at Mumbai University. She is also a Visiting Professor in Humanities at the Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, University of Mumbai, Faculty Associate Emeritus of the South Asian Studies Institute, University of the Fraser Valley, Canada and is on the Global Faculty of the Fairleigh Dickinson University, N.J., USA. She is the former Director of the CoHaB Indian Diaspora Centre and former Senior Professor and Head of the Department of English, University of Mumbai.

She has studied at the University of Bombay, the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad and the University of Manchester, U.K.

Professor Bharucha has served on the juries for the Commonwealth Literature Prize, U.K., the English Literature Prize of the Sahitya Akademi, Delhi and the Rhodes Scholarships.

In 2001 she was awarded the German Gender Studies Professorship at the University of Cologne. In 2007 the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute gave her a grant for lecturing at universities in Canada. DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) has awarded her visiting professorships twice, once in 2000 and the second time in 2008 at the Universities of Siegen and Münster in Germany respectively. In the summer semester of 2012 she was awarded the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Rotating Chair at the University of Münster, Germany.

From 2016 onwards she has been a regular Visiting Professor in Postcolonial Indian Literature and Cinema at the WW University, Münster, Germany. In 2016 and 2017 she had visited the Bayreuth University, Germany for workshops and lectures for the English Department and given lectures and interacted with scholars at the Bayreuth Academy for Advanced African Studies. In 2019-2021 she was awarded a short-term grant by the University of Bayreuth, Centre of International Excellence “Alexander von Humboldt”.

Her areas of specialisation are Postcolonial Literatures and Theories, Literature of the Indian Diaspora, the Writings of the Parsis, Diasporic Indian Cinema and Hindi Cinema. She has authored two books and edited/co-edited eight more. She is co-series editor of the ‘Diaspora Studies Series’. Sixty of her articles and seventeen review essays have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and in critical anthologies published in India and abroad.

She is Member, English Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. She is also on the advisory of board of academic journals in the West and in India.

She has published several short-stories and has done translations from the Urdu. She has also published translations of a novel, poems and short stories from Gujarati into English.

Click here for List of Publications

 

Professor Klaus Stierstorfer
Co-Director, MMIAS, University of Münster, Germany

Klaus Stierstorfer is Chair of British Studies and Vice Dean of Philosophy at Münster University, Germany.

He was a member of the Advisory Committee of the CoHaB Indian Diaspora Centre, University of Mumbai. He has served as Vice President and President the Deutscher Anglistenverband, on the Board of ESSE and on the International Committee of IAUPE. He has held Fellowships at Oxford University, U.K.

He has published widely on British Colonial and some Postcolonial Literature. Some of his important publications are Women Writing Home 1700 – 1920: Female Correspondences Across the British Empire and The Routledge Diaspora Studies Reader.

He was director of the EU-funded, Marie-Sklodovska-Curie Initial Training Programme CoHaB.

He is the Co-Director of the Europa-Kolleg in Münster, Director of the graduate training programme “Literary Form” funded by the German Research Council and is Spokesperson of the “Collaborative Law and Literature Research Centre”, SFB 1385, at the University of Münster.

Ms. Kirti Risbud

Kirti Risbud is Research Associate at the MMIAS, Mumbai University. She was also the RA at the CoHaB Indian Diaspora Centre. She has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Mumbai with specialization in postcolonial literature. Ms. Risbud has earlier worked for the Group for Research on the Indian Diaspora (GRID), a UGC’s UPE project, at the University of Mumbai. She has been a developer in the fields of content and instructional design at Vibgyor High and Accenture. She has also been a freelance editor.

Shashikant Sawant is Office Assistant/Peon at the MMIAS, University of Mumbai.

MMIAS Senior Fellow

Professor Dr. Sridhar Rajeswaran, academic, critic and creative writer has been invited by the Mumbai Muenster Institute of Advanced Studies as the first MMIAS Senior Fellow for the year 2023. As Senior Fellow Professor Sridhar shall deliver two public lectures for the MMIAS.

Professor Dr. Sridhar Rajeswaran is the founder-director of the Centre for Advanced Studies (CASII), Bhuj, India. He is a Visiting Professor at the WW University of Muenster, Germany. He is on the Advisory Board of the collaborative Mumbai Muenster Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Mumbai. He was a South Asian Diaspora Fund Fellow of the Indo-Canadian Centre at the University of the Fraser Valley, B.C., Canada and the University of Mumbai He has been visiting Professor at the Indian Institute for Advanced Study, Shimla, India.

Professor Sridhar was DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Visiting Professor at the University of Muenster, Germany. He has been the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Professor and Head of the Department of English, University of Kachchh, Bhuj in Gujarat. He was also Visiting Professor at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany. He is Global Virtual Faculty of the Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA and has been a Visiting Professor and guest lectured at several universities in Europe, the USA and Canada.

He has studied at the Universities of Madras and Bombay.  His doctoral work dealt with postcolonial perspectives on the poetry of W.B. Yeats.  His areas of interests are Poetry of the Moderns and Contemporary World Poetry,  Postcolonial Discourses and Theories; Diaspora Theories, Literatures and Cinemas

He has several articles/chapters published in reputed academic journals and critical anthologies in India and abroad and has presented papers/guest talks/keynote lectures at national and international conferences in India, in Europe, in the USA and Canada. He has published a book on W.B. Yeats entitled English Cup, Irish Coffee and Black Sugar: Postcolonial Perspectives on the Poetry of W.B. Yeats. He has done a free transliteration into English from Marathi, of a book entitled, Sen’trees of Mumbai, published by the University of Mumbai. He has co-edited a collection of essays entitled Constructions of Home in Philosophy, Theory, Literature and Cinema and is co-editor of the University of Mumbai’s Diaspora Studies Series of which two volumes have been published.

Professor Sridhar is also a creative writer and has written poems and plays.  His plays have been broadcast over the All India Radio and been read in professional theatres.  He is a member of the Association of Contemporary Drama in Europe with which he has been associated for the past 15 years. His poetry has been published in India and in Wasafiri and World Literatures Written in English, in the U.K. and is available on the websites of the Siegen, Cologne and Dusseldorf Universities, Germany. His poetry has also been translated into French and German. His first collection of poems entitled, Cracked Images: Frozen Frames has been published and his second book of poems is forthcoming.  He has been Poet-in-Residence at the University of Dusseldorf. He was an invited poet at the London Book Fair and the Kitab Literary Festival, Mumbai.

MMIAS Junior Researcher

Dr. Sharmila Jajodia, Associate Professor of English at Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College (Autonomous), Mumbai, has been appointed as Junior Researcher at the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS) for the year 2023. As Junior Researcher, Dr. Jajodia would conduct lectures, seminars and workshops for the MMIAS. At the end of her tenure, she will submit the project she worked on during her association with the MMIAS. The topic of her project is Political, Social, Cultural and Economic Aspects of Diaspora Studies with Reference to Select Literary Texts.

Sharmila Jajodia is Associate Professor of English at Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College (Autonomous), Mumbai. As a bilingual author, critic and poet, she has contributed articles to magazines, newspapers and reputed journals; creative content to All India Radio;  and has written chapters in books. Dr. Jajodia has co-authored two books on Communication Skills and Business Communication and has completed 4 minor research projects funded by the UGC and University of Mumbai. She has presented several research papers and articles in international/national webinars and seminars. Dr. Jajodi is a creative writer and has published articles and poems in English and Hindi. Her interests also include multi- and transdisciplinary studies in the fields of comparative literature, Indian literature, translation, linguistics and stylistics. Dr. Jajodia has also developed e-content audio-videos and has been appointed as a member of review and editorial boards and syllabus committees.

MMIAS Fellow

Sadiqa Beg has been appointed as MMIAS Fellow at the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS) from 15^th February 2024 to 31^st December 2024. At the end of her tenure, she shall conduct lectures, seminars and workshops for the MMIAS. At the end of her tenure, she will submit the project she worked on during her association with the MMIAS. The topic of her project is Spatial Representation of the City, Mumbai by Contemporary Women Filmmakers in Selected Indian Films.

With almost 6 years of teaching experience in school and colleges, Sadiqa Beg is a Visiting Faculty at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Malini Kishor Sanghvi College of Commerce and Economics where she teaches communication and media. She has also been associated with Rizvi College of Arts, Science and Commerce, as an Assistant Professor.

Her other work experiences include assisting in the media industry and writing reviews and articles for international magazines.

 

MMIAS Junior Fellow

Mushtaq Shaikh is MMIAS Junior Fellow from 1^st January 2022 to 31^st December 2022. As the Institute’s Junior Fellow, Mushtaq conducts online workshops, lectures and discussions in the area of pedagogic intersections between transcultural and refugee studies.

Mushtaq is an Assistant Professor of Professional Communication Ethics and Communication Skills in the Humanities and Sciences Department at Datta Meghe College of Engineering, where he teaches written communication, technical writing and placement skills to third year students. He is an M.A. Honours in English Literature and MPhil from the Department of English, University of Mumbai. He identifies himself as a teacher educator and a pedagogue.

His research interests focus on the pedagogic intersections between transcultural and refugee studies with specific emphasis on the interrelationships between integration policies, humanitarian rights, equity and inclusion. He has presented guest lectures and facilitated workshops at esteemed universities and institutes, in his home country and abroad. He is a certified Youth Leadership and Social Change Trainer from the esteemed Centre for Lifelong Learning at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, deemed University. In his free time, he volunteers for a local NGO, supporting the values of youth leadership and youth empowerment.

MMIAS Interns

Anzala Khan was appointed as MMIAS Intern from 16^th February 2024 to 15^th March 2024. As MMIAS Intern, Anzala  worked on An Application of the Freudian Conception of Sublimation on Mysticism and Eroticism and helped in the administrative tasks at the centre. At the end of her  tenure, Anzala submitted her research project she had worked on during her tenure.

Anzala Khan is a published writer and a postgraduate in English Honours from the University of Mumbai. Over the course her academic journey, she has studied, researched and written on subjects entailing Film Studies, Marginalised Studies, Gender Studies, Marxism, Postmodernism and Philosophy, with a research paper published in an esteemed journal, a study on media and representation presented in an international conference and several others being under review. Along with academic publications, a number of her creative works have been published on distinct platforms. She also qualified UGC NET in English with a 98.46 percentile in the first attempt in June 2023. Prior, she completed her Bachelor’s in English from Jai Hind College with 10 SGPI and worked as an editor for the annual magazine of the English Department. Additionally, her professional experience includes working as a content creator, freelance writer, and editor at various firms. Pursuing her passion for literature and research, Anzala aspires to work on distinct subject matter and establish herself as an academician, researcher, and a writer.

 

Jagruti Panchal is currently pursuing her masters in English Literature from SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, and has been appointed as intern at the MMIAS from from 23rd January – 17th March 2023 (240 hours). During her undergraduation at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, she was a part of the University chapter of Enactus, an international non-profit organisation that develops environment friendly entrepreneurial projects to create sustainable job opportunities for underprivileged communities. She has also interned at The Violet Journal, an online journalism platform based in Jamia, where she reported on the various cultural and social activities on the University campus. During her internship at the MMIAS, she would be conducting research on the aspects of hybridity, identity, and generational differences, and how they are represented through the narrative strategies in Border Less by Namrata Poddar. She will also assist in the administrative tasks at the MMIAS.

 

Shikha Mehta is currently pursuing a B.A. (Hons) in English Literature at the School of Liberal Arts, Auro University, Surat. Shikha has a penchant for learning languages: out of the six she knows, she is extremely fluent in four of them. Her interests lie in exploring languages, cultures and identities – spanning nations as well as the self. The Eastern countries hold her interest owing to their individual culture as well their similarities with the Indian culture. She is a writer and an avid reader, and an artist. She works as a cover designer in her free time and explores art forms when she can.

Shikha joined the MMIAS for a short-term internship in January – February 2022. She assisted the MMIAS Research Associate in administrative work of the Institute and also conducted a diversity audit of the Institute’s library. Shikha attended a workshop on the Refugee Diaspora conducted by the Institute’s Junior Fellow and a lecture on the Queer Diaspora by Dr. Sachin Labade, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Mumbai.

At the end of her internship she made an oral presentation and submitted a written report on the above activities. For details, click on the Events Reports tab.

1. Study India Day 2024 organised by the University of Münster, Germany, on 13 May 2024, at the University of Münster, Germany
2. Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS) | MMIAS Fellow – Call for Applications | Last date to apply – 31 January 2024
3. MMIAS | Applications invited for Internship at the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS) 2024 | Last date to apply – 31 December 2023
4. MMIAS Junior Fellowship Lecture 2023-2024 | Hybrid: In-person and on Zoom | Socio-Economic and Politico-Cultural Aspects of Diaspora in Erotic Stories, You People and Gold Diggers by Dr. Sharmila Jajodia | 16 December 2023 | 3:00 – 5:00 PM IST | MMIAS Office, Rm 102, Ranade Bhavan, University of Mumbai, Kalina Campus, Mumbai
5. Professor Dr. Nilufer E. Bharucha, Co-Director, Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS), University of Mumbai, will be giving an online talk on The Changing Scenario of Law and the Indian Diaspora as part of the Refresher Course for the Department of Law, University of Mumbai, on 14th December 2023 | 11.40 am to 1.10 pm
6. National Seminar by the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Mumbai, jointly with the Sahitya Akdemi, New Delhi on The Indian Ocean as a Memoryspace: Reflections in Indian Diasporic Literature and Culture | 7 – 8 December 2023 | 10.00 am – 5.00 pm
7. Senior Fellowship Lecture 2023-2024 | Hybrid: In-person and on Zoom | Through the Looking Glass and the Prismatic Lens: Earth 1947 – A Backward Glance by Professor Sridhar Rajeswaran | 29 November 2023 | 3.00 – 5.00 PM IST
8. MMIAS | One Day Hybrid International Symposium on Translations: Bridging Linguistic, Social and Political Divides on 6 April 2023 | 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
9. MMIAS | Book Launch of Homeland, the English Translation by Nilufer E. Bharucha of Dalpat Chauhan’s Malak on 6 April 2023 | 10:00 am – 11:30 am
10. MMIAS Lecture Series 2023 | Thinking Decolonially Through a Feminist Intersectional Lens by Professor Avtar Brah | 15 March 2023 at 3:00 PM IST/9:30 AM London, UK
11. MMIAS Lecture Series | Re-imagining early 20th century South Asian Migration to the United States by Professor Nalini Iyer on 1 March 2023 at 9:00 AM IST / 7:30 PM in Seattle, USA
12. MMIAS Lecture Series | Diaspora and Identity: The Case of Indian Music in the Caribbean by Professor Ajaya Sahoo | 17 February 2023 at 3:00 PM IST
13. MMIAS Lecture Series | Challenges of Migration and Citizenship: African Americans and Asian Americans, 1850-1925 by Professor Amritjit Singh | 15 February 2023 at 2 PM IST
14. MMIAS Lecture Series | The Red Turbans of Shanghai: From Colonial Instruments to Anti Colonialists, 1885-1945 by Dr. Manpreet Singh | 23 January 2023 at 3:00 PM IST
15. MMIAS | Hybrid (Online/Offline) lecture on White Christian Privilege: The Illusion of Religious Equality in America by Professor Khyati Joshi | 10 January 2023 | 2:00 PM IST
16. Paper Presentation on Reducing Educational Inequalities in India: Options for Rohingya Refugee Integrations by Mushtaq Shaikh, Junior Researcher, MMIAS | 27th December 2022 | 12:00 noon IST
17. Applications invited for the position of MMIAS Junior Researcher
18. Applications invited for internship at the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS)
19. India 75: Reflections On and From the Indian Diaspora | MMIAS-ICSSR International Interdisciplinary Online/Offline Conference | 24 – 26 August 2022
20. Call for Papers | India at 75: Reflections On and From the Indian Diaspora – A joint international interdisciplinary conference by MMIAS and ICSSR from 24-26 August 2022
21. Book Launch of Indo-Canadian writer Ms. Farzana Doctor’s book – You Still Look the Same organized by the MMIAS in collaboration with the ICSC | 2nd June 2022 | 7:30 PM IST (10:00 AM EST, 03:00 PM UK Time on the same day)
22. MMIAS International Interdisciplinary Lectures Series | An online lecture by Commodore Srikant Kesnur, Director, Maritime Warfare Centre (Mumbai), Indian Navy, and OIC Naval History Project, on Indian Navy’s Maritime Diplomacy in the Indian Ocean Region on 27th May 2022, 04:00 PM to 06:00 PM Indian Standard Time

MMIAS organizes international interdisciplinary conferences jointly with its collaborators.

• L- R: Professor Nilufer Bharucha giving the inaugural address, Dr. Sreenivasrao, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, Professor Malashri Lal, Convenor, English Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi and Padma Bhushan Jatin Das, painter, sculptor and poet
• Migration, Diaspora, Citizenship (MDC) | CoFund Fellowship Programme organised by the University of Münster, Germany | 16 May 2024
• Study India Day 2024 organised by the University of Münster, Germany, on 13 May 2024, at the University of Münster, Germany
• Study India Day 2023 hosted by the Collaborative Research Centre 1385 “Law and Literature” In Collaboration with MMIAS | 23 May 2023
• Study India Day 2022 organised by Collaborative Research Centre 1385 “Law and Literature” In collaboration with MMIAS, University of Mumbai | 22 November 2022
• Book Launch of Indo-Canadian writer Ms. Farzana Doctor’s book – You Still Look the Same organized by the MMIAS in collaboration with the ICSC | 2nd June 2022 | 7:30 PM IST (10:00 AM EST, 03:00 PM UK Time on the same day)

• Birth Centenary Seminar on Nissim Ezekiel and His Impact on Indian Poetry in English organised by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi | Inaugural Address by Professor Nilufer E. Bharucha, Co-Director, MMIAS, University of Mumbai | 1-2 August 2024
• Sahitya Akademi Quarterly Newsletter | Report on the MMIAS-Sahitya Akademi joint National Seminar on Indian Ocean as a Memory Space: Reflections from Indian Diasporic Literature and Culture | 7-8 December 2023
• MMIAS Junior Fellow Lecture 2023-2024 | Socio-Economic and Politico-Cultural Aspects of Diaspora in Erotic Stories, You People and Gold Diggers by Dr. Sharmila Jajodia, Junior Fellow, MMIAS | 16 December 2023
• MMIAS Senior Fellow Lecture 2023-2024 | Through the Looking Glass and the Prismatic Lens: 1947 Earth, A Backward Glance by Professor Sridhar Rajeswaran, Senior Fellow, MMIAS | 29 November 2023
• Report on MMIAS-Sahitya Akademi Joint National Seminar on The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space: Reflections from Indian Diasporic Literature and Culture | 7-8 December 2023
• Annual Report on the Activities of the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS): January – December 2023
• Report on the Study India Day 2023 hosted at the WW University of Münster, Germany, in collaboration with the Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Mumbai, India | 23 May 2023
• Report on One Day International Hybrid Symposium on Translations: Bridging Linguistic, Social and Political Divides | 6th April 2023 | 10: 00 am – 5:00 pm
• Report on Thinking Decolonially Through A Feminist Intersectional Lens by Professor Avtar Brah on 15 March 2023
• Report on Re-imagining early 20th Century South Asian Migration to the United States by Professor Nalini Iyer on 1 March 2023
• Report on the Diaspora and Identity: The Case of Indian Music in the Caribbean by Professor Dr. Ajaya Sahoo on 17th February 2023
• Report on the Challenges of Migration and Citizenship: African Americans and Asian Americans, 1850-1925 by Professor Amritjit Singh on 15th February 2023
• Report on the The Red Turbans of Shanghai: From Colonial Instruments to Anti Colonialists, 1885-1945 by Dr. Mapreet J. Singh on 23rd January 2023
• Paper presentation by MMIAS Junior Researcher Mushtaq Shaikh on Reducing Educational Inequalities in India: Options for Rohingya Refugee Integration | 27 December 2022
• Study India Day hosted by the Study India Certificate, WW University of Münster, Germany, with the Collaborative Research Centre 1385 “Law and Literature”, University of Münster, Germany, and the MMIAS, University of Mumbai | 22 November 2022
• Report on the international interdisciplinary conference on India 75: Reflections On and From the Indian Diaspora jointly organised by the MMIAS and WRC-ICSSR | 24-26 August 2022
• Book Launch of Farzana Doctor’s You Still Look the Same jointly by MMIAS-ICSC on 2 June 2022
• MMIAS International Interdisciplinary Lecture Series | Lecture on Indian Navy’s Maritime Diplomacy in the IOR by Cmde Srikant Kesnur on 27 May 2022
• A Lecture on Queer Diaspora by Dr. Sachin Labade on 5th February 2022
• ‘An Exercise on Conceptualising Refugee Education through Martha Minow’s Making All the Difference’ | A workshop by Mushtaq Shaikh on 29 January 2022
• The Mumbai Münster Institute of Advanced Studies (MMIAS)’s Internship Programme: January – February 2022

The CoHaB IDC YouTube Channel is now the MMIAS YouTube channel.

MMIAS YouTube Channel

Publishes proceedings of its conferences, lectures series and monographs. It administers the publications of the CoHaB IDC and can be contacted for the purchase of the 2 volumes of the Diaspora Studies Series, which are now called the MMIAS Diaspora Studies Series.

Series Editors:

 

Professor Nilufer E. Bharucha	Professor Sridhar Rajeswaran	Professor Klaus Stierstorfer

          

Diaspora Studies Series is an interdisciplinary series developed by the Constructions of Home and Belonging Indian Diaspora Centre (CoHaB IDC), University of Mumbai. It focusses on cutting edge research produced in the context of the Diaspora at the intersections of literature, cinema, sociology, history, economics and politics. It encourages interaction between these disciplines in the context of the changing trajectories of diaspora studies in the new Millennium. The focus will inevitably be on the Indian Diaspora as it is the second largest diaspora today with over 26 million Persons of Indian Origins living in over a 100 countries around the world. With the globalisation of the Indian economy this diaspora is becoming increasingly visible in the host countries and of vital importance within the home country of India too. The Indian Diaspora today is also active politically, culturally and economically in its host lands and needs to be studied in all its varied aspects.

However other global diasporas, especially in the context of the new millennium, will also be under the scanner in this series, such as the Eastern European and Russian in the post-communist era. In this millennium we also have to deal with the issue of the displacement of thousands of men, women and children through wars in Syria, Yemen and other places in the Middle East. These refugees from violence and bloodshed are beginning to constitute new and often contentious diasporas in Europe and North America.  Political changes in the European Union, such as Brexit, have placed question marks on the continuing residence of countless European citizens in Britain and the possible backlash against British citizens living for generations in other European countries.

This series looks at classic diasporas as well as focus on diasporas in the new millennium where the older constructs of diaspora as a fixed construct with binary oppositions of old and new homelands has been replaced by more fluid constructs of transnationalisms. There is also the emerging trend of de-diasporisation and living in post-diaspora societies in for instance an economically resurgent India.

This series contributes to the rise and consolidation of the study of Diaspora in the New Millennium and provide fresh perspectives on older diasporic theories and emergent post-diaspora work. It will thus provide new and challenging perspectives from home, host and transnational locations.  Given its scope, the readership of the volumes in this series should be students, researchers and teachers of diaspora studies at universities around the world.

Volume I: Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Diasporic Images in Literature and Cinema

Editors Nilufer E. Bharucha, Sridhar Rajeswaran, Klaus Stierstorfer, Diasporic

Constructions of Home and Belonging – Indian Diaspora Centre, University of Mumbai, NavVishnu Publications, 2018.

ISBN: 978-81-933307-6-0

Price: Rs. 900   Euros: 27 (10% discount for academic institutions and faculty. 20% discount for students)

Launched on 25 July 2018 by Her Excellency Mukta Dutta Tomar, Indian Ambassador to Germany, at the Study India Day, WW University of Münster, Münster, Germany, the first volume in the – series is directed at adding new perspectives to the academic understanding of diaspora studies. This volume helps broaden the understanding of diaspora into the political, economic, socio cultural realms for researchers in this field. The voluntary or involuntary movement of individuals and groups across international borders results in a diaspora which could be caused by economic necessities, political incompatibilities, human aspirations, armed conflicts, trade and globalization. Diasporas could also be internal in the sense that they do not cross national boundaries. All these diasporas could result in identitarian crises and problems with acceptance from older, more settled populations. These problems take on new dimensions when the diasporic communities are challenged with the changing expectations of their own second and third generation descendants. All these issues are reflected in literature and cinema which has emerged from across such diasporic borders and boundaries.

In this volume, researchers from around the world have offered varied perspectives on the target areas. The articles analyse theoretical frameworks, literature and cinema and offer critique from ideological, socio-cultural and gender points of view. This volume isthus of interest to researchers and teachers of diaspora studies at universities around the world.

L-R: Professor Sridhar Rajeswaran, Professor Nilufer Bharucha, H.E. Mukta Dutta Tomar, Professor Klaus Stierstorfer

Volume II: The Past, Present and Post Diaspora: New Directions in Diaspora Studies

Editors Nilufer E. Bharucha, Sridhar Rajeswaran, Klaus Stierstorfer, CoHab IDC (Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging – Indian Diaspora Centre), University of Mumbai.

ISBN: 978-163944425-0

Price: Rs. 900   Euros: 27 (10% discount for academic institutions and faculty. 20% discount for students)

The ebook of the second volume in Diaspora Studies Series was launched by the Honorable Vice Chancellor of the University of Mumbai, Professor Suhas Pednekar, via an online webcast on 16 June 2021.

Professor Suhas Pednekar Honorable Vice Chancellor University of Mumbai	Professor Janet Wilson Emerita Professor of English University of Northampton, UK

 

Since the past two decades, many researchers have made scholarly interventions with respect to defining ‘diaspora’. An overused, over theorized yet an uncontested term, scholars have now begun to not only use it as a collective noun but also an adjective, a verb and an adverb:   ‘diasporic’, ‘diasporization’, ‘post-diaspora’. In this volume we ask, what lies next? The basic focus of this volume is to examine, within an inter-disciplinary and an alternative framework, both the historical phenomena of ‘diaspora’ and contemporary alternative approaches to diaspora studies. It seeks to address the following questions:  What constitutes the discourse of diaspora and diasporic culture? What is the current state of diaspora studies and what are its trajectories of evolution? What’s next and are we thinking post-diaspora/post diaspora? How does the language of various disciplines like economics, mathematics, sociology, history and so on travel and intermingle to define and expand the contours of the notion of “diaspora”? How does the language of literature in the form of novels, poetry, short stories, plays, films, other forms of visual arts, social and mass media shape or define diasporic cultures? Who is representing them and how? What is the role of literary devices like allegory, fantasy, wit, satire, etc in representing particular diasporic trajectories and what is the result of such representations? Thus, this volume aims to be a part of a new emerging inclusive interdisciplinary research and promotes a dialogue to encourage development in diaspora studies.  The essays in this volume have been contributed by national and international scholars on diaspora studies.  

 

Purchase and Orders:

For purchasing Volume II, visit https://www.amazon.in/dp/B093Q4GWM9
For purchasing volume I and placing pre-orders for volume III, please
contact: office.mmias@mu.ac.in

Location: Room No. 102, Ranade Bhavan, First Floor, University of Mumbai, Vidyanagari, Mumbai 400098

Email: office.mmias@mu.ac.in