Director
Dr. K.M. Seethi is currently ICSSR Senior Fellow and Director of IUCSSRE. He had earlier served as professor and Dean of Social Sciences and Director, School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. He also officiated as the Coordinator, K.P.S. Menon Chair for Diplomatic Studies, served as Honorary Director, KN Raj Centre and Director of Research, Mahatma Gandhi University. For detailed profile read more http://kmseethi.com/about/
Joint Director
Dr. Abhilash Babu serves as the Director, School of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University. He is also the Coordinator of the UGC-STRIDE Programme in MG University. Earlier Dr. Abhilash was on the faculty of the Central University of Lucknow. He did his masters in Social Welfare & Rural Management from MG University. He also did MA in Political Science. Dr. Abhilash has MPhil in Science Policy, from the Centre for Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and PhD in Science Policy from CSSP, JNU, New Delhi. His research interests include social theory, Water Governance, Development Studies, Political Ecology & Education.
P. Sanal Mohan
Dr. P. Sanal Mohan is a distinguished scholar in Social Sciences whose career spans over three decades. He is currently Dr K. Mathew Kurian Chair Professor at Mahatma Gandhi University. He joined the Faculty of the School of Social Sciences (SSS), Mahatma Gandhi University in 1993 after his stint as a Lecture in History under the University of Calicut. Dr. Sanal is one of the architects of the SSS—an institution with immense contributions in interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Having specialized in Ethnography, Social History, Modernity/Colonial Modernity, Social Movements etc., Dr Sanal established himself as a reputed researcher and teacher in SSS He served as Professor in SSS, besides officiating as Hon. Director of the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University and Director, Kerala Council for Historical Research (KCHR). Dr Sanal Mohan also has an illustrious international research experience. In 2008, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of History and ICIS/RDI Research Fellow, Emory University, Atlanta. He worked as a Fellow in History at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, Charles Wallace India Fellow in History, SOAS, University of London. He also served as Honorary Research Associate, Social Anthropology Programme, Massey University, New Zealand, Visiting Faculty Associate, Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, The USA, Fellow, Social Sciences Research Council, New York, Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany, and Smuts Visiting Fellows in Commonwealth Studies, Clare Hall and Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Dr Sanal Mohan did many projects with the support of the Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC), New York, South West India Funded Endangered Archives Programme, The British Library, London, the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, IUCSSRE etc.
Dr Sanal Mohan has to credit several books, journal articles, book chapters, monographs, reviews, commentaries, popular articles etc. His publications include Modernity of Slavery: Struggles against Caste Inequality in Colonial Kerala (Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2015), Subalterns and Everyday Life: Social life of Dalit Christians in Manjadikkiri (IUCSSRE/DPP 2021) and several works in English and Malayalam. His papers and articles have appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of South Asian Studies, South Asia Research, Journal of Religious and Political Practice, Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, and Journal of Agrarian Change, Cambridge Journal of Anthropology. Dr. Sanal’s book chapters have appeared in volumes published by Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge, Duke University Press, Sage, Oxford University Press, Penguin Books etc.
Professor Joseph Tharamangalam
Joseph Tharamangalam is Professor Emeritus in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax, Canada, and Adjunct Professor in International Development Studies at the neighboring Saint Mary’s University in the same city. His areas of research and publications have included peasant and agricultural labour movements, issues of agrarian distress and agrarian transition, and issues of secularism and religious conflict — with specific focus on India. In the past 15 years Tharamangalam’s work has focussed on “models of Human Development,” investigating how a few countries and regions have succeeded in achieving relatively high levels of human and social well-being and rapid progress in poverty reduction despite low incomes and without waiting for the elusive “trickle down “effect” of high growth as, advocated by the World Bank and other global institutions promoting “development” in the poor countries of the global South. From 2004 to 2010 he led a small team of scholars from Canada, Cuba and Kerala to make a comparative study of the HD experience of Kerala and Cuba. Now retired after 40 years of full time teaching at MSVU, he continues to offer a course on “Development Issues in India” at Saint Mary’s University. He and wife, Elzy live in Halifax, but spend the winter months in Bangalore, India.
Professor Tharamangalam is currently Visiting Fellow, IUCSSRE and Ayyankali Chair Professor, Mahatma Gandhi University
Elizabeth Abraham – Research Fellow in Gender Studies
Elizabeth Abraham is working as Research Fellow at IUCSSRE, and is currently coordinating the project “Documenting Women’s History: Movements, Struggles, and Lives in Kerala.” Earlier with IUCSSRE, she has completed the research project “Writing Dalit Lives: Anthology of Women’s Voices from Kerala.” She has also coordinated several workshops on Feminist Methodology with the Centre. Prior to joining IUCSSRE, Elizabeth was working as researcher with the Human Rights Law Network (New Delhi) and Indian Institute of Dalit Studies (New Delhi). She holds a MA degree in International Relations and Politics from SIRP, Mahatma Gandhi University (Kottayam) and an MPhil Degree in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. from the Advanced Centre for Women Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai). Her areas of interest include Gender, Caste, Social Movements, Social History, and Ethnography
ANIL GOPI – Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. ANIL GOPI is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IUCSSRE. Dr. Anil has been awarded the prestigious Chief Minister’s Nava Kerala Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Government of Kerala for two years (2022-2024). He was teaching at the Department of Anthropology, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad. His research interests include Anthropological Theories, Ethnography, Anthropology of Religion, Indigenous Political Systems, Visual Anthropology, Science Technology and Society, Cyberspace. He has publications on “Representing Feminine Divinity: A Visual Ethnography of Theyyam in North Malabar, Society and Culture in South Asia, Sage Journal, “Gods and Oppressed: A Study on Theyyam Performers of North Malabar,” Contemporary Voice of Dalits, Sage Journal, “The Pertinence of Indigenous Political Systems: A Study on Anchunadu Vellalar of South India, Eastern Anthropologist,” “Feasting ritually: An Ethnography on the Implications of Feasts in Religious rituals, Oriental Anthropologist” etc.
Dr. AJAY M G – Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. AJAY M G, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IUCSSRE, has been awarded the prestigious Chief Minister’s Nava Kerala Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Government of Kerala for the period from 2023 to 2025 to work on the project Labour, Marginalized Communities and Economic Empowerment under MGNREGS in Kerala. Prior to his current appointment, he served as a faculty member at the K.N. Raj School of Economics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. He did his Ph.D. (Politics and International Relations) on River Governance and Local Administration: A Case Study of River Pamba. His research interests include Environmental Governance, Decentralised Governance, Public Administration, Political Economy and Law.
Dr. ANITHA ISAC – Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. ANITHA ISAC, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IUCSSRE, has been awarded the prestigious Chief Minister’s Nava Kerala Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Government of Kerala for the period from 2023 to 2025 to work on the project Ecology-Development Interface: Tourism Potential of River Conservation Project, Kerala. Prior to her current appointment, she served as Principal, Centre for Minority Youths, Dept. of Minority Welfare, Govt. Of Kerala and worked as a Research Assistant on different projects at the IUCSSRE. Anitha did her PhD (Political Science) on the topic Modernity and Social Reforms in Kerala: A Study on Pandit Karuppan’s Contributions. Her research interests include Ecology and Development, River Conservation, Modernity, and Social Reform.
Dr. DINOOP K. – Post-Doctoral Fellow
Dr. DINOOP K., a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IUCSSRE, has been awarded the prestigious Chief Minister’s Nava Kerala Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Government of Kerala for the period from 2023 to 2025 to work on the project Human Mobility, Return Migration, and Reintegration Challenges in Kerala. Prior to his current appointment, he served as a faculty member at the Institute for Multidisciplinary Programmes in Social Sciences (IMPSS), Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. He did his PhD (Economics) on the topic Consumption Pattern of Return Migrants: A Study of Saudi Returnees of Kerala. His research interests include Migration, Governance, and Political Economy.
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